Web design industry is probably one of the fastest moving industries on this planet. We all have to study almost daily and build the knowledge base. As long as you love what you do this might sounds like an easy task. Yeah it makes it lot more easy if you love your job but you just can’t go forever and not get burnout. It is challenge.
There are ways how to make it easier. You have probably seen the bodybuilders reading articles about exercise and putting the images of top bodybuilders on their walls. It is motivation. It does not matter if you have decided to do it or if you just do it inadvertently. So the question is how do you motivate yourself if you are designer or developer.
I personally put motivation on top of everything in my profession. It is the single and most important thing which makes me want to learn and become better and better in what I do. I need it like an air for breathing. If I am motivated every task seams like something I can solve. The motivation is a wave. It comes and goes. You need to be like a surfer on the sea and always try to catch a new wave and that will keep you going.
There are couple of different sources you can use. They are all free and work like charm.
Podcast/Screen-casts
iTunes is full of great free content you can use to motivate yourself. Here is the list of the podcasts and screens-casts I use.
- Boagworld
- Diggnation
- Photoshop user TV
- Railcast
- Let’s start from beginning
- Freelance Radio
- jQuery for designers
- The Official jQuery Podcast
- Ruby on Rails podcast
- SitePoint Podcast
- Teach me to code
- 37 signals Podcast
RSS Feeds
Another very useful way to keep up date and keep yourself motivated are RSS Feeds. Most of the people probably switched to Twitter and do not check their feeds regularly. I only keep the feeds I am really interested and I do not want to miss so I use RSS reader daily. That does not mean I read all the articles but at least I can see if some of the people I follow post a new one and I decide if I am gonna read it or skip it. The list of my current RSS feeds is on the image in the sidebar. (Screen-shot of my RSS application)
Books
You can call me old school by I think books are the far the best source of inspiration and the best source for learning. The knowledge is collected in one place so you do not have to spend hours looking for the bits and pieces across the web. This year I have put into my wish list following books.
- Rework
- Delivering Happines
- Crashit
- Rspec Book
You will be able to read my book review about the book Delivering Happines on 17th of June. That is the day when all the people who got the book for free from Zappos (as I did, thank you Zappos very much) will be posting their reviews online.
Talking to people who has a passion in what they do.
It does not always need to be the same field you are interested in. Just talking to people who love what they do gives you so much energy to try and learn new things. I met so many people who love what they do and I need to thank them for the positive energy they pass on me.
Follow people on Twitter
This relates to the previous point. It is great to be in contact with people who do what you do so you have things in common, you can share knowledge, you can advice each other.
Traveling
Traveling means to me meeting new people, discovering new places, new objects, widening your view. The more you know about this world the more you appreciate what you have and that gets you motivated to do stuff you always wanted to do.
All these helps me to build my motivation. It has been helping me for 4 years and I can’t see that going away. If there is something which works for you tell me about. it.