Whitespace is the area or areas of a page or document left blank or unmarked. It’s the space between all the other elements on the page. Whitespace makes the other elements more legible, easier to understand and comprehend. It also helps draw attention to the elements that are placed on the page.

Our days are often stuffed, cluttered, and chaotic. We end up feeling like we’re constantly switched on, constantly busy.

We need to give ourselves some ‘lifespace’, whitespace for our lives. Time in between everything to consider what we’re doing and where we’re going.

It doesn’t mean we have to stop doing the things we want to do. Maybe we just need to stretch everything out a little bit. Some extra time between items to give ourselves a chance to breathe, a chance to reflect on the parts of our day and enjoy them. Or if we didn’t enjoy something to take the time to understand why.

If you drive, creating lifespace could be as simple as not turning the radio on for a few minutes. That few minutes is enough time to reflect on whatever you were doing just before you got in the car.

Lifespace is for you looking at your own life. Lifespace is to bring balance to the life you live through your own eyes. It’s to bring more order, to make it more visible, more tidy, to separate the different elements.

Different designers use whitespace in different ways when designing a page.

You’re the designer of your life. Use lifespace in the way you choose to improve the life you live.

There are always trends. Design trends, business trends, what-to-wear trends, to name just a few.

Either be the trend or avoid it. Don’t travel the middle.

You’ve been working on that project and now it’s done. Time to start on the next one. But what should you start?

Easier than trying to figure it out now is having it figured out ahead of time. Keep a list, a Next List. That way you can start the next project right away without any momentum slipping away.

The Next List can be as simple as a list on paper.

A Next List is not a to do list and you shouldn’t treat it that way. It’s a list of potential projects to start next. Pick the one that looks most interesting. It’s your list.

You’re trying to work but it’s not happening. You’re distracted, not in the flow.

Just make a change.

Turn the music off. Turn the music on. Make it louder. Put headphones on. Take them off. Move seats. Move rooms. Move buildings.

Change something. It might allow you to get back in the flow.

No matter how busy you are give your mind time to calm down.

Put down your work for an hour or even a few minutes. Eat lunch away from your desk. Go for a walk. Sit on the couch and doze.

Give your mind time to run a little slower. It’ll be running at high speed again in thirty minutes.

But that bit of rest will do wonders.

Your words matter. Choose the wrong words and your meaning is lost.

Right now, in the US, there is a movement aiming to stop the indiscriminate killing of black people by the police. The name the movement is going by is Black Lives Matter. The cause is worthy. Who could object to stopping people from dying.

The name though, Black Lives Matter, is causing issues. There’s resistance to it. To some the name implies that other lives don’t matter. So there’s a completing hashtag or phrase, All Lives Matter. As a result there are people on social media explaining that Black Lives Matter doesn’t mean that only black lives matter. Explanations that make good points.

If you have to to explain your words you’re losing.

I’m fully for the Black Lives Matter movement and what it stands for – equality. It’s just disappointing that the message has been lost because of the words chosen to express it.

This isn’t the first idea that has fallen short because of the words. Global warming has had a similar misunderstanding. As had feminism. If the term used is meant to encompass a meaning slightly different than the term suggests there will be issues with understanding. There may even be more resistance to it.

Words matter. Choose yours wisely.

It’s the end of another week. You’ve worked hard. You’re energy is sapped. You need time to recover.

Take it. Take the time. Take the weekend. It could be the most important thing you do.

For the past several days I’ve been working on a project for a client. I’ve started the project and restarted it but, so far, I’m not happy with what I’ve put together. I get so far into it and realise that what I’ve done isn’t working. Restart again.

Almost like driving down a road and finding a massive boulder blocking your way. You need to get to the other side but can’t. You go back and start the journey again but because you take the same road you meet the boulder again. It’s too big to move.

There’s only one way to beat the block. You have to go around. Leave the car where it is and climb over, or walk around.

Right now, with my client project, I’m trying to find my way around the boulder. The best way past.

Boulders block our way in life often. We must learn to get around them. Take them in stride.

Freedom is something we think we have, though none of us is as free as we believe.

We are subject to influence from all around us. Influence from those looking for more for themselves. More of what? Anything they can get their hands on – money, power, the usual. Being influenced by others can cause us to be less free. It can cause us to work against our own best interests.

Lies and misinformation can influence. So too can the truth of course. But to be influenced against our best interests it is usually because we don’t have the real picture in front of us. It has been altered in some way, or something has been added or taken away.

All influence gives us a direction to follow. In our interests or not.

We expect that once we master something it will always be easier for us. Except it doesn’t work like that. No, usually we become rusty.

To maintain mastery, you’ve got to use the skills you’ve gained. Otherwise they rust from lack of use. No different than being fit enough to run a marathon and then spending six months without exercising. You’ve got to regain what you’ve lost.

Don’t expect to pick up where you left off. Expect to put in long hours to get back to where you were.