How to prioritize like a designer in 4 steps
(and why it will change your life)
Ever since Covid-19 (and becoming a designer), I’ve had to prioritize what’s really important to me. Oh, and I’ve also become obsessed with optimizing my desk.
Working from home, I quickly realized my setup was hindering my sanity. The stiff chair, suboptimal wifi, small computer screen — I became overwhelmed with the number of changes I needed to make for my space. Back pain, dropped calls, sore eyes — I needed to address these concerns. Stat.
Like most designers, I am inundated with user problems on a daily basis, and potential solutions, that need to be prioritized. In my personal life, I like to take a similar approach to prioritizing what life concerns I tackle first (and how I tackle them).
Presently, and after continual iteration, I’ve developed a workspace (and prioritization strategy) that allows me to do my job stress-free️. Get out a notebook — I’m about to change your life 💁♀️.
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How to prioritise a task like a designer…
Step 1: Write down (and order) your concerns
What’s bugging you about you currently? How are these things impacting your daily life? Once you write them down, put them in order top to bottom from most annoying to least annoying.
I.E: my chair really hurts my back. This results in me having to shorten calls I take, and I’m now seeing a physiotherapist through my company health insurance.
Step 2: Write down (and order) your priorities
What is important to you in your life? Your health? Keeping your job? How are your concerns impacting things that are important to you?
I.E: because my office chair hurts my back, I don’t want to do social activities with my partner. Connecting with my partner and my family is my top priority in life. Doing well at my job is second.
Step 3: Draw connections between concerns + priorities
What concerns impact the things that are most important to you?
I.E: connecting with my partner is most important to me. Withdrawing from social activities because of my backpain is impacting our relationship. Through optimising my workspace to reduce backpain, I believe I can be more present in my relationship.
Step 4: Research (and group) potential solutions
Make a list of ways you could address this concern that is important to you. You can find these methods through research (i.e: Google, talking to colleagues, friends etc). These can be solutions that require BIG effort, or maybe even solutions that are really small. You may need to implement several changes — that’s normal.
Then, take your list and place your ideas in an “impact / effort” matrix. We use this in the design world when we are trying to decide which idea, of way too many, is worth pursuing first. High impact low effort is ideal, but sometimes you will need to put in the graft of high effort (if it’s high impact, of course).
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Next steps…
Now that your ideas are prioritized it’s time to get started — with one! Sometimes, it’s best to start with the highest impact, lowest effort idea just to get the momentum rolling. If you start with the most challenging, long-term idea, it’s easy to get discouraged and give up on solving your problem.
This week…
I challenge you to try this prioritization strategy — whether you’re redecorating your desk, or picking a hobby to improve on.
Let’s continue the conversation over on Linkedin 👋
