What does it mean to stay focused in our lives and what does it look like? In the 21st century, we’re constantly being bombarded by information, tasks to complete, and simultaneously working between multiple projects. What if we distilled 10 of our highest priority projects down to only 1 and spent all of our time completing it? How does time and experience allow us to focus on multiple projects at the same time?

What does it mean to stay focused in our lives and what does it look like? In the 21st century, we’re constantly being bombarded by information, tasks to complete, and simultaneously working between multiple projects. What if we distilled 10 of our highest priority projects down to only 1 and spent all of our time completing it? How does time and experience allow us to focus on multiple projects at the same time?

As a predominantly service based profession, our businesses and livelihoods rely on designing for clients who in turn pay us. What makes a client one that is ideal for our design firm? What can we implement at our firm to improve our client base and dispel their assumptions about our design process?

Is there anything from your past that you wish you had more of today? How does this idea of nostalgia relate to our professions as designers? Mike and Tim discuss nostalgia from their perspectives as designers and how it can relate to specific brands, products, and more!

What kinds of goals do designers like Mike and Tim set for themselves at the start of a new year? As we enter the new year, 2019, Tim is focusing on finishing his 30x30 projects for his blog, Journey of an Architect, and transitioning his focus to Mars Leather Company. Mike’s goal is to start and grow his latest side hustle, paperook, which will be a web design company. Mike and Tim get into a discussion about time and what it means to focus on completing specific projects and accomplishing goals.

Have you ever wanted to start your own newsletter where you can share your work with your friends, family, and audience? Or grow a list of avid followers who are interested in your company’s vision, products, and services? Creating an email campaign using a service like Mailchimp can help any person and business distribute essential information about their values, services, and products with their growing audience. Learn more about how Mike and Tim use Mailchimp for their architecture blogs and some tips for using an email service in this episode.

If you were going to start your own business, would you do it alone or with a partner(s)? What kind of planning goes into starting an online service based business? In this episode of Unpacking Design Life, Tim talks about his idea of starting an architecture firm with a partner(s) and Mike dives deeper into the schematics of his business plan for his new website design company, paperook. Learn more about the latest developments in their lives as designers in this episode.

While working at your office, have you ever had a fear of picking up the phone and calling a consultant, client, or representative of a company to get more information? In the 21st century, more people are losing touch with the simple act of picking up the telephone and making a cold call to someone that they haven’t met before. Learn more about how Mike and Tim overcame their fears of cold calling people and how it’s become an essential part of their careers in this episode.

What’s next for Tim’s Apple watchbands and Mike’s website service, paperook? Tim talks about the prototypes that he’s made so far for his Apple watchbands and how he came up with the final design through 3 iterations. Mike talks about his ideas for paperook and the different types of clients that he hopes to attract with his new business. Learn more about their progress with their side hustles in this episode.

What does it mean to be authentic with the designs that we develop, products that we create, and lives on social media? How do we maintain ownership of the creative ideas that we share with the world? Today, more entrepreneurs are creating, marketing, and selling products online. Oftentimes, corporations, manufacturers, and individuals copy successful ideas and sell it as their own. Listen to Tim and Mike discuss their opinions on being authentic in today’s society.