Balancing Creativity and Deadlines: How I Manage My Workflow

For the first time in my life, I’m studying something I’m genuinely interested in full time. It’s something I’ve always wanted, and I feel lucky to have found something I enjoy this much and can do it for a living. But with that, there are a few things I didn’t quite expect, especially since design is in the creative field.

I’ve always been someone who puts effort into doing assignments properly, even when I wasn’t that interested in the topic. Now that I’m working on something I care about, I often end up overexerting myself. I’d say the reason for that comes down to two main components.

First of all, a lot of times I get into the flow and genuinely enjoy doing the work, and time passes so quickly that I don’t realize and then I am so behind that I have to work overtime to try to finish it. Even when I realize I continue to perfect it, and I do enjoy it (sometimes I am surprisingly jolly at a late hour), but this in the long term, is very destructive and can lead to a loss of interest or burnout very quickly. These days I call a baby-burnout as I am incapable of doing work for a few days. The problem is that I can’t have that, especially at the end of the period, so it is crucial for me to slowly learn how to draw a line between university work and private life on a daily basis. Realizing how big the scope of a project/course is and not overstepping it. One thing I have to accept is that if I overwork myself for a few days, I won’t be able to do things afterwards, so just having a normal amount of work every day results in the same thing without feeling bad about not being able to work on those off days.

The other thing is what I noticed is related to creativity; I feel that in this field, you are a lot more associated with your work, because the concept and execution comes from you. It is important to recognize how you are not one with your work. This way it is also easier not to get hurt by critique as the one giving you feedback isn’t criticizing you as a person. There has to be this healthy distancing from your own work. I find this difficult when they are exhibiting my work and it isn’t just a submission box but it’s open to view for the public. I really like the fact that Aalto provides this for several courses as it is a big motivator; I have to make sure I stop when it is too much and not being able to do it mentally is a completely valid reason. (Something I have to tell myself a lot…I’m getting there!)

One thing that is worth mentioning how there are a lot of opportunities, and you can’t do all. I have this constant feeling of not using the facilities and opportunities to it’s fullest while I’m in Aalto, but frankly that’s impossible. Same with social life and events, you can’t attend everything; you are not missing out just putting your sanity first.

Another thing I noticed how before coming to uni, Design was my hobby, and now that I am studying it full time, I ended up with no hobbies. In the last months, I found new things that help me unwind a lot, including playing music and bouldering. It is really nice to find things that make your brain tingle in other ways so that is definitely something I value and prioritize.  

As you can see I don’t have straightforward solutions to all of this, but over the past few months, I’ve started to notice certain patterns; things that have slowly become clear after these two years of studying. Becoming aware of them is helping me figure out how to live and work in a more balanced way. There’s still a lot to figure out of course, but acknowledging it is the first step.