I’m not a fan of unproductive days and I’m sure you’re the same!

So I’ve put together a list of ideas that work for me (or that I’m working on implementing!) that can help you to improve your productivity and make the most out of your days.

1. Create a positive work environment

One of the biggest influences on my productivity is my work

environment. When I am surrounded by encouraging people and I am free to express my ideas, I will be more likely to produce good work and get excited about my projects.

It also helps to physically change the appearance of your work area to suit your creative style. As a visual person, I find posters and lots of colours around me help me to think more creatively. If my desk is cluttered an unorganised, it reflects in my work, and I’m left feeling busy and frustrated by the tasks in front of me.

TIP: Have a look at the space you are working in and ask yourself “What do I find exciting, inspiring and encouraging about this space?” “What do I find frustrating, distracting or depressing about this space?” and make some changes!

2. Set a vision

It’s nearly impossible to achieve something without a vision of what you want the end result to be. Before you start a new project, spend some time dreaming and brainstorming the final result so you know what you are aiming for.

TIP: If you’re a visual person like me, it’s a great idea to have a picture of your goal in your office somewhere or on your computer desktop, so that every day you are reminded of the vision of your project.

3. Set smart goals

Once you know the vision for your project, it’s time to break it up into smaller, actionable goals.

Because smaller goals are achievable and easier to achieve, it helps to juggle your workload and continually feel a sense of accomplishment as you work through each goal to your vision. If goals are too big and take a lot of time, it is easy to become discouraged and impatient as you work through them.

Set SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time bound.

Once I’ve set my goals, I find it very helpful to create an outline of what I plan to accomplish each day. If I just work through my goal list, it will feel like an endless to do list – instead, I select a few goals to work on and create a daily or weekly to do list.

TIP: Break your project into actionable goals and weekly or daily to-do lists. If you have other things that need to be done that don’t fit the SMART criteria or rely on other people, add them to a separate list.

4. Set your priorities

While you are setting your goals, you also need to consider which goals have the most priority.

The 80/20 rule (also known as the Pareto Principle) states that 20% of our efforts will produce 80% of our results.

This is not something to be discouraged by, but instead something to consider when setting your priorities for your projects. Consider your vision and think about what parts of it will have the biggest impact in the end results. Then, prioritise your goals according to their impact on the final product. This cuts out a lot of work that is spent on tasks that produce minimal results.

For example, if you are cleaning a house, some rooms will get used far more frequently than others (ie. kitchen compared to the spare bedroom) so most of your attention should be spent cleaning the kitchen (80% of the time spent on 20% of the house). It would make no sense to spend the same amount of time cleaning the spare room. In the same way, when working on your projects, you should give the greatest attention to the things that will make the biggest impact, even if they are only 20% of the whole project.

Think about it this way- if you are planning an event, what would go unnoticed if you ran out of time to work on it (ie. updating the Facebook page)? What would affect the event if you ran out of time (ie. booking flights for speakers)?

I’ve made the mistake myself of leaving things to the last minute that should have been a bigger priority over other tasks that I was working on because I thought they would take more time.

TIP: Base your priorities on the end results, not the effort involved. Distribute your workload accordingly.

5. Make a schedule

Making a schedule helps to give you a realistic idea of how and when you can achieve your goals and priorities.

Think about how long each task will take and build a timeline for the whole project. Then you can work on making daily schedules to help you achieve your tasks.

By setting a time limit on each task before you begin, you can get a realistic idea of whether you are ahead or behind in achieving your goals by the end of the project. Otherwise you risk spending all day on one task, while neglecting the others,

TIP: Create a clear schedule of times for each tasks and stick to it

6. Keep your time frame short

Parkinson’s Law states that work will expand to fill the time given to it.

I find this to be all too true for me- if I’m given a month to work on a project, I spend a lot more time dreaming and getting inspired and over-analyzing the project, meaning that I lose focus easily and find it hard to get the work done by the deadline. Give me a week to do the same thing, and I will still do a great job- but I will be more focused and won’t get distracted with ideas that I don’t intend to use anyway.

This is where your schedules and tasks are incredibly important. If you have small goals to achieve in smaller amounts of time, you will be much more aware of the magnitude of the whole project and will make better use of your time.

TIP: When you are given a longer deadline, don’t use this time to relax and slowly make progress. Instead, plan your time so that you have specific goals and make use of every extra moment. When used efficiently, this extra time will be a blessing rather than a distraction!

7. Stop multitasking

I love to multitask… however I’ll admit it is probably one of the biggest killers of my productivity.

I start my day with 10 things on my to do list… as I work through the day, I work on each task… all at once. By the end of the day, I look at my list, and I’ve achieved maybe one thing. The rest never passed the “research” stage or were never completed. Not because I wasn’t working, but because I lost so much time and effort switching between tasks and getting distracted. Sound familiar?

Multitasking is an easy way to justify procrastinating your more difficult tasks to work on other things, even if they are a lower priority. I’ll admit… I still do this too often! If you concentrate 100% on a task and don’t get distracted by your other tasks, you allow your mind to focus on the task at hand and will get the job done quicker and more effectively.

TIP: Stick to your daily schedule and avoid working on multiple tasks at once.

8. Minimize distractions

Some distractions can’t be avoided (like being pulled out of your work for a meeting) however there are some daily things that you can work around to stop them distracting you…

Emails – Definitely one of my big distractions. While some emails are urgent, most of them can wait. So instead of replying to every email as soon as it hits your inbox, set aside some time in your schedule each day that you can use to reply to emails. Rather than seeing each email as a separate item on your to do list, consider emails as a project of its own. This will allow you to give proper attention to each email, without getting distracted from your projects.

Ideas – Ideas can often come at the most inconvenient times… and usually when you are working on a difficult project that you would like to get away from. Instead of running with these ideas and getting distracted, write a quick note for yourself and file them away (I find it good to have a notepad specifically for this) so that you can look into those ideas later and free up your mind to focus on your current tasks. RESIST the urge to brainstorm ideas and start researching now… Keep working on your current tasks first!

Things out of your control – There’s no point wasting time thinking about things you have no control over- like waiting for phone calls from others or waiting for an email response. Rather than checking your emails or watching the phone, keep these items on a list separate to your to do list (like a “follow up” list) so that you aren’t focusing on them. Work on what you can without them, and when you hear back, you can add them to your list again.

The Internet – There’s so much creative inspiration, interesting articles and other things on the internet- if you plan to do some research or look up some information, be very careful to stay on task and not get distracted by other things you find along the way. Whenever I’m looking for creative inspiration, if I come across a cool poster or artwork that I love but that isn’t relevant for my current project, I bookmark it in a “check later” folder.

TIP: Make a note of the things that you spend a lot of time doing outside your to do list. Think about ways to cut back or allocate time for these tasks so that they don’t become a distraction.

9. Delegate tasks

Delegating tasks to others is an important part of working on a project. You can’t do everything yourself. If you’ve tried, you’ll know the feeling of being overwhelmed and overworked. Delegating is a great way to get others excited about your project and to build a strong team.

People won’t step up in their skills if they aren’t given a chance to. While someone may not be as creative or experienced as you are, you can’t do everything, so it’s great to give them a chance to step up and take responsibilty for elements of your project.The more opportunity you give them to take on projects, the more their skills will grow and the more you will be able to delegate to them in the future.

TIP: Tasks are not really delegated if you are still making every decision and showing them how to do it. Give others a chance to be creative and follow their own style. If you are spending more time teaching and leading them than doing the task yourself, you’ve missed the point.

10. The rest is up to you…

Ultimately, if you are committed to seeing your project come to pass and you are willing to put in the work, you will make it. As long as you implement the steps above, there’s no reason why you should miss your deadline or compromise on quality. If you’re not passionate about what you do, it’s going to take a lot more grunt to get it done. So I encourage you to get inspired and excited about the projects you are working on, and find some ways to make it new and fresh for you!

What are some other things that you’ve found help you to be productive? What are some things that you’ve found DON’T work for you? Please share!

Cadbury has created a chocolate version of its Google+ page to celebrate the 500,000 fans on its page.

The delicious replica was created using layers of Cadbury Dream and Dairy Milk chocolate poured over a base of Dairy Milk bars.

Edible inks were printed onto sugar paper to create the Page’s buttons and photos of fans, and were pasted onto the chocolate base using liquid Dairy Milk as glue.

I love this idea… Imagine the joy of whoever gets to eat this masterpiece!

You can read more at Mashable

Today’s challenge: Get inspired by this idea and think about some out-of-the-box creative ideas that you can use in your ministry.

I stumbled across an amazing offer recently…

Martin Print are offering 50 stickers with your design… Totally FREE. They will even pay delivery costs.

What’s the catch? There isn’t one. All they ask is that you are in business and that the sticker design is business related. Limited to one set of 50 free stickers per client per month (yes, you can even order another free set next month!!)

You can read more and accept this opportunity on their website. Look for “Free stickers” under the products list on the left of their page.

I’ve already got mine on order!

According to the creators, the pavilion “makes a connection between something grand and overwhelming (the church and its size) and something playful, simple and comprehensible (LEGO)”.

You can check out more photos and information about this creative idea at inhabitat and designtaxi.

Check them out below:

Just click on the images and you’ll be redirected to a website where you can download them for free!

I hope you enjoy them as I have.

STEP 1

First, open a blank illustrator file in RGB mode and write your text in the font of your choice. I’ve chosen Lobster  which you can download for free here. I’ve also changed the tracking (space between letters) to -15 in this example.

STEP 2

Select your text, then go to “Object – Expand” from the menu at the top and press OK on the pop up window. This will change your text into an object for our next step.

STEP 3

Using the pen tool or whatever you find easiest to use, draw some swirls connected to the letters. I’ve created mine using the pencil tool and drawing with my wacom tablet. You can see them in red below.
It is ok for the shapes to overlap the text or each other, as we will be combining them in the next step.

STEP 4

Select everything on your board (text and shapes) and make sure you expand any line work (like we did earlier with the text) so that you can see the outlines are selected on everything. In the pathfinder window, click on “add to shape area” and then “expand” so that all the objects become a single object.

STEP 5

Change the colour of your artwork to a medium grey and go to “Effect – 3D – Extrude and Bevel…”
Use the settings below:

STEP 6

Select everything and go to “Object – Expand Appearance.”

STEP 7

Ungroup everything by going to  “Object – Ungroup” so that you can select the main image and text separately to the 3D bevel you just created. Select all of the main image without the bevel and in the pathfinder window, click on “add to shape area” and then “expand.”

STEP 8

With the main image selected, go to “Object – Hide” so that you are left with just the 3D bevel visible (as you can see below). Select all and  in the pathfinder window, click on “add to shape area” and then “expand” (same as you did in step 7).

STEP 9

Go to “Object – Show All.” Select the main image and go to “Object – Arrange – Bring to Front.”

STEP 10

Create a new RGB document in Adobe Photoshop that is 1500 x 1000 pixels (I’ll be working in this size during the tutorial but you can use a different size if you need)

STEP 11

With both the Photoshop and Illustrator files open, drag the 2 objects from your Illustrator file into the Photoshop file separately and then line them up in Photoshop. This should mean that your bevel is on a separate layer to the main image. You can label your layers for reference. I labelled mine “Main” and “3D Bevel” in this example.

STEP 12

Right click one of the layers in the layer palette and select “Rasterize Layer.” Repeat for the other layer.

STEP 13

Select your main layer, go to “Layer – Layer Style – Gradient overlay”
Create a gradient from the colours #1c8bc4 and #22b0d9 and click OK.

STEP 14

Create a new layer and name it “gloss” and use the gradient fill tool to create a gradient from white (about half way up the document) to transparent (at the top of the document)

STEP 15

Right click on your main layer’s thumbnail and click “Select pixels.” Then go to “Select – Modify – Contract…” And contract by 2 pixels.

STEP 16

With this selection active, click on the “gloss” layer in the layer palette and click on the “add layer mask” button at the bottom of the layer palette. This will create a mask around the layer. Change the layer opacity to 35%.

STEP 17

Select the mask in the layers palette and use a black brush to mask out areas like the image below. Try to create a rounded edge on each segment of lettering.

STEP 18

Change the colour of your 3D bevel layer to a lighter grey by going to “Layer – Layer Style – Color Overlay…” I used #8f8f8f in this example.

STEP 19

Create a new group in the layers palette above the 3D bevel layer and label it “3D Shading.” Right click the thumbnail of the 3D bevel layer and click “select pixels” and then click “add layer mask” at the bottom of the layer palette (similar to step 16) to create a mask.

STEP 20

Create a new layer inside this group and name it “shadows 1.” Think about the direction of your light source and shade any areas in black that would be shadows using a small soft brush set to 80% opacity. Because your group is masked, this shading should automatically only affect the bevel layer and not your main text.

STEP 21

In the layer palette, change the layer blending mode to Overlay, 50% opacity

STEP 22

Create a new layer in the shading group and name it “highlights 1.” Make sure this layer is above the shadows layer. Shade any areas that would be visible in the light source with a small soft white brush at 50% opacity.

STEP 23

In the layer palette, change the layer blending mode to Overlay, 50% opacity

STEP 24

Create a new layer in the shading group and name it “shadows 2.” Use a small soft black brush at 100% opacity to shade more in the small areas that would receive no light at all- for example, the edges between the bottom of each letter.

STEP 25

Select your main layer and duplicate it by going to  “Layer – Duplicate layer.” Double click on “Effects” underneath it in the layers palette, and untick “Gradient Overlay.” Then click on “Inner Shadow” and input the following settings:

STEP 26

Change the Fill to 0% so that it only shows the effect and not the actual layer, then move the layer 1 px left by pressing the arrow keys.

STEP 27

Click on the thumbnail of your main layer to create a selection, then click on “add layer mask” at the bottom of the layer palette to mask your “main copy” layer.
Using the arrow keys, move the layer 1 px up and 2 px left and it should look similar to the second image below.

STEP 28

Place the “main copy” layer into a folder and name the folder “highlight.” Create a new layer mask (click on the layer mask button at the bottom of the layer palette) and use a soft black brush to mask out any areas that are not a top-left edge.

 STEP 29

create a new layer called “3D Colour” above the 3D bevel layer in your layer palette. Use the gradient tool to create a linear gradient using the colours #46b7db and #1f9acc from the top left corner to the bottom right corner.

STEP 30

Now we are going to mask this colour to just the 3D Bevel. To do this, right click on the thumbnail of your 3D Bevel layer and click “Select Pixels”, then right click on the thumbnail of your Main layer and click “Subtract Transparency Mask” (this will deselect the areas that cross over the main text)

STEP 31

With this selection, click on the “3D Colour” layer where you created the gradient and press the “add layer mask” button at the bottom of the layer palette.

STEP 32

If you would like to add a bit of extra colour to your text, create a new layer called “Gradient” above your main layer and change it’s blending mode to “hue” at the top of the layer palette.

STEP 33

Use the gradient tool to draw a gradient with the colours of your choice on this layer. I used the colours #c94df2, #1e93c9, #3fb5db, #1e93c9.

STEP 34

If you paint a colour in your background, you will notice that the gradient leaks over the text into the background too. So to remove this, right click the thumbnail of your main layer and click on “Select pixels”, then right click the thumbnail of the 3D Bevel  and click on “Add transparency mask”. Then use this selection to create a mask on your gradient layer.

STEP 35

now you can change the background to whatever you like without it being affected by your gradient. I’ve decided to just go with a black background, but you can get creative and do something totally different if you like.

STEP 36

Final touches… We’re going to add a small lens flare to enhance the shine of our text. To do this, create a new layer above all the other layers called “Lens flare” and fill it with black. Change the layer blending mode to “Screen”

STEP 37

Go to “Filter – Render – Lens Flare” and select “105mm Prime” with 65% brightness.

STEP 38

Move the lens flare layer so that the centre of the flare is on the top left edge of the text. For multiple flares, repeat these steps.

That’s it! All Done! Hopefully you found this tutorial useful. Please leave a comment with any questions you have!

Not only did can you find some great and handy ideas for Christmas gifts, but you can also submit your own ideas for new inventions, and the team at Quirky will take you through the process to evaluate, test, rate, design and eventually produce your product! It’s a great way to really promote those ideas that you may have for simple things that would make life a lot easier!

And if you’re not the inventive type, it’s got some good products worth looking at- here were some that I liked:

I just love when people create new methods to push ideas into reality- empowering the creative minds who would otherwise never be able to see their ideas come to fruition.

You can find out more about the site and get involved here.

So to help you out, here are fifteen of my personal favourite websites that I use frequently when designing new things!

1. iStockphoto

iStockphoto is probably the biggest and best collection of high quality photos, vectors, videos and more that you will find on the web. Because of the high standards in their quality control process, it’s rare to find anything average on istock. The resources on istock aren’t free, but for only a few dollars you are given a full commercial licence to use their images for your projects. If you need a photo and have a small budget to work with, istock is definitely the first place to look.

2. Shutterstock

Shutterstock is very similar to istock in what it has to offer. The biggest difference is that instead of purchasing images as you go, Shutterstock has subscription options, so you subscribe for a certain amount of time and you can download 25 images a day during that time. If you have a big project that requires lots of images, this works out much cheaper in the long run, however it’s probably not ideal if you only need one or two images at a time.

Both iStock and Shutterstock are also worth looking at if you are a photographer or artist and would like to make some extra money from your work by selling it to others to use. You can use these links to find out more about how to become a contributor: istockphoto and shutterstock

There are also other sites that are not as big as iStock and Shutterstock, but if you’re interested in selling photos in more than one place, I would recommend checking these out too:

3. Stock.xchng

Stock.xchng is the leading free stock photography site on the web. When you’ve got no money to spend, you can still find some great photos or illustrations here. They’re not always the best quality compared to paid sites and some of the photos have licensing restrictions, but there are a suprising number of great photos still available. Definitely a good starting point!

4. Video Copilot

If you are more involved in video production and media, I highly recommend checking out some of the fantastic tutorials and resources on Video Copilot. These are some of the best After Effects tutorials that I have ever seen- they are easy to follow and help you to create amazing videos! This website also offers some great paid resources and video/audio packs that can dramatically enhance the quality of your videos.

5. DaFont

DaFont is my favourite website to find free fonts for every project. They have hundreds of fonts sorted by theme or title, and they are all free to download and use on your computer. You can spend hours sometimes just looking through some of the great collections they have and downloading everything! I never bother to look at any other font sites anymore.

6. Digital Pigeon

Digital Pigeon is a useful site that allows you to send large files as emails. I use this all the time to send videos or projects to others for conferences or to get flyers printed. There are other similar sites available on the web, however I love Digital Pigeon because it allows you to send up to 2GB for free, you can send multiple files at once, you can change the expiry date on your files, it has a desktop app, and I really appreciate the little details such as the drag and drop from your desktop feature. All up, this is the best site I’ve seen when it comes to sending large files.

7. The 99 Percent

The 99 Percent is a great place to look for articles and tips to help you build your creativity and create an environment and patterns in your life to help you achieve your creative goals. Taking its name from Thomas Edison’s famous quote that “genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration,” this site has articles, tips, videos, and events to help you transform your ideas into reality.

8. Behance

From the same creators as the 99 percent, The Behance Network is a massive portfolio website where creative professionals showcase their work to the world.With a constant collection of some of the best creative projects from around the world, this is a site worth checking out. Whenever I’m short of ideas or need some extra inspiration, I love browsing through some of the artwork on this site and letting it inspire me.

9. Sermon Spice

Sermon Spice offers downloadable videos, illustrations, countdowns, backgrounds and more for you to use during your services. Because it is specifically created for churches, there are some great videos that you can use to build your message or help deliver a point to your audience. From animated or funny to dramatic or inspirational videos, you’ll find some great resources here. Most videos range from $10-15.

10. Zazzle

For anything and everything you would like to print for your minstry, Zazzle probably has it! They print on anything from skateboards to t-shirts to shoes! While they are not the cheapest printing option around, I love Zazzle because they allow you to print even just one item- so it’s great for prizes or gifts. You can either upload your own designs or buy something that has already been designed by someone else. Even more- when you design your own items, you can sell them in the Zazzle marketplace, without having to worry about the costs of printing before making a profit- they print everything as items are sold and you can choose the amount you would like to earn from your product.

11. Animation Factory

Animation Factory is a massive collection of videos and animated files that you can use in your media or on a website. The videos are fantastic for things like backgrounds for song lyrics- there is a huge variety and you can download unlimited videos and resources for a small annual fee (depending on which level membership you choose). We’ve used this on several video projects and I would definitely recommend it if you work with video.

12. Active Den

Active Den has some fantastic flash and web resources for a very low price. You can download flash files, templates, galleries, music players, animations, menus, preloaders, games and more from $1. This is a great resource for anyone building their own website or working on a flash or web project. Some very nice effects and resources that are already coded for you!

There are many other useful sites out there but these are just a few of my personal favourites that I use frequently. I would definitely recommend checking them all out and adding them to your bookmarks!

What are some of your favourite web resources?

So in this “Inspire Me!” section I want to share with you some of the pictures that I’ve found inspiring for my own designs.

In this first post, I’ve chosen the three things that I’ve recently been researching a lot for my designs… typography, illustration, and retro-style designs. Here are just a few of the many pictures that caught my eye while browsing the web… I hope they help inspire you as they have inspired me!

Firstly, typography is always an amazing way to make an impact in a design. Check out these:

Retro designs have come back into the spotlight in 2011! Here are a few I found cool:

These illustrations also kind of fit into the retro category… really wish I could draw like some of these!