Technically speaking, I’m a Showit web designer. But, a day in the life of a web designer looks a little different for all – mainly, it varies based on your client load, your business focus, your personal life (like having kids), and how you organize your schedule.
For me, a typical day could include client calls, personal brand marketing, website design, or even working on a website’s SEO. While I tend to dedicate days to certain tasks – like trying to keep client calls to Mondays and Tuesdays – many of my days cover multiple aspects of how my business functions.
Why is a web designer’s day so varied? Because most web designers, particularly independent web developers, tend to handle all aspects of their business rather than having a full team to support them. While I do outsource some of my tasks and marketing in addition to collaborating with other business owners for client work, most of my business is managed and handled by me.
Since you’re curious, we’re going to break down what a day in the life of web designer could look like – including what happens on the “bad days” when I deal with unexpected issues, like website malfunctions or my kids have a sick day.
What Does a Day in the Life of a Showit Web Designer Look Like?
As I mentioned before, while I do have some team members, I handle most of the work and marketing myself. That’s why there are a few tasks that I do on a daily basis – such as social media marketing, checking my website performance, combing through my email inbox, and checking up on client communications in my project management system.
Otherwise, my daily schedule tends to vary. Depending on my current client workload, I may design more often or focus on reaching out and connecting with potential clients. Occasionally, I work on developing new skills to better assist my clients such as expanding my UX design, Adobe Photoshop, and other technical skills.
Here’s how a day might go as a website designer depending on where my business is at the moment:
A Day Dedicated to Design
As is the life of a web designer, there are days I spend wholly dedicated to designing. While I do offer this as a service, it could also mean that I’m inspired to create that day and spend the time working on my client’s work. A day designing could be spent creating mood boards, analyzing color theory, playing around with the visual design, or building out a full brand or website.
When the primary web design is complete, I’ll spend time exploring their new website to ensure that it is an optimized user experience design. I want to make sure that there are no technical issues or errors before sending the site to clients for approval. This is one of the most important and time-consuming aspects of web design.
When I Focus on Personal Marketing
A personal marketing day, or CEO day, is when I focus on my personal websites. If I plan to blog, this is the day that I write the blog post and plan the corresponding content for my email and social media.
CEO days are when I perform self-audits on my performance, plan launches, and do most of my lead outreach and generation. I don’t like to focus on project work these days unless it’s at the end of the project and there are still a few tasks that need to be completed.
A CEO day can take the place of a client call day if I don’t have any scheduled, or it can take place on a Friday – when I spend the first half of the day working and the second half with my kids having “fun Friday.”
Days of Client Calls & Onboarding
Client calls are typically restricted to Mondays and Tuesdays. This allows me to ensure that I have that time pre-blocked and will know to stay home – rather than schedule appointments for the kids and me, plan a client launch, and other time-sensitive things. When I have back-to-back client calls on these days, it allows me to focus without stressing about the project work I currently have.
While I don’t always have client calls, having the time set aside never hurts. These days can turn into CEO days, and, if I’m already ahead on my personal marketing, allow me to get ahead on client work or do additional research to better serve my clients.
How to Handle the Unexpected
Although my days as a web designer tend to follow some type of schedule, unexpected things DO happen – and it’s my job to handle them. As a web designer, out-of-control technical issues can happen with web servers, websites, and the design programs I use. During those times, I do what I can. I try to set aside the time to assist my clients and provide information (or reach out) to the technical team that needs contacting.
There are days when team members get sick or have to take time off for health, mental, or personal reasons – which means my schedule gets changed. I work in the new tasks, whether that’s on a CEO day or design day, to stay organized. Depending on the week, it’ll change my work hours and I’ll stay up late or wake up early to accomplish my workload.
Do I Have Break Times as a Freelance Web Designer?
Yes, while I didn’t mention it above, I do give myself break times. I actually have set work hours that I do my best to stick to. For the most part, I have morning breaks, lunch breaks, afternoon breaks, and “brain breaks” around the same time each day. But, one of the benefits of being a freelancer and owning my own business is that I can take breaks when I need to.
If I’m not quite hungry, I’ll push off lunch. If I’m hungry, I move lunch up. If I’m becoming overwhelmed or feel that I’m worn out by the days work, I’ll take a break. I get to make the decisions based on what I feel is best for myself on that day – and like all people, I have good days and bad days.
My Top Recommendations for Organizing Your Day as a Business Owner
You may or may not be a designer, but that doesn’t mean you organize your day – or days – as a business owner. Keeping our days organized allows you to keep your day, week, and month functional. And, depending on your work style, you can create a system or schedule that works for you!
I’ve been a web designer for 10+ years, meaning I’ve had some time to work out what works best for me. You don’t have to mimic my schedule to find success, but there are a few things that I’ve found that helped me:
- Sort your tasks. Based on your offers, clients, and personal business work, sort the tasks that need to be completed. If you can, start tracking your time to determine how much of your days will need to be dedicated to this task.
- Outsource if needed. Is blogging some you feel is something that needs to be done for your business, but you’re spending an entire day on one blog post? Look at your finances and consider outsourcing. How much time would you save – and be able to spend attracting new clients – if you didn’t have to manage this task?
- Be flexible. Life happens and it’s important to remember that you can be flexible with your schedule without losing your schedule. Holidays are going to be hectic, vacations are going to be needed, it’s apart of being a business owner.
- Optimize your backend. This is a little bit of a self-audit. Check your onboarding processes, your marketing strategies and schedulers, and even if your website is functioning properly – ensuring that your business is in a good place will allow you to focus on what you’re good at, like attracting and working with your dream clients.
- Allow yourself breaks. Try and keep traditional breaks, like lunch and breakfast, the same everyday. This goes the same if you need an afternoon break or a morning break – allow yourself these breaks to recoup. Many online business owners chose this path for the freedom, and just because you’re finding a “schedule” doesn’t mean you have to let go of the freedom.
Has Maintaining a Routine Helped My Results?
Rather than simply improving my results, it’s benefited my client experience. My client’s know when and where they can contact me and receive a response, my branding is consistent across platforms to showcase who they’re working with, and I’m able to dedicate time to learning more about what and how to help my clients achieve their goals.
I love that I’m able to do what I love daily – designing websites for amazing brands and entrepreneurs. If you’re ready to get started with your website redesign, connect with Âme Creatives today.
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