Portfolio Progress + Emotional Progress | Portfolio Series - 100 Days of Design, Writing & Emotions

Design

Case study 1 complete! 🎆🥳🎇🎉🎉

✔ created device mockups

✔ selected visuals

✔ edited visuals and inserted into mockups

✔ uploaded

✔ edited final draft

✔ final touches e.g. urls





When do you say 'Enough?'

The important lesson of the day was learning when to stop. I had 20+ ideas for finishing touches (including a sick idea for a mind-map navigation for those who don't enjoy linear reading formats). And as much as I would've loved to implement them all, I would've tweaked and noodled for weeks. Instead, I had to push out a version of the case study.



You don't need to make every decision by yourself

I wasn't sure how many images to include. In my mind, I wanted an extra 5. But, by now I've also learnt that my mind has a bias for perfectionism. The joy of the virtual design sessions I'm running is: I can ask others for their opinion. In-the-moment feedback!



I notice the tendency to spin in circles debating decisions in my mind. I‘m learning to externalise and ask for others’ opinions.





Launch. Receive feedback. Iterate.



Emotions

My goal over the last 2 years has been to be able to find more joy, fun and less triggering in making work. The desire to make was always there but the act of making was challenging. Making a portfolio was the ultimate challenge, for me. It was my kryptonite.



I'm happy to say that over the last week, even with many challenging external life circumstances, I've begun to find more pleasure in my work. There are far less emotional holes to fall into.



What changed?

→ Virtual design sessions

→ Sharing a screenshot of my portfolio every day (daily small wins)

→ Constantly asking, "what's the biggest, smallest thing I can do right now?"

→ Realising that the feeling of resistance (procrastination/avoidance) indicated a problem in my approach. Often, I was biting off more than I can chew or not having a clear, executable goal.