![\"Beautiful](\"https:\/\/simonday.com\/web-design-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/simonday-copy1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nI saw a post about other people’s creative rituals for working and I thought I would share mine…<\/p>\n
As a freelancer I tend to not have set times to go to bed or to wake up. Quite a few of my clients live in other countries, in time zones well behind mine, so I need to be flexible with my hours. Under normal circumstances I go bed around 1am to 2am and wake up around 8am. What I try to do is stop going online after 11pm because it takes me a couple of hours to clear my head of all the computer code before I can go to sleep.<\/p>\n
These are my creative rituals…<\/p>\n
No matter how well I plan, I get urgent update requests quite often. For me there is no point having a set schedule until I’ve checked my email and social media for any overnight requests. As I’m getting out of bed I fire up the emails and social media tools. It’s after that that I start planning out my day.<\/p>\n
I tell all my clients that the worst possible time to email me for an update is a Friday afternoon because I have a school run, take the kids out then I’m out over the weekend with the kids. Even though they know not to email me on a Friday afternoon 70% of update requests come on a Friday afternoon. I try to keep early afternoons on a Friday clear, just in case.<\/p>\n
It usually takes me 30 minutes or so to do the above and now the coffee-fueled web designer starts to energise \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
I have several tools I use for social media to help make me creative and efficient. They help me with following, unfollowing, following back, scheduling and sourcing news-worthy posts to tweet about. This is an important part of my day and usually takes an hour or so.<\/p>\n
I often fire up the radio and I’ll be listening to either Capital radio or the Chill-Out station, depending on my mood.<\/p>\n
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I shouldn’t… but it’s Soooooo good \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
I will drink a can or two during the afternoon to keep that caffeine level topped up and keep the speed of coding from dropping \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
I am very lucky to live in a very beautiful place. When I need to clear my head I have a multitude of places I can go with views like this:<\/p>\n
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Nothing makes me more creative\u00a0than\u00a0views like that!<\/p>\n
This is perhaps the single most important creative semi-routine for me. I try to get out as often as I can because nothing clears my head more than being out fishing (All fish photographed and returned alive!).<\/p>\n
![\"Me](\"https:\/\/simonday.com\/web-design-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/1-me-fishing.jpg\")
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I like soft lightning. I have a red bulb and a red lampshade so in the evenings I have soft, warm lighting in my room.<\/p>\n