Tips from Idea15 Web Design

This past working week was one of those odd weeks where I was in “hurry up and wait” mode: everything I had to do depended on other people giving me inputs and feedback.  This left me with lots of energy but nowhere to direct it, and the knowledge that when those inputs and feedback did come in, I would be glued to my chair until blood clots appeared in my legs.

I decided to create a fallback for these “hurry up and wait” times by creating a setup that would allow me to get a leg up on future work.   I found this useful post:

http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/06/installing-wordpress-locally-under.html

and within minutes, I had WP set up on my C drive.  This trick is letting me refine the CSS and design for three sites I’m working on for clients whose content and hosting are not ready yet.  I simply switch themes to switch client projects.  When their content does come in and we are ready to set up WP on their domains, it will simply be a matter of dragging a few folders to the server spaces.

For one project which requires some complicated tweaking of a plugin, I’m also able to practice the setup and refine it before we go live.

And if (as will certainly happen) all of my clients exit “hurry up and wait” mode on the same day, the infrastructure for each project will be in place already.  Time normally spent in the basic design and setup will be replaced by content stocking, SEO, and widget fun.

For other web designers, how do you fill your “down time”?