The skill

I’ll cut straight to it. One thing designers need to know that no one ever bloody mentions is ‘Self Awareness.’

Top teams rely on a combination of self-awareness and trust to run like a finely tuned machine. But how do you build these qualities?

“Self-awareness is our ability to observe and accurately identify our thoughts, feelings and impulses, and determine whether they are grounded in reality or not.” — Mark Manson

There’s not a chance in hell you can navigate all the roles you play as a designer without understanding yourself and knowing what makes you tick.

Without gaining a sense of your self-awareness, you’ll go bloody mad.

As a designer, you need to know how you work.

You need to understand why you do the things you do.

You need to experiment and tweak what you do, to make it better.

You need to reflect, then consider your position to stop getting in your head and going crazy.

“Self-awareness is one of the greatest skills any designer can master.”

20 honest questions you can ask yourself to improve your self-awareness.

As a designer, you need to look at what you’re doing, what you’re feeling and what your blind spots are? Here are a few questions to think about:

(Disclaimer: there are no magic bullets here, and I struggle with several of them ?)

1. What type of designer am I?
2. What type of designer am I not?
3. What kind of designer do I wish I was?
4. What part of the design process am I good at?
5. What am I not so good at?
6. What part of the design process bores me?
7. What part of my work stresses me out?
8. What part relaxes me?
9. What’s my definition of a successful design?
10. What is my definition of a successful designer?
11. How do I want others I work with to see me?
12. As a designer, what makes me happy?
13. What makes me sad?
14. As a designer, what pisses me off?
15. What thrills me?
16. What type of work colleague do I want to be?
17. As a designer, what scares me?
18. What do I value?
19. What do I need to learn and know more about?
20. As a designer, what messes with my head and throws me off?

“Self-awareness doesn’t stop you from making mistakes. It allows you to learn from them.”

A few strategies to work on your self-awareness

Look at yourself objectively and find your blind spots.

It’s tough to look at yourself objectively, but it’s worth a try. What you want to do is really dig into your decisions and criticise them. If you’re struggling to do this, find trusted workmates and hear their criticisms of you. This is not always easy to here but it’s very uesful.

Keep a Journal

I go on and off with journaling. When I get up, and the house is still asleep, I make a coffee, light a candle, write in my five-minute journal, and then read a book for a bit.

The journal covers three things you’re grateful for, three things that would make today great, and an affirmation. At the end of the day, I note three amazing things that happened today and how you can have made the day better.

This kind of journaling feels like some sort of meditation. You think about things in that moment and write what comes to mind. It allows you to be critical of yourself and thankful at the same time. It works.

Double Loop learning

Here you question every aspect of your thinking, including our biases and deeply rooted assumptions.

The idea is we challenge ourselves. Then we need to be brave and act on it. If this works, it can lead to new ways of thinking.

Hold weaker opinions. Have doubt.

When you’re speaking, stating that you could be wrong on something does a funny thing. It opens doubt, which puts your mind in a place of openness and curiosity. This doubt leads to more experimentation, more self-discovery and more tolerance.

Learn your bullshit patterns.

Mark Manson covers this well:

“When I get angry, I get argumentative and arrogant. When I get sad, I shut down and play a lot of video games. When I feel guilty, I word vomit my conscience all over people. What are your ticks? Where does your mind go when you feel sad? When you feel angry? Guilty? Anxious? Learn to spot your coping mechanisms because that will tip you off next time you’re distracting yourself from your feelings. I realized years ago that when I’m healthy and we do happy, I enjoy playing video games a few hours a week. But when I start binging on a game, staying up all night and skipping work, it’s almost always because I’m avoiding some problem in my life. This has become a huge cue for me to sit down and figure out what’s going on with myself.”

What are the problem patterns?

Notice the problem patterns. What behaviours lead you down the path of trouble. What are the themes were this happened before. When you see this happening, step back and re-access how you should be dealing with it. Chnage your tactics to dealing with it.

In conclusion

There’s no natural way of nailing ‘your self-awareness’ except to keep an eye on your self.

Honest and long-time work colleagues can be good barometers to let you know if you’re off track.

If you don’t have any of those, then tread carefully, be kind, bullshit less and be more open.

If we recognise our weaknesses, they stop being weaknesses.

“The more you become aware of your own emotions and your own desires, the more you discover something terrifying: you are full of shit.” — Mark Manson

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