It’s tough to hear that to improve you need to make stuff. If your like me you probably are constantly questioning what to make. Should I be doing apps, websites or dashboards. Should it have meaning or just be something that visually looks good? The options are so vast that it’s overwhelming to pick one thing. I feel like I’d rather have a full product to think through, why is it being made this way, who is it helping, is this the best way to make this? The answer is more about what your trying to achieve.

Improving your visual: UI, etc

If your trying to beef up your visual chops, then the thought behind the design will hold you back from purely making things. It’s tough but you’ll need to shut that off (or tone it down) and just make something. Search Dribbble, Instagram, or a round up site and copy some of the designs you may find there. Get a feel for trying out the techniques, replicating the looks, and working on growing your design sense.

Improving your technical/product design

If your trying to work on your product design skills, then it’s a balance of design and working out the behind the scenes reasons. A good mix of wireframes and such will help illustrate your ideation path and reasoning. There is some stuff that can be found on Dribbble and maybe some round up site. This is more about how your reach a conclusion and how you think the problem should be solved.

Improving your coding or learning something new

If your learning or improving your coding, find a few tutorials online and follow them. Then pick something to make, it can be anything an (AI powered color generator)[http://khroma.co/], a (site)[https://t.co/wTanUwhoJc] to figure out which array function to use, or (creating things for fun)[https://camiah.com/sends/]. Just come up with something to work towards and keep at it. It may take awhile, you may need to take a break and come back later.

In the end, there is no shortcut.

There is no magic balance of online popularity that will make your better. Just a lot of hard work and constant creation. That creation doesn’t have to be everyday though. Try and make a schedule and stick to that. Start out simple with a once or twice a month and see how it goes. Don’t push yourself so hard that you start to burn out. This is supposed to be fun and an improvement. Not an arduous tedious task. If you force yourself to create, it will make it so much harder to generate ideas.