The one thing you must do

As designers, we’re usually the last ones on our priority list. We’re typically so busy that we neglect our own sites.

I know it takes time and you have a million ideas, but at the end of the day, your site is your calling card.

Until recently, my own site was a shoddy representation of my current work. A potential opportunity to book an amazing project made me stand up and give my site some much needed attention.

I had neglected my site for well over 2 years, and it was definitely showing its age. How could I be recommending responsive, clean design when I wasn’t even showing that on my own site?

You have to budget time every week (or at least every month) to update your site. Check for bugs and errors, update your portfolio with your latest projects and write new blog posts.

I keep a running list of tasks in my evernote account to keep track of ideas and tweaks I want to make to my own site. I know other designers who book themselves as a project in Basecamp so they can assign milestones to their personal projects.

Even if you’re booked solid, you need to maintain the ship and upgrade your site. You can use a clean, simple theme to expedite the process – but get it together, show your best work and keep it updated!

You just never know what opportunity you might miss out on by looking out of date.

When was the last time you updated your own site?