Getting in the Groove
One important part of being a freelance designer that works out of their home is managing and maintaining workflow.
It is a common misconception that people that work from home can generally work whenever they like. While this may stand true for some freelance designers, I know that this cannot be the case with myself. I wanted to share some of the tips and tricks that I follow in order to keep a healthy work habit.
Maintain a Schedule
I believe it is extremely important to follow a structured schedule. Plan out your week and follow your plan as closely as possible. Being a freelancer has some speed bumps, but when you have a solid schedule to go by, the damage caused by them will be minimal. This also means that when it is time to work, then it is time to work. Make sure that your workplace is clear of distractions that you will find at your home.
Stay Organized
Keeping organized is extremely important. Clearly mark your folders and files — and keep them in the same place for each project. The easiest way to do this is by creating a folder called “Blank Project” or something along that line. Structure this folder how you want your projects to be laid out, and fill it with the ‘ready to go’ files that you will be using (such as a blank wordpress theme). Now, when you’re ready to begin another project, you can simply copy, paste, and rename the folder to what your new project is, and you’re ready to go!
Happy freelancing!
Forcing a Scrollbar
It finally happened, I actually had to write some code that involved forcing a scroll to certain web browsers.
You might be wondering what the big deal is. Well, as a perfectionist of sorts this “error” drives me absolutely crazy. Take this site for example. The main content is centered, but not to your screen or even the entire width of the browser. It is actually centered to the viewable area of the browser. Meaning if there was a scroll bar on one page but not another, you would see a shift of content when changing from those pages. Not a big deal, I know, but still a ‘deal’ in my book.
Anyways, most of the websites that I make have plenty of content to always have a scroll bar, or a fluid height to a point in which one isn’t needed at all.
So what’s the fix that I used? I just set the html and body CSS elements to 100% height with a bottom margin of 1px.