The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 7 with Designer & Blogger Courtney Eliseo

Prescott chats with Courtney Eliseo, graphic designer and founder of the popular design blog Design Work Life. They discuss keeping organized as a solo designer, the workflow of writing blog posts, and the balance of running a content business while staying relevant as a practitioner.
 
Show Notes & Links

Seamless Creative, Courtney and her husband’s design practice
Graphicology
Design Work Life on Pinterest
Courtney on Skillshare
perez-fox.com, Prescott’s design blog (since January 2006)
Prescott went to grad school
RSS, for reading blogs
The “brass ring” is clientless work
Courtney lives by her to-do list
Design Work Life is a show-and-tell blog. No problem with that.
Both Courtney and Prescott use Harvest for time-tracking
Omnifocus for to-do lists. Good because it’s based on GTD
Courtney’s husband is a web developer
Past Busy Creator guest Armin Vit is half of a husband-wife team
Prescott’s grandparents are a husband-wife team, married for 70 years.
Paul Graham, from Y Combinator wrote about Maker’s Time vs. Manager’s Time
Customizing Apps in Podio
Work.com and Do.com, both by SalesForce
Asana, a checklist turned project management app
“It’s impossible to find the perfect handbag.” —Jill Fox
Software as a Service
AJAX
“… emailing back and forth — especially files — especially MS Word docs — it’s just terrible.”
Jackson and Graham, contributors to Design Work Life
Courtney wants to experiment with a virtual assistant
Courtney is up at 6:00; at work by 7:30
Businessology, with Jason Blumer & Dan Mall

Tools

Skillshare
Harvest
Omnifocus
Teux Deux
Podio
ScheduleOnce
Google Calendar
Asana
Zirtual
Press This, WordPress bookmarklet
Photoshop, and Photoshop Actions

Techniques

Dedicate one day to separate aspects of the business (client work, blog, finances, etc.)
When designing a brand identity, think of digital from day one
Use the to-do list over the calendar
Build workflows and automation for recurring tasks, such as resizing images for your blog
Listen to podcasts while you work

Habits

Stick to a plan
Meet with your boss every other week, review time
Generate a time report in Harvest
Create a “Dollar Jar” at work. Give $1 every time you email about a project instead of post on Basecamp (or your tool of choice)
Wake up early. (oatmeal optional)

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