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I looked at my screen from far away, went for a walk, and took a break. I find myself pushing around the same elements in Photoshop in different arrangements with no success. I’m focused on requirements, but letting them dictate my choices. Time is running out. It feels like there is no room left to experiment—that it’s just time to get the job done. My comp’s arrangement isn’t working. Is it too late to come up with something fresh?
The night began innocently enough. Now it’s two in the morning, and the best I have to go on is a sense of irony that’s settled in my lower back. Distractions on top of distractions.
I should have an office pony. Something straight out of Thelwell, with a bushy mane as wide as its body, sparkly-painted hooves, and short enough to use as a portable laptop stand. I’m convinced that this should (and will) happen one day. Just ask my coworkers how often “little horses” come up in conversations with me.
I have a long list of “shoulds.” Most are pony-delightful, but not all of them; some like to sneak in and push my limits—the devious suckers. Those shoulds are the kind that adore instilling doubt, delaying decisions, and convincing us we need to incessantly reach and achieve and exhaust. It takes guts to tackle that kind of should. They play the long game, and they always seem to crop up during tests of our fortitude. They love to mess with our heads.
Web workers have a certain obsession with productivity. And it is not hard to see why. The processes and detailed knowledge required to build a website have grown leaps and bounds in terms of complexity and sophistication. With an Adaptive workflow that considers Responsive Design, multiple platforms, and countless devices with a wide range of capabilities, the job is not as simple as it once was. There are plenty of great applications and methodologies to help get organized and be productive, but these tools do not do the work for us. When it is time to get work done, we need to be working efficiently, quickly, and intelligently—and in a way that promotes good health and happiness at home and in the workplace.
You dev? If so, ever popped open a fresh PSD and thought to yourself, “Oh man, I can’t WAIT to get this party started”? I have, and I do, with each new project. As a front-end developer, that specific, exciting moment is my fresh start.
While the rest of our coworkers are creating design and code, we PMs focus on the intangibles. Deadlines, documentation, resourcing—it’s not exactly sexy. When a website launches, the first reactions you hear aren’t “Amazing site—must have had a great PM.” PMs are often the last to get the glory and the first ones to get knocked down when something goes wrong. It can be easy to feel like Mr. Cellophane if you don’t have the right perspective.
Warning, if you are reading this in a meeting STOP! Put down your mobile device or laptop and slowly lift your head and eyes upward until you see (and hear) the person speaking!
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