Intro
I would love to levelup my english skills through daily writing. I'll read script of podcasts and then write down my YouTube video scripts, revise them and then practice speaking by making a fun and cool video!
So let's dive in 🏊♂️
Day 01 · Intro script 🚀
I love the mindset mentor podcast by Rob Dial. and I want to just practice very first second of each podcast in my first day, I'm super excited to do it!
"Welcome to today's video of the designer mindset channel. I'm your host Mohammad Sharifi. I you have not done yet, so hit the subscribe button, so that you neve miss another video. if you love this video, please do me a favor, all of you have to do, like and comment down bellew this video. the reason why is because the more likes and comments we get on this video, so YouTube show this video for people never watch it before which alow us to grow and make better video for you. if you do that I'll greatly apperetiate it. Today's topic..."
Day 02 · Come back to the Gym 💪
I have remote working for almost 4 years. It can be boring and exhausting when you get used to doing your work every day from home. until I decide to go to the gym...
Connecting with other people makes us feel good. When I was isolated at home, my connection was limited to my colleagues (remotely), a few friends outside, and most of my time at home. After months of procrastination, finally I went to the nearest gym. All of my hope was to connect with other places and people. It was great to find new cool friends there, plus it drops lots of dopamine in my body and I feel so sarzende and energetic in my work. I feel better about my body since I practice 4 days a week and almost for 2 months! Congrats to myself for this decision.
Day 03 · Spotify Learn 🎧
Imagine the Spotify app has a learning feature for language learners based on the lyrics and podcast transcripts.
I've used the Snipd app, totally love the AI features and I want to practice English with it, But haven't any learning features. I would like to add the learning feature to Spotify because it going to be much more fun if you learn through English music and podcasts. I can review words in the song or in the podcast in audio-based flashcards!
with AI it is possible to generate a cool image to visualize it in a fun way! Also, I can talk with the AR bot about the vocabs I would like to learn, fantastic one! 😁
Day 03 · Dopamine Detax ✨
All of us use social apps daily, we'll check them when there is no reason to check just we used to check them regularly. they shape us a habbit to use it without thinking. so it's neccsseary to stay away from them even for a one day a week, I do it in weekend, this called dopamine detax, I try to minimize my useage of internet, my iPhone and macbook. it help us to remove all of sams from our brain. I digital minimalist book, and it's hightly recommended. Remember to use you electronic devieces and apps intentionaly and with a goal in mind.
I try to have offline hours everyday for myself, to think and relect on my toughts. here is what I do in the offline hours:
- Read a book
- Pick a pen and paper and write down all of your thoughts non-stop
- Take a shower
- Clean up your desk and home
- Visualize the feature
- Write down your wishlist
- Walk out
- Do a workout
- Go to the Gym
- Take 3 deep breth
Day 04 · Trust God 😌
Today I learned to trust God. You may have small, tiny plans for yourselves but god has better greater plans for me and you! So don’t let stress and anxiety of what will happen in the future for me, if this going happen so oh my god, that’s gonna be bad for me. You make the hell inside your mind and you make it even worse by overthinking about features! Oh, my dear friend don’t do that with yourself, don’t kill yourself in your handmade hell 😁.
Stay relaxed and review your past you had amazing opportunities in your life all of them happened and you can’t find out why! Yes, it’s kind of a random event, but I tell you that’s god's plan because it’s better than yours so that may bother you. All of you have to trust god for his plan for you. If something does not happen right now, because god knows when and where this event should be occur to you ❤️🔥😉
Day 05 · Building a second brain
We are knowledge workers. we deal with lots of information every day it's vital to manage our personal information to be successful as a designer. recently I randomly found a YouTube video about how building a second brain him life organized and easier. I'm a huge fan of staying organized and being productive. Tiago Forte the author of "Building second brain" invented a system called CODE. It's similar to the double diamond (a design thinking framework):
Capture, what resonates with you,
Organize based on actionability,
Distil the information, tell it in your language, and finally
Express it, tell a new story to the world, share what you learned
It's basically a note-taking system that helps me stay organized I used Apple Note and then I switched to Obsidiab. It's a life changer idea, highly recommend it!
Day 06 · Building a second brain - Capture & Organize
Tonight I’d like to write about the details of building a second brain, a note taking system for organizing and managing personal information.
You basically capture 2-3 interesting ideas, which can be surprising, inspiring, or personal like journaling. On weekends or any time, you feel it’s time to organize your notes. In your note taking app you create folders with the PARA method:
- Projects: the most actionable
- Areas
- Resources
- Archive
List your 10-15 active projects, every project has a goal and a deadline. Otherwise, we call Area, like health, finance, parenting, etc. which is your area of responsibility. Anything that is useful for the feature goes to your resources folder. The last one is for archiving your inactive projects. Tomorrow I write about the other 2 stages.
Day 06 · Building a second brain - Distill & Express
After taking notes for your projects and organizing them with the PARA method. It’s time to distill them. Summarize and highlight what’s important. The author used a 4 layer metaphor:
- The soil: your scraped notes
- The oil: make bold what’s important
- The gold: highlight the bold text
- The gym: write down a summary based on highlights.
Finally, it’s time to use this information to tell your story, inspire others, and create value. What’s the point of knowing something, if you collect notes and nobody, even yourself can’t utilize it. So share your work and get feedback regularly. You can change lives by sharing yourself with others.
Day 07 · TIL: Problem Solving Tip
I just opened the Apple Podcast app and scrolled to find a random episode to listen to while I do my work. One of them caught my eye which was about problem-solving. Wow as a designer I am always curious about this kind of skill. He talked about lots of ways to become better problem solvers in our lives.
Here is my tip for TIL (today I learned...) 📝 write down your problem in 100 words. Then try to describe it in 400 and 900 words, and finally magic ✨ will happen. you solve your problem by yourself. This is the magic of problem clarification. Write more about your challenge eventually, you'll find the solution/s inside it! You can try to write down 900 words, but 900 is not a magic number write till you'll find the solution.
Day 08 · How I became a Developer then a Designer, part 1
I’ve been a designer since almost 4 years ago. But let's flashback to the past and see how my design adventure started 😁. When I was a kid I went to my cousin, he was a computer geek and kind of programmer. Always I have fun in their house most of the time by playing games like IGA, FIFA 2002, chickens, and more. As I grew up, I became more curious about computers, one day I explored random places on Earth and I was amazed about how and who made this, I know it’s from Google. He taught me web design and development with Dreamviewer 🙃
I started to have my blog. I tried to customize the blog template by self-learning HTML and then CSS. It was an amazing experience I enjoyed a lot. At that time it was very common to design ad banners. So I found it very interesting and I designed some banners for my blog and forum! Tomorrow I will talk about how university changed my life!
Day 09 · How I became a Developer then a Designer, part 2
In 2012 I went to university to study software engineering, l was full of amazing dreams for my future. But it was heartbreaking 💔 to see there are a lot of courses not related to software. I decided to keep focus on courses that are relevant. I found a great friend with the same mindset and we tried to learn web development in the summer of 2013. We’re super enthusiastic 🤩 to learn as fast as possible. I want to work on front-end development and he focused on the backend. I remember the first project we worked on was a clinic website. Then I fell a love with Bootstrap Framework 2,3, and 4 😂. Then we work on a forum website and after that, an e-commerce online shop. Full of energy we eat every article, book, and video course to absorb all that lovely stuff. I also learned to use Linux and Git from other cool guys. Also, we share what we’ve learned as self-thought persons with our classmates. It was a very exciting experience as a web designer teacher.
Day 10 · How I became a Developer then a Designer, part 3/3
In the last term of university, I went to a company to work as a front-end developer. It was a pretty cool experience I learned a lot. After 4 months I decided to come back and study for my master's exam. I did it after almost 4 months I earned a rank of 142 among thousands of people. That was a great success in my life because now I can go to Tehran (the capital of Iran) and have a place almost for free, and work and find connections. I started working with a company inside our university it wasn't good enough. Again my friend joined Sepidz as a developer and designer. day after day I realized that design was better for me then I smoothly switched to becoming a designer.
I picked interaction foundation courses to learn the fundamentals of UX design and design thinking. I learned a lot and really grew up with hard work. At the beginning of the pandemic I came back home with a master's degree and a great connection led me to my next job at the biggest software development company in Iran. with the designer manager, we started to work on a super huge design system for enterprise and complex CRMs. It was nice and challenging but it's time to go to the military for 2 years! Oh no, but I found a startup in the US and totally changed my life! I bought a new MacBook Pro and all the cool things. After the military, I came back to the system group and in their sub-company, cloud-based services. Abramad, as I work for almost 7 months there!
Day 11 · Remote work, good, bad, and ugly
Remote work looks appealing on social media and in YouTube videos. The images of lounging on the beach, enjoying a sunny day, making money, and sipping orange juice create an enticing narrative. However, the reality is different. Yes, I work from home and stay connected with my family, but after months, spending nearly 24 hours at home becomes frustrating and exhausting. I miss my passion for work, and on some days, I accomplish almost nothing.
When I chose this lifestyle, I knew I had to make changes to be happier and more productive. Here are the tips I'd like to share with you:
🚶🏻 Morning Walks: Every morning, I make it a point to go out for a 30-minute walk and buy fresh bread for breakfast.
⏲️ Pomodoro Technique: I've embraced the Pomodoro technique to stay focused at work. It's a game-changer, allowing me to take breaks for renewed energy during and after work.
📚 Establishing Habits: Creating daily habits has been key to feeling great at the start and end of my day. From staying hydrated to combining a "PodWalk" (listening to podcasts while walking) and reading non-fiction books.
💪 Gym Sessions: The gym has become more than just a place to work out; it's where I reconnect with school friends, fostering greater happiness and energy levels. You can read more about this in Day 02 (link 🔝).
☕ Virtual Coffee Time: I've recommended to my colleagues to incorporate casual time for discussions about everything except work.
I strive to make each day better and nurture the dream of someday working from the beach. ✨⛱️😁
Day 12 · Remote Roofing, a case study - part 1
Tonight I write about one of my favorite startup jobs. A cool company in the US. They want to combine AI and image processing to repair or replace roofs for clients with drone inspection. I created a design system for their brand and used it through a landing page, user dashboard, and marketing designs. The founders (Nathan and Sand) were satisfied with the outcome of my design. I had another chance to collaborate with them on another project in the future.
Day 13 · Remote Roofing, a case study - part 2
One of attractive aspect of being a designer at a start up is you have oppertunity to do a lot of cool things, From designing a business card to crafting a design system. I've a chance to design yard sign, business card, bruchure, Facebook add banner, campagin funnel, landing pages, inspection reports, slide decks and create a minimal design system including style guide and UI Kit to stay consistet accross all toch ponits. Also, I worked on another project, called SunRoof, roofs with solar panels. I designed a landing page and funnel to get leads.
Day 14 · Remote Roofing, a case study - part 3/3
I start my work from their funnel page. It was 5 steps question to ask about the customer's address, roof type, service type (repair or replace), and personal and contact information. When I designed the first version based on business requirements. I wonder how I can improve the process of getting information faster, so we can increase the conversion rate. I conduct a usability test with 5 users. I understand that they have challenges in providing their personal information. Why do they should provide us? so telling the reason was a pretty good solution for it. After updating the visual design I try another round of usability testing. which the result was pretty good. 25% improvement in the task completion. It was a huge success for business and me. I learned a lot through this journey.
Day 15 · Helpping people
I'd love to help people as much as possible. It's a great feel to share your knowledge and turn on a light in a head of person. I deeply empathy with people who need my help, in other words I put my foot self in other's shoes and walk with it. I feel like I help myself not some one else. I put all of my attention and focus to deliver the best solution. It's a great way to learn more deeply for myself. I'd love to create a platform for swapping skills. Meet new friends and share knowledge always is fantastic experience. I'd like to expand my experience while I activly listen to other awesome people around the world with different ideas.
TODO
- use images
- write a blog post the favourite one!
- topics
- Today I learned...
- what I were did as a front developer
- what I want to learn in the next 6 monthes
- what is my favorite country in the world, why?
- what's my favoirite movie and why?
- how I boost my enegy in middle of work day?
- how to work remote and stay enegized :D
