The Busy Creator Podcast with Prescott Perez-Fox

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

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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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            The Busy Creator Podcast with Prescott Perez-FoxBy Prescott Perez-Fox & friends