The Importance of Morning Rituals
What's a "Design Coma" and how it helps the design process.
Ritual (noun) [rich-oo-uh
l] Observance of set forms in public worship.
Upon entering the EchoUser office doors, I will...
1. Hang coat on hook in kitchen.
2. Tidy up the office kitchen.
3. Deposit or collect morning sustenance from fridge or snackbox.
4. Throw bag down while saying Hello to whoever is also in the office.
5. Open up work email, personal email, Facebook, The Daily What, and The Nerdist blogs in separate tabs in my internet browser.
6. Write laundry list of things I have to do for the day.
7. Start my actual work day.
I only recently noticed that I do the above things every morning without fail. I don't feel like I can start my actual work day until after Step 6. Furthermore, I realized that mixing up the order of Steps 1 through 6 has only produced disastrous results. Well, maybe I'm being a bit melodramatic, but it sure was an unpleasant experience!
Watch out, folks, here's where I get all philosophical...
As a designer, the process of getting the creative juices flowing is paramount to producing satisfying and relevant work. I always believed that great designers are scientists and artists at the same time...people who have the left brain and the right brain working in perfect harmony. I previously wrote about the design coma. When I am in a design coma, my brain processes and applies all of the random bits of inspiration to the design problems I need to solve. The morning ritual is how I get into the design coma.
What a lot of people don't know about me (because I don't tell them for fear of sounding like a total loony) is that I look forward to chores and tasks of tedium. My favorites are washing dishes, folding clothes, doing the ironing, and just general cleaning. The reason isn't that I can turn my brain off but rather that I can turn my brain on sponge mode. The repetition of any of the aforementioned physical activities acts like the running gear on a steam locomotive. Once I get into the rhythm of the repetition, I can just let my brain go and play in imagination land where I can play out interaction flows in my head, think about what colors look pretty together, etc. Then, I go on the internet and start surfing things that relate to what I was thinking about in imagination land...design blogs, wikipedia, social media sites, shopping sites, apple.com/trailers, Hulu. I talk to peeps in the office to feel connected to the real world. I make lists...then before I know it...DESIGN COMA ACHIEVED!
So yes...that's a day in the life of Amaya's designery brain. Confused? Yeah, probably...I am too. :)
l] Observance of set forms in public worship.
Upon entering the EchoUser office doors, I will...
1. Hang coat on hook in kitchen.
2. Tidy up the office kitchen.
3. Deposit or collect morning sustenance from fridge or snackbox.
4. Throw bag down while saying Hello to whoever is also in the office.
5. Open up work email, personal email, Facebook, The Daily What, and The Nerdist blogs in separate tabs in my internet browser.
6. Write laundry list of things I have to do for the day.
7. Start my actual work day.
I only recently noticed that I do the above things every morning without fail. I don't feel like I can start my actual work day until after Step 6. Furthermore, I realized that mixing up the order of Steps 1 through 6 has only produced disastrous results. Well, maybe I'm being a bit melodramatic, but it sure was an unpleasant experience!
Watch out, folks, here's where I get all philosophical...
As a designer, the process of getting the creative juices flowing is paramount to producing satisfying and relevant work. I always believed that great designers are scientists and artists at the same time...people who have the left brain and the right brain working in perfect harmony. I previously wrote about the design coma. When I am in a design coma, my brain processes and applies all of the random bits of inspiration to the design problems I need to solve. The morning ritual is how I get into the design coma.
What a lot of people don't know about me (because I don't tell them for fear of sounding like a total loony) is that I look forward to chores and tasks of tedium. My favorites are washing dishes, folding clothes, doing the ironing, and just general cleaning. The reason isn't that I can turn my brain off but rather that I can turn my brain on sponge mode. The repetition of any of the aforementioned physical activities acts like the running gear on a steam locomotive. Once I get into the rhythm of the repetition, I can just let my brain go and play in imagination land where I can play out interaction flows in my head, think about what colors look pretty together, etc. Then, I go on the internet and start surfing things that relate to what I was thinking about in imagination land...design blogs, wikipedia, social media sites, shopping sites, apple.com/trailers, Hulu. I talk to peeps in the office to feel connected to the real world. I make lists...then before I know it...DESIGN COMA ACHIEVED!
So yes...that's a day in the life of Amaya's designery brain. Confused? Yeah, probably...I am too. :)