As an avid consumer of mental health and meta-learning resources, I love a good mental model to help me organise the multitudes under my skull. I thought to share with you this tiny guide I’ve made for myself, mostly, but hope it will help you, too.

By the way, interleaving is a – very difficult for me – practice of alternating tasks for greater insight and enhanced productivity. Please let me know if you’d like to learn more and I will be happy to talk your ear off!

1. Parkinson’s Law (Work Expands to Fill the Time Available)

Application: Set strict time constraints for both design and development tasks.

Strategies:

• Timebox design sprints (e.g., 2 hours for wireframes, 1 hour for color palettes).
• Limit development iterations (e.g., MVP in one week).
• Use the Pomodoro Technique to ensure focused bursts of work.

2. The Crappy First Draft Principle (Get It Done First, Improve Later)

Application: Prioritize rapid prototyping over perfection in both design and development.

Strategies:

• Create quick, low-fidelity wireframes before refining designs.
• Develop a rough version of the website using placeholder content and refine it progressively.
• Expect bugs and imperfections in initial coding—fix later.

3. Nothing New Under the Sun (Leverage Existing Solutions)

Application: Avoid reinventing the wheel in both design and development.

Strategies:

• Use UI frameworks (e.g., Tailwind) instead of designing every element from scratch.
• Rely on proven website structures and layouts instead of over-customizing.
• Reuse components across different projects to speed up development.

4. The Growth Mindset (Continuous Improvement and Learning)

Application: Accept that mastery in web design and development is a process.

Strategies:

• Treat every project as a learning opportunity—analyze past mistakes and refine processes.
• Seek feedback from clients, developers, and designers.
• Keep up with industry trends but avoid chasing every new tool.

5. The Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule – Focus on High-Impact Work)

Application: Identify the 20% of tasks that bring 80% of results.

Strategies:

• Focus on essential features first before adding refinements.
• Optimize the most visible design elements instead of obsessing over minor details.
• Automate repetitive tasks (e.g., use design systems, CSS frameworks, and prebuilt components).

6. The Circle of Competence (Know Your Strengths and Delegate)

Application: Work within your strengths and delegate tasks outside of your expertise.

Strategies:

• Maybe outsource complex backend development.
• Use templates for aesthetic refinement.
• Stay aware of your limitations—don’t waste time struggling with Photoshop.

7. First Principles Thinking (Break Down Problems to Core Elements)

Application: Approach challenges logically rather than following assumptions.

Strategies:

• Instead of copying popular designs, ask, “What does this website need to accomplish?”
• Break complex problems into fundamental elements (e.g., “What is the simplest way to achieve this functionality?”).
• Develop workflows based on logical sequencing instead of industry norms.

8. Occam’s Razor (Simplest Solution is Usually Best)

Application: Avoid overcomplicating designs and development.

Strategies:

• Keep UI minimal and intuitive—remove unnecessary elements.
• Use clean, maintainable code rather than complex solutions.
• Prioritize user experience over flashy but impractical design elements.

9. The Law of Diminishing Returns (More Effort ≠ More Results)

Application: Recognize when further refinement stops adding real value.

Strategies:

• Set a threshold for design revisions—avoid endless tweaking.
• Optimize performance up to a point but don’t over-engineer.
• Know when to launch a website rather than endlessly improving it.