What I’ve learnt so far from my 100 Day Project
So it’s been over 30 days into my 100 Day Project and I would consider it a mild success!
Even though I’m getting busier at my day job, my motivation is still pretty high for this project. I still have enough energy to maintain my core habits and fitness, and I’m not feeling a sense of dread when it comes to designing (like I’ve had in the past with my previous creative endeavours).
In this short period of time, I’ve learnt a lot of things about myself and will be using these insights to finish off my project.
I was definitely very ambitious
I would say the goals I had for myself were very lofty and grand:
I planned to create a brand guide
Post daily to my socials (Twitter, IG grid posts and stories)
Make video content as I went (TikTok, YouTube)
Have an audience interaction component (IG Polls)
But so far, I’ve only been posting a few times a week on my IG stories and Discord, while working on the project daily. Sometimes I’m making significant progress, other times I’m not. I think as soon as I started the first week I realised I wouldn’t be able to do everything I said I would – but honestly, that’s okay. I’m still doing something small every day and enjoying the process, which was my main goal. What I've realised is that you can plan all you want but you won't get a grasp of what will happen until you do it. If I had done this project a few years ago, I would've given up because I couldn't hit all the goals I planned for myself - now I do what I can and I have gone so much further than I have in the past.
Creating public facing work (even if its WIP) is difficult and hinders the process
One of my goals for this project was to show a work-in-progress for every step I took. But after the first week, I quickly realised that showing WIPs when they are incoherent and messy is not particularly valuable. For the first two weeks I was doing nothing but strategy, and that’s not easy to consume (or very interesting) for an audience. In this project I reaffirmed with myself that content creation is extra work – it needs to be thoughtful to be effective and requires its own strategy. Instead of trying to design my brand AND document my process at the same time, I'd much rather go through the messy design process first on my own, THEN create a filtered and edited version for my audience (one that will be valuable).
When the end goal is to impress yourself, finding motivation is easy
For almost my whole life I’ve been wanting to stick to a long-term self-directed project and I’ve failed every single time. I’ve never been able to sustain a creative habit because I’ve always let my anxiety about the outcome or other people’s opinions get in the way. For example, if I wanted to draw consistently and post it online – my dedication was based purely on how many likes or comments I got. Or if I wanted to work on a product idea – my commitment was determined by how much money I could make. If it felt too difficult or not worth it I would just bail on the project.
However, for this project, I don’t really have an end goal – other than to have fun. I don’t need to make money out of Debbbag, I don’t need more followers – I want to create a personal body of work I’m proud of – and that can come in many forms. I’ve been incredibly motivated because my effort and interest is not determined by external factors.
Receiving messages and reactions are definitely helpful and keeps me going
Okay this is going to (sorta but not really) counter what I just said – but getting reactions and thoughtful messages from my friends and my audience has given me small bursts of energy to keep me going. Would I still be able to do the project without these - yes definitely! But having a few people message me saying they have been following my journey or they are excited to start their own because of me, reminds me that there are more reasons than just my internal motivation to keep it consistent.
Thank you to everyone who has interacted with my posts or sent me a message!
Nothing is a waste
Even if I haven't had a 'productive' day, or if I only had the energy to work on my project for 15 minutes, that 15 minutes today is 15 minutes closer to my end goal. Even if I take a creative detour, and end up cutting out the things I designed, it's still valuable because it gave me perspective on what’s important in my project. Nothing is a waste, and knowing this has motivated me to keep going. If I hit a wall, I don't get frustrated with myself. It's an important part of the journey and it shows up in your final result (even if people don't see it).
Create a brief for yourself early on
Even if it's a self-directed project – it's really hard to get started without knowing what your goals and parameters are. I always create a brief for myself – usually that involves writing down my main aims, my goals, creating moodboards, and any general guidance on what I want my end result to be. Putting in the effort early on to establish your goals will make your life so much easier in the long run. When you get stuck, the brief will always be there to reset your focus.
Progress, not perfection
I am a recovering perfectionist and it has been really hard to shake it out of me. However, there has been a switch in my mindset this year – when I feel that perfectionist itch coming on, I tell myself: Even if I'm progressing only 0.5% every day, that will compound into amazing results.
When you're a perfectionist – you set an expectation for yourself. But when you do that, you limit yourself to that expectation, and don’t allow yourself to stray outside of it. If you just let the progress happen organically without a rigid goal, you will find yourself in surprising and positive situations you couldn't even fathom, and I find that mindset more fun and sustainable than trying to make everything perfect.
Finding small pockets of time is key to maintaining progress (do the bare minimum!)
If you know me, you know I'm an avid TikTok/YouTuber consumer (I consume close to 35 hrs total for each - which is a full work week!). When people ask me how I find the time, I think to myself – okay, I watch around an hour on the train to work, then an hour on the way back, then I steal 15 minutes here and there… and then before bed while I'm going to sleep I watch it for over an hour. That is easily 4 hours a day, which ends up being 28 hours minimum a week. Then I also watch YouTube in the background while I do my chores.
So with this project, knowing that small bits of time can accumulate to something bigger - I've exchanged my social scrolling time for design time. Even sparing an hour a day equals progress. Or even 15 minutes. If you go into each day with low expectations, it will be easier to start and chip away at the project in a sustainable way.
Working in Google Slides is the best!
If I'm going to recommend one product for a 100 Day Branding Project, it's Google Slides. For the past year, it has been my most used product at work (even more than Illustrator and Photoshop!), and it is where I create decks for all my projects. It's basically Powerpoint, except web based – and it's so accessible on any device and easy to share with others. I find it incredibly flexible to store and/or figure out my strategy and design process. I couldn't recommend it enough for creatives out there.
I do my 100 project and watch YouTube/Netflix at the same time (aka habit smooshing)
I get bored very easily, so when I do my 100 Day Project, I always choose to work on my couch while putting YouTube or Netflix on in the background. People call it 'habit grouping' (I like to call it 'habit smooshing') – I feel happy and relaxed knowing that I can do my project while enjoying a show or YouTube video. It makes the project feel less intimidating and more low stakes, and I'm more likely to do it because I get an instant reward for it.
My attitude towards my project or anything in life: Everything in my life that I'm moving towards has an outcome that is valuable to me
While I was writing this list, I had an epiphany. Why am I so happy and fulfilled doing this project right now? Why am I actually sticking to this? What's different from all the failed attempts of the past?
And then I realised – everything I am doing right now has an outcome that is intrinsically valuable to me, and only me. Even if it's small and irrelevant to other people, it's so important to me. Even if it won't "change my life", it's something I find valuable. In the past, the outcome always served something outside of my personal goals – I wanted to impress other people, I wanted to prove something without really knowing why I was doing it. In the past couple months I've really reprioritised my life, and now I feel like every choice I'm making serves a life that is purely for me and my needs. It means I have less energy being drained through obligation, and more energy put into projects like this.
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Thank you to everyone who has followed my journey so far, commented, messaged, voted. I'm excited (and low-key a little scared) to see the outcome. I already know it will be one of my favourite projects because of what I've learnt about myself and my progress so far!