UX Designers - How Do You Start Your Mornings?

As I’m sure you will agree, coming into work after a four day Bank Holiday weekend is universally seen as ‘The Worst Thing Ever’. As I sort through the weekend’s enquiries and attempt to cast my mind back to where it was on Thursday afternoon, I’ve started to query how our minds gear up for work on a daily basis. In particular, I want to look into how the creative designer brain may differ from someone in a less creative profession.

One school of thought is that you should tackle the heavy-duty, brain power consuming tasks head on, first thing in the morning. This is when your mind is at its most focussed, and able to take a fresh stance on a hard problem which may have been troubling you for a couple of days.

For me, I like to get the easiest possible emails out of the way first, as a sort of ‘warm up’. So if you are waiting on a ‘Thank You’ or a ‘Great, I will talk to you then’ from me, you are likely to receive this at 7:30 in the morning! Plus, a clearer inbox makes a clearer mind for the day ahead.

I wonder how this works for UX Designers? What kind of tasks do you feel inclined to approach first thing in the morning? Do you feel particularly creative, or do you need to warm up with some admin? Do you feel like you need to spend some time organising your thoughts and to-do list, or can you jump straight in to the hands-on work?

Do you prefer to get your head down and keep yourself to yourself (and your sketchbook) or do you find this time is best spent talking with users or other designers?

As I’ve been musing on the topic, I thought I would throw it out there to you. It would be really interesting for me to understand how the creative mind approaches a day of work, and whether there is any difference in inclination from someone like me who works in a recruitment environment.

 

As always, I would love to hear from you.  Please do email me.