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Ive seen designers complain about this throughout my entire career.
Ive done it too.
Ive also seen managers trying to address the problem.
But what about designers?
Are we just passive victims of a system thats trying to drown us with meetings?
If you dont have time to design, its also your fault.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
But Im not here to point any fingers.
As a designer, I dont like to just find problems, I like to fix them.
Call it what it is design time and be strict.
Dont accept meetings that overlap that time, unless its something important and exceptional.
At Shopify, Wednesdays are meant to be a meeting-free day.
That mandate comes from our leadership, and Im really a fan of that.
If Shopify can do this I cant see why other companies cant.
They shouldnt punish or reprimand you for it.
Unfortunately me saying it doesnt mean that it doesnt happen.
That can help your audience decide whether or not they need to attend.
If they dont you’ve got the option to defer to tip two.
When you actually have meetings, get straight into business.
Im not discouraging that.
What Im discouraging is spending more than a couple of minutes just chit-chatting.
Not to mention the domino effect that affects all your other meetings if you have a packed day.
In my experience, this often happens when meetings are low stakes.
I dont see it happening as often when you have a high-level stakeholder in the room.
Because people respect their time.
So ask yourself, why dont you respect your own?
Same goes for the end of the meeting.
If you end early dont feel like you have to use that time that was left to talk.
Its your time, use it wisely.
Take advantage of that and make that your design time.
Did I miss anything?
If theres something urgent, those things will find you.
Just see to it you leave your Slack notifications on for when people mention you.
Take breaks
I know, this one sounds very counter-intuitive.
Sometimes that is exactly what you better unblock and have a breakthrough.
With that said, Im not encouraging you to break your flow.
If youre on a roll and youre plowing through your designs, keep at it.
Dont default to weekly
Weve been experimenting with a 4-day work week for the summer at Shopify.
I noticed that this forced people to rethink the way some of the recurring meetings were planned.
The default is almost always weekly, but have you ever wondered why?
A week is essentially a made up concept, why are we enforcing that cadence?
Can you see how many hours were wasting every week?
These meetings are usually for alignment and planning.
To do these things on a bi-weekly cadence you just need to adjust your planning and foster async alignment.
Its on you!
I dont know about you, but I cant design on demand.
I have to be in the right mind space and actually have energy and time to make something meaningful.
If you want to do meaningful work, youre faced with a choice.
As a designer, your job isnt just to make things.
All of the above cant be done properly if youre not able to manage your own time.
I hope you found these tips helpful they certainly helped me to get more time to actually design.
This article was written byJose Torreand originally published onUX Collective.
you’re free to read ithere.
