Consistency Matters: Crafting Your Routine for UI/UX Success
🕑 Estimated Reading Time: 7 Minutes
¡Hi Friends!
In the previous blog post, we explored what Hard Skills are and how, when combined with Soft Skills, they will help you achieve your goals in your new professional challenge of becoming a UI/UX Designer. In this entry, we'll delve into a controversial debate: Motivation vs. Discipline. I'll share my experience and some of the practices that have helped me the most.
Here's a sneak-peak of what you'll find in this article:
Motivation vs. Discipline
Discipline: Essential practices
Conclusion
1. Motivation vs. Discipline
Embarking on the journey of becoming a UI/UX designer from scratch - or transitioning from another career - can be exciting but also challenging and, at times, frustrating. As someone who has gone through (and is still going through) this challenge, I can assure you that, while motivation is crucial to reach the goal, discipline is the key to achieving it.
Let's be clear, working when we are motivated is easy. Motivation is a powerful driving force that propels us to aim high and is the necessary spark to start moving toward our goal. However, motivation comes and goes, it's not constant, and it can sometimes play tricks on us. There will be days when you'll feel like giving up when doubts and fears will take over. Days when you'll be afraid to face the entire path ahead. It's on those days, which can sometimes be the majority, that you'll need a routine, some steps, tasks, and DISCIPLINE.
So today, I want to talk to you about the power of discipline in your professional (and also personal) development and how having a solid routine and setting realistic, achievable goals has helped me get closer to my goal of becoming a UI/UX designer.
These are some of the actions I've taken in the past year that might also help you achieve your goals.
2. Discipline: Essential practices
🏃🏻♀️ Establishing a consistent daily routine - and committing to it:
This has been the driving force behind my daily life. The fuel that kept me going even on days when everything seemed to wobble. After a few initially chaotic months, I decided to set daily tasks to help measure my goals and keep moving forward, regardless of short-term results.
🎯 Setting clear goals and priorities - the to-do list:
In addition to the routine, I chose to set key goals and priorities that would help me focus on my objectives more effectively. I began by defining my large-scale goals (getting a job as a UI/UX Designer) and broke them down into shorter-term objectives based on my needs (creating a portfolio, updating my CV, securing freelance projects, starting my blog...). I organized these goals by priority, allowing me to allocate specific hours each day to each of them, feeling accomplished and achieving a greater sense of progress.
✅ Task tracking - the satisfaction of checklists:
By breaking down my goals into tasks and organizing them weekly, I could precisely track how I spent my time and what results I was achieving. Thanks to Notion and its organization templates, which I'll share in future blogs, I managed to structure my daily, weekly, and monthly plans, giving me not only a future view but also a retrospective of all I had accomplished in the past. This helped me analyze my efforts and understand my processes. Consequently, I was able to implement strategies and improve my productivity. Additionally, crossing off tasks from the list each day provided a fantastic boost and increased my self-confidence.
🥷🏻 Practice, practice, and practice - Steady but relentless:
They say it takes around 10,000 hours to become an expert in anything. Consistent practice has also been key in my development as a UI/UX Designer. That's why my daily task list always included time for learning and practice, whether through watching tutorials, reading books and manuals, or working on case studies independently. During this time, I've made sure to spend time keeping up with industry trends and accumulating knowledge that will later be useful and shareable with all of you.
🎉 Celebrating successes and overcoming challenges - Never giving up:
Along this journey, I've achieved some successes (completing my portfolio, freelance projects, launching my blog...) but I've also encountered many challenges I haven't always known how to overcome (numerous rejections from companies, lack of inspiration, imposter syndrome...). It's easy to be carried away by the frustration of these setbacks. Failures hurt more than triumphs and often affect our ego and motivation. Therefore, while I allowed myself a brief period to feel bad when I was rejected or didn't land a project, I also set a limit to that feeling and tried to view it as a learning experience, another step on the path that leaves a mark. As for the successes, I celebrated them and dedicated the time and emotion they deserved. Because progressing on this path isn't easy, and every effort, every small victory, matters.
Conclusion
On the path to your dreams, establishing a solid routine is essential for reaching your goals. Motivation will help you at specific moments, but discipline will be the key to your success. If you're just starting out as a UI/UX designer or in any other field, I encourage you to put some of these techniques or similar ones into practice and share them with me so we can continue growing together.
In future posts, I'll explain what techniques, tools, and free resources have helped me develop my routine.
What are your thoughts on the motivation vs. discipline debate? Have you faced similar challenges on your journey to becoming a UI/UX designer or in your professional life? Please share your experiences, insights, or questions in the comments below. Let's create a space for discussion and learning. Your voice matters, and together, we can inspire and support each other. So, don't hesitate to join the conversation and stay tuned for more valuable insights and resources in our upcoming posts.
Thanks for making it this far – more coming soon!
Big Hugs from the UX-Verse!
Irene
