How creativity for Designer should be worked out under pressure - Strategies to manage

Every manager in the design industry wants their project yesterday itself, right? Nobody wants it today, nobody wants it tomorrow, nobody wants it next week or next month. Everybody wants it yesterday. That's the terminology which has been formed in the corporates, which always people are in a constant pressure, even in a startup, even in any small scale, big scale industries. The point is pressure, pressure, pressure. Okay, let me tell you very clearly guys, if you are in the creative field as a designer, if you're not able to manage this and if you're not able to overcome this firefighting, I'm 100% sure no matter how much creative you are, you won't be able to succeed and you won't be able to implement any one idea. If you wanted to know how to tackle this, take a lot of notes. This podcast is going to give you clarity and let's dive into this topic. Guys, welcome, guys, welcome, welcome. Thank you for staying tuning in with me in this Design for Change podcast. This is a very common question which is already there. And also a lot of my students have asked this question, like how to work in a very pressured environment, particularly if I'm a fresher. There is a lot of pressure in me, right? Particularly if I'm an intern, there is a lot of pressure if I'm starting up in a career or if you are a middle management designer. Lot of pressure used to come for the people. And let me tell you guys, pressure is an inevitable thing. Timelines, deadlines, resources, restrict restriction. You'll have to work with minimal resource, you'll have to work with minimal time, you'll have to work with a stringent time. And so everything will be always in a pressure only. Let me tell you guys, there are three strategies which I'm going to be discussing, okay? So listen carefully. First of all, you need to have a goal of what is your project, whom are you working to, what is the problem that you're trying to solve, what is the exact goal, what you're trying to accomplish it? The moment of writing it down in a paper with you and your team and your management, 80% of the pressure will be definitely dissipated. Okay? 20% of the pressure could be managed easily by setting, sequencing and prioritizing. 80 percentage industries don't do this. That is the big problem, right? Whenever in a team of creativity and innovation, normally people tell, hey, we should not have any goal that will have a biased thinking in us and then we will lead somewhere else. No, that's not what I'm talking about. Goal is something what you wanted to really solve the way in which you reach a goal that could be flexible, that could be creative, that could be your own unique trend of ideating and brainstorming. So people don't get this clarity, people really confuse them. Okay, so having a written clear goal, which is very specific, I used to tell always my students, write a specific goal, write a measurable goal, write an achievable relevant time bound, which is called smart, smart goals. If you're not able to write that, that is not a goal at all. First. Hey Jagdish, why are you talking about goals here? I thought this podcast is going to be about handling the pressure and what you call working in a pressure. Let me tell you guys, if you're not understanding, you will be in the pressure for lifetime. When it comes to relationship, when it comes to family, personal things, when it comes to office, when it comes to your client project, freelancing, anything, if you're not having a clear written goal problem will be on you. That is why I'm stressing you this. Okay, so once your goal is clear, then you have to write something called sequence. Okay, There is something called priority before sequencing. Okay, so what is really priority for you can be done now, can be done later, can be done next month, can be done next year. So have that priority clearly with you. And once your priority is clear in that goal, then you sequence that thing. Okay, so what can be done in the next one hour, what can be done in the next five minutes, what can be done in the second half, what can be done in the tomorrow, what can be done after the feedback from the client or a customer or a what you call field study. So that priority and sequencing, if you are able to do clarity in the task will come. Guys, the first point is clarity in the task. If you are not clear on what is your goal and what's the problem, what you're solving big problem and pressure is already there on you. Okay, so the way in which to dissipate this information is I told you have to write it down a goal, you have to write down a priority, you have to write it down a sequencing number for it and then de chunk it. When you're having a big task, de chunk it into small, small task and assign a priority and a deadline for your team members. Okay? Don't take it up with you. Always dissipate into your team and work along with your team. Even if you're a startup working with two, three people, that's called a team, right? So you should be able to clearly de chunk the task and deadlines to them the moment you do it. This actually calms down the situation and everybody is clear what they wanted to accomplish before, what timeline. Okay. And the fourth important thing in clarity and task is you need to say no to the distractions. You need to learn to say no to the different projects, different priorities, different ad hoc things which is coming for you. Let's say your super boss will come and say, hey, right now we need to take a attendance for this week because next week particularly we are going for a vacation. So everybody has to come and take their attendance or else we will be missing out this vacation. Is this really important now? So tell your boss, hey boss, right now. Damn urgent project we are working on. If you're not doing this, then the revenues will be cut from the client. So sorry, please allow us to do it. Definitely boss will say okay only. Right. So you need to know how to say that instead of that People yell at their boss on the back of them. See, is he really understanding the pressure what I'm working on coming and asking for a vacation. Of course he doesn't know, right? So it's not fair to talk in back of the people because people normally talk away from the people because they really yell about that lot of time about their boss, about their subordinates, about their circumstances situation. It's not, it's because they don't have goal. It's not, it's because of they don't have a clarity in their task. If you have a clarity in their task, you will be very honestly going and communicating to that person that you're working in a damn urgent task. How come that person will not say yes, Right? So he will say of course, please go and work. I'm sorry to disturb you. In fact, a good manager will say apologize, please go and work on your priority task. Good, we'll see this vacation thing on Saturday. No problem. See, the art of communicating, it will make your pressure come down. The next thing is learning to say no through a proper communication. Okay? And the fifth important thing is you need to have something called a focus room. When you're doing a very important task, which is a timeline specific or which is a deadline work, make sure you and your team isolate to a focus room where there is no distraction for one hour, like let's say for 60 minutes, you switch on your timer and then you lock yourself, you and your teammates make sure unnecessarily any distraction to be avoided. If any water break or maybe a bio break or toilet refresh washroom, that's okay. But apart from this, nobody have to come and discuss, okay? Okay. So the room of the name for the room should be like focus room. And the timer will be outside. Just buy a simple clock of 100 bucks and just hang it down so that this pops up an alarm that people are working inside for the next 60 minutes. You don't have to do it for eight hours, it'll drain your energy. You can do it for 60 minutes, 90 minutes, or maybe max to max 120 minutes. Beyond that, people will get sucked away. So one or two sessions you can have per day that will increase your productivity 10 times. When you're able to collaboratively work, what happens guys, if you work like this, you'll be able to complete the project well before the timeline, right? Nobody works in the night, 12 o' clock and say tomorrow client is there, then you have not really understood the goal of the project, not sequenced it, not prioritized it, and you will be in a huge pressure, right? So the thing is, the second important part of this podcast is having an inspiring and motivating environment. See guys, you need to have lot of, what do you call a good pictures, a kind of a good vibe, a good kind of a mood, a kind of a proper furniture, a proper painted walls, or maybe a maybe. If your office is very small, if it is resource constraint, make sure you in you decorate that by using some color papers. It hardly cost 100, 200 rupees, right? You can get some small plants, you can put it there, you can able to hang some LED lights and make sure that place is very creative and very sportive and very energetic and vibrant. When people are able to work there, lot of energy is going to come there, guys. People will not have any pressures while working there. See, that is why people like Microsoft, people like Apple, Google, I've seen each and every designers can design their own workspace because they can able to choose their furniture, they can able to choose the way in which the lighting can be. Some people like semi office, semi opened architecture office. Some people like open like office. Some people like closed environment, like a very confined environment. So you can choose that vibe. See, okay, if you're not working in Apple, Google and all, I can hear your mind voice, but you can able to simply create that simulated environment here to improve that. Definitely. I'll tell you guys, if you're able to inculcate this habit, soon you will reach big companies and you will create big companies like that. Okay? So that's the point. So having an inspired and motivating environment is a way to handle that pressure. And you psychologically feel very happy while having a small classical music, while having a color, a different painter in your walls or having a small pictures or having a plants or having a perfume, having a small games, having a breaks, interesting things to eat. Maybe you can collectively get a what you call a gifts for the people who are winning the brainstorming and putting a lot of ideas. So this is a motivating environment which a designer needs to have. I have not seen any kind of an environment in coding or software or testing or. I'm from a mechanical engineering background, guys, okay? Apart from laptop, mouse and keyboard, nobody really cares about anything in the office, right? But design community is not like that. I've seen a lot of creative design studios which really, really what you call. If you see that itself, you will feel like working for 10 hours, 20 hours straight. Okay? So the point is this. You need to keep your environment more refreshing and inspiring. Okay? So the third important thing in handling the pressure is having set of expectations with your client. See, your client is asking for a feedback or maybe if your client is asking for a final deadline, don't wait for the final deadline. Show them A review week 1 day, 1 day 5. This relieves a pressure and this also aligns with your expectation of the client. Right? See, when that expectation is matching, nobody have the more pressure. Client will say, yeah, this is what is happening. If anything is there in the initial review itself, the client will sense it and then he'll say, no, this is not what we expect. We expect this one. So you have some time to correct it in the next feedback. Don't show in the last day and the customer will be definitely in a huge pressure and you'll be given another only one day to complete that task, which your team did it in one month. Everybody will go in blood pressure now, right? So you need to have that feedback iteration and also set the expectation clearly before week on week review, day on day review, even hours on hover review. Also you can have if it's a two, three day project and a hackathon, what you're solving, right? Normally people take design tasks when it comes to interview. When it comes to design interviews, people take 8 hours task, right? So in that you can able to get two, two two hours like eight divided by two, four different chunks and you can work for it. And you can ask for feedback from your HR or a designer who has given you this task and ask them, hey, is this what is expectation? Is it what I'm Correctly working on. So have I understood the brief correctly? Is this fine? Yeah, let me go and work. You know what? After the eight hours, people go and ask this and then the HR says you're rejected. This is what not we expect, right? So pressure is there in everybody. Guys, people aren't working. People are not working. So you need to know how to use these three elements and come out of this. See guys, the most important element of handling the pressure is having the clarity in your task and having the priority and sequencing properly and learning to say no. Having the very good work environment and getting the expectation very clear from the client. By a review. I've recollected all this important information. If you're able to do this, nobody will be touching you guys, Nobody will be coming for you. Like, hey, we are having a huge pressure project. You need to complete this that people will clearly sense that this guy is not adopted. He will work structured, he will clearly define the timelines, he will clearly sequence and prioritize it so that the way in which they deal with you will change. Even the client when he comes for a second time project. He will not deal with you in the same kind of a manner which he is using now. Okay? So please develop this habit and the action point for you after this podcast is take one task or a sub task or a project which you are working with your boss. Ask your boss exactly what is required. Write it down in a paper or Good. Make sure in next 21 days you set a target and then you complete it. Reverse target from 21 and you regularly update with your boss and make sure your environment is colorful, musical, a very good pictures and everything pasted properly so that you will feel so motivated to work and then you will see the difference. Guys. Okay, so let me know how did you do these things for the first three days and connect with me. I'll give you some corrections and feedback so that you can continue this remaining 18 days. And in 21 days you will feel a really pleasure work life balance environment where you work under normal circumstances. Guys. Okay, so this is the one quality which will make you become a product manager or even a CEO or even a startup for a company to become an entrepreneur. Okay? Because without knowing the skills, people really struggle for a day which is like a firefighting business they have, which is like a firefighting day to day life. Right? So implement this technique. Guys. I hope you this podcast is useful. Give me a best rating in Apple and Spotify and subscribe for my future episodes. Thank you so much guys. Take care. Bye. Bye. See you.