🧠 How To Stay Focused As a UX/UI Designer · The Bunker #11

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Good morning, afternoon, and evening everyone. The other day I was making myself a coffee at home (which by the way, I can't stop watching those videos on Instagram of people making super rich and creamy coffees.... I think one day I'm going to learn how to make coffee professionally).

Anyway, the other day I was looking at the coffee being poured into my cup of milk and I was thinking, how do I stay focused on the task at hand when I'm working? If you think about it, UX/UI designers are people who are constantly solving problems, in a limited amount of time, for many hours of the day. And our decisions literally affect people's daily lives. In my case, I work on a financial platform, and working with people's money is always complicated. So imagine that.

This made me curious because whenever I think of something, I always think: I do it like this, but what other ways are there? How does everybody else do it? So it inspired me to think that other designers might be thinking the same thing, so this is what works for me to stay focused when I'm working, whether I'm in the office or at home:

✱ · 01: Noise-canceling headphones + Jazz. I had never had the experience and opportunity to listen with noise-canceling headphones before, I didn't know what noise cancellation was. One of the reasons I bought the Sony WH-1000XM5 was because they had the best cancellation in the market. I activate the cancellation and play any music that helps me to concentrate, in my case it is Jazz, but it can be lo-fi music for example.

✱ · 02: Going for a coffee with headphones on. Without turning off noise cancellation and jazz, it helps me a lot to be in the office and suddenly get up to get a coffee. I get away from the area that is causing me that block and stay focused and think about what I have to do. When I'm at home I do the same, I take my headphones and go, another very valid option is to take a walk in the street and get some fresh air. The important thing is to get away from the area that is causing you frustration.

✱ · 03: Turn off notifications. That's pretty obvious, but my friends already know that they won't get a response if they talk to me during my concentration hours.

In iOs you can set up an option to receive calls and messages from people in "favorites" that you know will only talk to you during those hours for emergencies.

On iOs there is also an option to share the concentration mode with other connected devices, so that everything is muted simultaneously.

✱ · 04: Time blocking. For me personally, it helps me a lot to know that even if I have all day to work, that for X-X hours I'm going to be doing just this, and then I'm going to jump to another topic.

So I don't have in my head the mentality of "I have all day to do this", because then a task that I could do in 1 hour, takes me all day.

✱ · Bonus: Daily priorization. Finally, the first thing I do when I wake up and I'm in front of the computer, I make a list of all the things I have to prioritise for today. I sit in my chair and make a list of all the things.

Cheers, Jordi Espinosa.