If you are a web designer or run a growing design agency, you are already juggling a lot of things. From researching, planning, strategizing to designing, there is so much at stake for you. Out of all of that, communicating with your clients and managing the turnaround time is of utmost importance for any web designer or agency.
Turnaround time is key to setting up a feasible deadline for your web design projects. Your turnaround time can make or break your reputation as a personal or a business brand and it can leave an everlasting impact - because, at the end of the day, great clients come through word of mouth, right?
If the turnaround time is shorter for your web design project then it can strike a remarkable impression on your client. At the same time, going beyond the committed turnaround time could make your clients question your skills and professionalism. The best way out is to reduce your turnaround time on your web design projects and create a win-win situation for everyone.
To help you work on your time management and turnaround time on web projects, here's sharing some actionable tips that you could easily follow for your upcoming commitments:
1. Cultivate Self-Discipline
As design enthusiasts, we need time to let our creative juices flow and that sometimes leads to planned or unplanned procrastination. When you are set up against a deadline, the best way to decrease its turnaround is to pair procrastination with self-discipline like a warrior.
Take timely breaks but also set up some accountability for yourself and the team. Over time, by consistent self-discipline, you would see yourself and your team finishing off the web projects way before the deadlines!
2. Get Rid Of Distractions
Imagine yourself being in this zone of designing without any interruptions and then suddenly you have this urge to check social media. Been there, felt that? It takes about 23 minutes for you to get your focus back once you are distracted.
So, if you are looking at curbing all that extra time on your web design projects, just shut off all the distractions. Work in silence or put some good concentration tracks on loop - this will not only help you focus but also eliminate distractions.
3. Create Feasible Deadlines
Most of the time, the clients could convince you to set up early deadlines. Evaluate the scope of your web project and also the expectations that your clients have from them. Only after gauging all of it, you should create goals and deadlines.
This way you would have a better idea about the ideal turnaround time for the web project and then you could find out ways to reduce it. While doing this exercise, make sure to account for all the potential revisions, feedback, and technical issues to get more clarity.
4. Prioritize and Organize
One of the best methods to cut down on your turnaround time is to use project management apps like Asana, Trello, Brutask or ruttl. These platforms not only help you organize your web projects but also let your prioritize with your team.
From listing down all the tasks, assigning them to teammates till annotating your web projects - you can efficiently do it all by prioritizing and organizing. Eventually, this exercise lets you block your time and reduce turnaround for your projects.
5. Make Use of Pomodoro Technique
It has been proven for a long time that your brain works best in sprints. Pomodoro technique lets you leverage the same by making you work for short durations of 25 minutes.
In order to use this technique, you just need to assign yourself 25 minutes on a timer like Flow, Be Focused or Pomofocus. Once that is done, pick a task and work on it for 25 minutes. Take a break after 25 minutes and so on.
By splitting your tasks in shorter bursts, your productivity will undoubtedly improve and it would inevitably help in decreasing turnaround time on your web projects.
6. Balance Your Work and Life
Web designers and design agencies often run on the brink of burnouts. Stress and unreasonable deadlines can impact the turn around times for many projects. You can navigate it all by striking a balance between your work and life.
Remember that if you are not feeling good for a week or not taking some time to unwind then you would not be able to bring your best to the table. Oftentimes, turnaround times extend because web designers are overworked and stressed. Make sure to carve out some "me time", your turnarounds will get leaner in no time!
Having tried all of these time and personal management techniques for our web projects at our parent company Brucira, we are sure they would help you as well. Do implement these ideas and see how they work out towards helping you streamlining your turnaround time on projects. And if you want to take these ideas one level above, then check out ruttl!
It's the fastest website feedback tool used everyday by over 4500+ professionals and teams in the design industry to collect design feedback within minutes!
