3 Ways to Increase Work Efficiency

As a freelance designer, you know that having to juggle a wide range of projects can take a lot of your time. Dealing with everything from simple one-offs that span a few days to complex requests that can take months is made all the more difficult because you have to assume multiple roles: project manager, accountant, and salesperson, just to name a few.

That’s why saving bits of time in your existing workflows can help you in the long run, possibly leading to more work and fewer headaches. Consider the following three ideas from iStock:

1. Work Within Applications

What’s more frustrating than being deep in design mode, and having to shift focus to another task? The simple act of having to switch from designing—in an Adobe InDesign layout, for example—to search for images on your browser, can seriously disrupt your creative flow.

Plugins that work within your design tools will allow you to integrate a once-separate task into your design process. For example, the Adobe® Creative Cloud® Plugin lets you easily add video, photos, and vectors from iStock without leaving your favorite Creative Cloud® programs: Adobe® Illustrator®, InDesign®, Photoshop®, Premiere Pro®, and After Effects®.

If you’re more of a Sketch-based designer, the Craft Stock plugin by InVision and Getty Images also lets you easily search, comp, and download any iStock image on the fly — all within the Sketch app itself.

You can even make cloud-based file-sharing more efficient by linking your Dropbox account to iStock. When everything is automatically organized, you can go from finding the perfect image to sharing your files in just a few clicks.

2. Search Smarter

Finding the right image or video is a critical component of many design projects. And they’re sometimes difficult to find. Taking advantage of search tools will help you get to the ideal visual asset quicker.

3. Use Boards to Gather Feedback Effectively

All designers know how time-consuming finding the right images can be. Imagine finding the ideal image only to discover your client doesn’t like it for reasons unknown to you.

Using a tool like Boards on iStock can help you avoid this scenario.

By sharing a collection of images that you believe reflects the project’s requirements, you can collect comments in real-time—and not only on specific images but on the overall direction of the collection itself. Gathering feedback like this can be an enormous time-saver by keeping comments and feedback organized within the boards, each of which can be used for anything from general inspiration to specific subjects.

Working as a freelance designer presents unique challenges for time management. Finding smart ways to save time using tips, like the three above, can help you get back the time you need.

Save budget as well as time. All users can save 10% on credit packs at iStock until June 30^th, 2019. Just apply code ISTOCK10 at checkout.