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Welcome to season 3 of Design Lessons!

Season 3 is special because it is focused on you. It will give you the opportunity to focus on one specific area of your life that you would like to make just a little bit better.

Grab Your Project You 30 Day Planner and let’s get started.

Project You: Design a Life Made for You

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Grab it here.

Hey Designers:

Did you choose you? Did you make a commitment to make your life just a little bit better? Are you ready to use your Project You 30 Day Action Planner to dream, organize and execute your design? If you haven’t already downloaded the planner, go do it. I’ll wait.

Choosing you can sometimes be the first hurdle. People often justify choosing themselves by saying that putting yourself first is like putting your oxygen mask on first so that you can help others.

I say yes, that is probably true and makes a nice bridge for someone who feels like they don’t have enough time for themselves and thinks well I’m really helping others by helping myself. So I get the value in the statement.

However…

You should choose you because you are important, full stop.

You are important.

Choose you.

Ok, now that we have made the first important decision. Commit to exploring one aspect of your life for the next 30 days. We are going to participate in micro life design. That means that we are not going to overhaul your whole life in 30 days, but we are going to focus on one area of your life that feels necessary right now. We are going to pick something vital, but also simple.

So what should you pick? Well let’s get rid of the should because that makes it feel like there is just one right answer. I’ll give you a couple of strategies to use this week that are going to help, but first I want you to share with you the framework we are using to help guide us on our journey.

L.E.A.D.E.R

LEADER stands for Listen, have Empathy, Access your ideas, Design your solution, Experiment and Reflect.

Here’s how you remember that. Be a LEADER of your Life. Remember YOU Are Important! Full Stop.

This LEADER framework is an adaptation of the design thinking process. Design Thinking comes from the business world. It’s is human-centered design that allows companies to design solutions and products that are based in empathy for their users or customers.

I’ve taken this process and adapted it for life design to use with my students and with clients.. And today, I’m going teach you how to begin to use this process for yourself.

This week we are going to immerse ourselves in the listening phase. I’m going to share with you two strategies for listening to help you figure out what your focus will be for the next 30 days. There is room in the Project You 30 Day Action Planner to jot your thoughts.

One strategy is to take 5 minutes each day to record your highs and lows. At the end of your day, right before you go to bed, record the high and low notes of your day. Be curious about your highs and lows. Why might you have been ecstatic this morning? Why might you have been annoyed this afternoon? What were you doing before and after these times? Do this for 5-7 days of the week. Once you get to the end of the week, look for patterns that show up.. What routines in your life are contributing to the highs you are noticing? What barriers in your life are contributing to the lows. We will use this data in the next phase.

Another way to identify your area of focus is to set a timer for 3 minutes and to be curious about your life. Make a list of as many questions about habits in your life as you can. In essence, you are about to embark on an experiment and oftentimes the best experiments begin with a question.

There’s a preliminary list in the Project You 30 Day Action guide, and some examples include..

What if you changed your sleep routine? How would that change your life?
What if you changed the window of time that you eat? How would that change your life?
What if you read something from a different perspective on an issue that you care about every week?
What if you tried a new recipe once a week?
What if you took a photo everyday? What would you notice?

The point is to come up with as many questions as you can. Touch each idea and Marie Kondo it. Which question brings you the most joy? Which question are you drawn to the most?

Choose one of these strategies or do both of these strategies. The more information you have the better.

When we check in next time with each other we are going to take the information that you gathered this week and choose a focus that is vital and simple for you to experiment with right away.

Until next time designers