indie_preneur

Do you step back from your work often enough?

2.3.2010

By indie_preneur

Back in my studio classes, my teachers used to preach that we needed to step back from our work often and refresh our look. This was a very important lesson that I’ve been able to keep with me, while others have since evaporated from memory.

I think this idea is not only important in fine arts, but I also see a huge amount of benefit in my web design. During a normal day I spend upwards of 10 to 11 hours in front of a computer working on some sort of design or social media funzie. To some people, I’m sure this sounds ridiculous and a waste of time, but I love it, and it does pay the bills.

I’m able to engross myself into all sorts of web-goodness during this time, and most of the other time during a day, I’m usually thinking of how I could be doing something on the web better, or at least differently. However, with this sort of schedule it’s very easy of me to get web-tunnel vision. Even though it may sound cool (sarcasm), this can be quite a creative / project de-railer.

Give your eyes a break

This is perhaps the most important part of stepping back from a project. After a while of looking at the same thing over and over, it’s easy for me to begin to write run-on sentences, use poor grammar, and make silly spelling mistakes. Even if this is your own project, things tend to blend together, and I find it begins to get tough to make critical, usable design decisions if I’ve been working on the same project non-stop.

Give your brain a break, as well

Not only can your eyes play tricks on you, so can your mind. Without taking an adequate break from time to time, I might easily misread a project brief and go off in a tangent that’s quite the opposite that the client might want. Or, if I’m working in code, after a while I notice that I have trouble keeping track of where I am in the code–this is a tell-tale sign to me that it’s time to break.

Step away, refresh, and reload

Besides the benefits noted above, stepping back gives me a chance to rethink my creative approach to the project. Something that I might have thought was awesome at first may not seem so awesome upon a second glance. If it makes it through this secondary review, then I usually know this is something good enough to stick around longer. But, I also find many things that are not so great, and with my new fresh approach, it’s easy to spot these and redo or remove them. When I take a break, I also get my mind into something other than what I’m working on. This helps to maybe give me direction, or new inspiration to incorporate into my work. Or, thankfully not often, it gives me time to realize that what I’d been working on is not working, and it’s time to cut my losses.

And if I can’t step away for a while?

We’ve all had projects that kept us glued to our computers and up late at night. In these situations, we can’t afford to come back in the morning, or in a day or two. Even still, stepping away for only a few minutes, and distracting myself with something non-computer related can help make my project much less error prone. Plus, by not focusing on that project 110% for a bit, my brain gets to relax, and thus I find, usually thinks about the project in a different, and often better way.

It’s not always apparent that I need to back away, but it’s something I’ve ingrained into my design / development process. After a while, forcing myself to stay focused just doesn’t bring anything good to the table.

How often do you step away from your work? And, does it benefit you the way it benefits me?

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Tags: clear, fresh eyes, web design, white space

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 12:53 pm and is filed under Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.