The mood for web design

[MrLeN]

The mood for web design

I'd like to know how everyone else gets in the "mood" for web design/SEO/Marketing/Graphic design/Programming or what ever else it is you do in IT.

I personally find it hard to get rolling. It's not because I don't love IT and building websites, I do. I'm highly addicted to it, but I guess I am more of a "binge developer".

Once I get started with building or working on a project, my eagerness snowballs and I find myself going crazy for 24 hours straight. Then I crash for a couple of hours, but my brain wont stop so I get stuck back into it all for another 12 hours or so until I finally feel that I have accomplished something, THEN I crash for a good 12 hours straight.

This is why I can't work in IT "as a job". I used to and I've done some contracting since, but I find it hard to just switch myself on and off on queue. I have to "feel like it". If I feel like I HAVE to do something, I will procrastinate like an evaporating dew drop hanging from a twig. So, now I don't work in IT and I am not looking for IT jobs.

Even so, having a 9-5 job is still hard for me. Sometimes I come home and I don't WANT to go to bed. I want to complete some stuff that I 'have in mind'. I get started and I'm working flat out to accomplish what I want to do, watching the clock. So, now I'm kinda in a struggle between making a living and building my "online Empire".

I don't think I will EVER fully succeed until I can just sit down, work when I want to work, during the times "I" feel like it, until I think I am done, without having to worry about who I owe this month. It's not that I am lazy, because when I do work (online), I get 1 weeks work done in 48 hours, then I have a day or so rest and do it again.

Does anyone else have this problem, or is it just that I am feral and don't know how to manage my time?

Are there any shrinks here? Why is it that I can't (and NEVER have been able to) work with a schedule? Why am I so feral?

MrLeN

[Kevin Boss]

I am never in the mood. I'll sit down and put on some good music and have at it - a half hour later I'm so involved that I sometimes forget to eat

[vgarcia]

I move in phases. Sometimes I'm in a design mood. Other times I'm in a programming mood. Still other times I'm in a TV mood. Sometimes you just have to force yourself to do the right type of work. For example, I've been in a creative/design mood this weekend but I have some programming to do for a project that's due this Friday. I get some design work out of the way to satisfy my mood (30-60 minutes), then move on to programming .

[MrLeN]

I get some design work out of the way to satisfy my mood (30-60 minutes)

lol, if I do that it will turn into 30-60 hours *haha*

MrLeN

[vgarcia]

lol, if I do that it will turn into 30-60 hours *haha*

MrLeN

I try to stick to things I know I can accomplish in the time I allow. 30-60 minutes to me would be most of a layout for a new site, or a few functions/classes if I'm programming.

[MrLeN]

I am never in the mood. I'll sit down and put on some good music and have at it - a half hour later I'm so involved that I sometimes forget to eat

I can't listen to music. I can't concentrate. I sit here in silence, and I love it.

Has anyone seen Punch Drunk Love with Adam Sandler? See the bit where the whole family is making so much noise and he doesn't know what to do, so he smashes the window out of frustration?

That's how I feel when my senses are overloaded (and it doesn't take much) - lol

MrLeN

[Egor]

I normally get in the mood after 1am. When I just can't sit down and start designing I draw cartoons on paper for a few hours.

I always design with the tv on, even though only my back watches it.

[geniusgoalie]

Sometimes I'm in a mood where I can't stop programming for hours, or sometimes I'm in more of a watch TV or play football mode, and if I do manage to get myself on the computer, I end up posting at sitepoint or myg0t for two hours, and then I have to do something else, becoming angry with myself for the time I wasted. If I am in mood number two, I usually just turn on the TV, watch it partially, load up dreamweaver or fireworks or whatever I am using, and force myself to get going. I usually end up getting "in" to it within 15-20 minutes.

I am still a student though, obviously not doing this full time, so my opinions and routines may be different from those that do this professionally.
BTW, guess which mood I'm in now?

[ikog]

Stay up till all hours of the night surfing the Internet.

You actually get more motivated at 3am

[loadx]

Throw on some good death metal/metal core...ok, by this time i'm awake.

next step it up by looking at a few examples of what it is i am to do for instance if its layout and design then i checkout csszengarden if its code then i might look at phpfreaks or something like that..
after a good read or stare at other work i'm usually inspired enough to start my own.

The only time this process alters is when i rush to the pc with an idea already in my head, because usually i've had enough time to work out all the complexities in my head and i can just thrash out some code/design.