Take a Break to Get Better Designs

Have you ever walked away or finished a project only to come back and feel unsatisfied with your work? Unfortunately, that frustrating feeling isn’t going away because a good designer never ‘finishes’ his work. The point is, if you feel unsatisfied with your work, you’re on the right track for future improvements. How could you use this ‘walk away and improve in the future’ concept to improve your work now? Simple, take more breaks!

As a designer, I get this feeling quite often, the feeling of “oh it looks alright but it could look better I guess”. That’s not the huge problem though, the problem is finding ways to make it look better. Usually, we often spend many hours working on our projects and are simply mentally exhausted or tired. You don’t gain creativity and inspiration when you’re tired, you become lazy. Top that off with RAM previewing and rendering and you’re set for a unproductive, non-creative project. By taking more breaks, you can actually become more productive (with moderation of course). Take a walk outside and get some fresh air or go out and do something to refresh yourself. Take a nap or call it a day and come back to it tomorrow. You’d be surprise at how much more productive you are working when you’re not drained and lazy.

If you’re feeling stumped or nothing is really sparking your creativity, come back to it later, it works every time for me. Obviously if you’re working for a client with a tight time schedule, your options are very limited so use with caution! I hope this article was a little helpful to your workflow (and your social life), rather than working lazily and getting crummy results, call it a day and start the next fresh morning! But seriously, if the render times are killing you, it’s time to upgrade your computer.