Get motivated and organized to become a better designer. That is what this blog is about. A blog to help you out with your work. Think of inspiration, freebies, resources, posts about photoshop, organizing, front end web development and processes. I’m Aljan Scholtens and lets start with some organizing tips!

As a designer I need to organize myself. If I don’t, I will get stressed and forget things. In my life as designer and entrepreneur I need to be organized, so this is a small list of things that keep me organized. Maybe it can help you out too.

The hard drive

First of all, organize your PC or MAC! The first thing I did is turn off the desktop icons, all of them. Because when there are desktop icons on your desktop, they will disturb you a lot. Whenever you download something, you will place it on your desktop and it will become a mess!

I have a 2,5″ Western Digital external hard drive that I almost always take with me. So I can work wherever en whenever I want! If you do not have one, dedicate a partition on your hard drive. The root of my Western Digital exists of five folders: Projects; Documents; Music; Photography and Temporary. Do not put any other files or what so ever in the root, because you have to browse fast. By the way, I gave these folders different icons so I can recognize them faster and browse faster!

• The Projects folder contains the folders for every client and it also containers folder for my administration, materials (like icons, brushes, textures etc) and other work related documents;
• Documents for your private files;
• Music, categorized by album;
• Photography contains folders categorized by photo session;
• The Temporary folder will be used a lot, it contains your downloads of fonts, textures etc.

Organizing your hard drive is a great way to keep away from stress! And back-up your folders regularly, I am using SyncBack at the moment.

Get a RSS Reader

A lot of web designers or developers still don’t use a RSS Reader. I love it! You can keep track of your favourite websites or blogs! It keeps you focused because you don’t have to go to each individual website. It saves your time!

When you have a RSS Reader and want to follow a lot of websites, create some folders. For your favourite blogs about typography you create a separate folder and for your design inspiration websites too. I’m following Smashing Magazine, Web Design Ledger and WebResourcesDepot in my design folder.

Nice RSS readers: Google Reader (I’m using it), NewsFire (Mac OSx).

Project folder

For website projects I have a standard project folder which I can copy and rename to the website name. It has three great benefits:

• It saves a lot of time, you don’t have to do all the work again for every new project;
• It makes you consistent, because every project folder structure is the same;
• You’ll stay organized.

Make sure your project folder has a few standard folders, these are the folders I use:

• The documents folder, with the briefing and contracts;
• A materials folder for received logo’s, photos, fonts;
• Design folder with all the website designs (try to use a versioning system);
• Finally, the slice folder with the html, css, js, image files. Try to organize this too!

Plan the project

If you want a project to be successful you need to set a few milestones and deadlines. I’m using four milestones:

• Strategy & Concept;
• Visual Design;
• Technical Design;
• Transfer.

I created a complete process plan to make my clients sure what is going to happen while the project is running. For each milestone I set a deadline for myself and one for the client, a few days later. This can change for every project because it depends on the situation.

There are a lot of very good web applications to keep track of your projects. Two of the best are in my opinion Basecamp and ActiveCollab, but they don’t go for free. Starting your business, a simple and free to do list program can help you out! I’m currently using Doit.im, and another great application is Remember the Milk.

And if you prefer paper, that’s OK, as long as you just plan your work! I still have a paper agenda and a Moleskine for inspiration when I’m on the road.

Plan the day

Plan tomorrow at the end of today. It will prevent you from getting stressed, because you’re now organized for tomorrow! Write these tasks down or put them in a to do list.

I’m still trying to turn off my e-mail, RSS reader and twitter on the day itself. Please, turn them all off! It will make you much more productive during the day. This doesn’t mean that they should be off during the entire day, no, plan your day! When you turn on your mac or PC, check and answer your e-mail, read your news and if you need to, tweet. Do this a few times a day; I do this in the morning, during lunch and at the end of the day!

The famous desk

For a lot of designers it’s really hard to keep their desks kinda empty. Just do it! Otherwise, it can make you stressed. Get stacks to organize your paper work. For example, get one for clients, one for your administration and so on. This is my desk.

Put other important objects on the other side of your desk, like the old paper agenda (I’m still using it), Moleskine, sketchbook, pen, keys, phone, Wacom tablet (when you’re not using it, put it away). Just get stuff out of eyesight.

Get rid of dust! It makes you feel dirty, so clean your desk once a while with a wet lap.

Coffee

Watch out with the coffee, plan your breaks. By the way, drink water sometimes!

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