About a week and a half ago, I started work on a new design project. It’s a great project for an organization in the education sector, and I’m excited about it. Yet when I started it, I headed in the same direction I seem to head at the beginning of every new project–that is, down the rabbit hole of self-doubt. About three hours into the whole creative process, I had convinced myself that all my ideas were crap, and I was going to have nothing to show the client in two days when the preliminary design was due.
Of course, this turned out to be utter garbage, and after giving my brain some space by driving several hours, playing in the pit orchestra for a show, and sleeping on it, I realized that in fact, what I had come up with was pretty great. The good thing is that I know my brain likes to play this game with me. In fact, it does it almost every time I try to create something. And I know that if I just give it time, that part of my brain that tells me whatever I do isn’t good enough will finally turn off and let me get some real work done. But at hour three, it’s pretty frustrating.