At Rooted Web, we’re no strangers to long-term projects. We’ve seen it all from marketing strategies to website design and development. No one knows better than us that long projects come with the difficulty of staying motivated.
Maintaining long-term motivation is no easy task, but it is one that we’re familiar with. Here are our six easy tips for staying motivated.
Planning
Long-term projects are typically projects that can take anywhere from a few months to years to complete. Standard websites, for example, ideally take 12-15 weeks to complete from the kick-off call to launch.
Planning helps with motivation because it allows you to set specific and clear goals. Without these specifics, it’s easy to get lost—especially when you don’t fully understand what you’re doing or know how much is left to do.
Any long-term project should start with planning. It’s important to understand goals, roles and the general timeline, along with how long each task should take. Our team of developers and writers like to use Monday.com for project management and collaboration.
Planning when it comes to web design and development is typically cut up into seven parts: kick-off, copy, design, design check-off, development, pre-launch and post-launch. Each part is then broken down into tasks with their respective deadlines and dependencies—that way we know exactly what it takes to complete each task.
Break It Up
Break up the workload. After planning a general outline, refine the tasks.
When our designers begin creating your custom website, they break up the tasks into smaller pieces. The design stage is broken down into homepage design, sub-pages, design calls, feedback, proofing and revisions. This process helps us maintain our long-term motivation because we can focus on what needs to be done first before moving along to the next task while staying efficient.
Feelings of inefficiency can often lead to burnout, so it’s important to stay on task.
Take A Breather
It’s easy to become overwhelmed during a long-term project. Taking a step back to relax will help your mind calm down for a few minutes and help you ease back into a project.
Taking a breather can be as small as taking a water cooler break or an hour-long lunch. If that doesn’t work, it might be time to put the project on pause for a day. However, try to limit an extended break by a day—any longer than that, you’ll be procrastinating.
It’s also okay to jump around if certain tasks are not dependent on one another. Our copywriters, for example, are responsible for multiple landing pages and subpages. If they hit a wall with one sub-page, they might take a break and jump to another sub-page that’s easier to write until they’re ready to return to their previous task.
The same is true for proofing. If you’re having trouble gathering your thoughts about a page we deliver, it can help to move to another. When you return to the original page, you may find that the feedback starts flowing much easier.
Limit Distractions
No one is immune to distractions. If you’re working on a computer like us, your emails and notifications are constantly dinging. And, if we’re being honest, half our office is obsessed with Wordle.
Consider powering down your phone, using apps like AntiSocial to limit smartphone usage or downloading website blockers to stay productive.
Even in the office, we’re prone to standing around each other’s desks and chatting about day-to-day stuff. Like we said earlier, it’s okay to take a breather but remember to limit an extended break.
Lean On Your Teammate
No one gets you better than your coworkers. We’re constantly piggy-backing off each other’s ideas and feedback in the office. It’s common to lose your motivation for a project when you’re stuck on a task, so be sure to reach out for help when you need it.
For example, copywriters are heavily dependent on their proofing team. Often, when we read over our work, we miss little details and mistakes. Proofreaders are there to catch those errors and correct them before our team delivers the work to clients.
Whether it is copy, design or strategy, a fresh pair of eyes never hurt.
Set Deadlines
Most importantly, set specific deadlines for any long-term project. Like planning, setting a deadline helps keep you on track and organized. Expectations for deadlines lead to a natural flow of work.
Websites typically can take anywhere from 12-15 weeks to complete, they are daunting tasks. The importance of specifying deadlines and goals makes a website feel easily achievable. Not adding clear timeframes to your project can result in a lack of direction.
Additionally, everything we do from start to finish is for the client. At the end of the day, a website must be delivered in a timely and efficient manner.
Be sure to know when to wrap it up and with each deadline reached be sure to celebrate your small victory.
We know as much as anyone how daunting any long-term project can be. Please don’t feel like you have to go at it alone! If you’re starting to feel overwhelmed, come chat with us to see how we help.
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