You open Figma. Drag a few rectangles.
Stare at the screen.
Hate everything.
Delete. Start again.
Still hate it.
Welcome to design paralysis, where nothing looks good and you spiral.
Here’s how to break through it
1. Stop designing. Start dumping.
Just go ahead and dump “ugly ideas” on the canvas.
Bad designs birth better ones
2. Steal with shame
Go look at 2–3 designs you admire.
Steal the structure. The layout. The energy.
Make it yours later but start with a remix.
3. Switch tools or medium
Can’t design on screen?
Sketch on paper.
Whiteboard it.
Use sticky notes.
Changing how you work can restart your brain.
4. Give yourself ugly time
Say: “I’m allowed to make bad designs for 30 minutes.”
No deleting. Just mess.
Sometimes you need to crawl through chaos to find clarity.
5. Change your state, not your screen
Walk. Stretch. Take a shower. Eat a snack
The answer often comes when you’re not looking.
Don’t force it.
6. Ask for fresh eyes
Send your messy draft to a friend:
“Be honest. Does this feel off to you too?”
Even a “nah this is fine” can break your brain-loop.
7. Zoom out
What are you trying to solve?
Maybe you’re obsessing over UI when the UX is unclear.
Reconnect with the problem.
Have you ever been in this situation? How did you get out of it
@desgnwitkinsley Many hyper ventilations later... I'm sharing my imperfect design.
Cheers to not having this piece only in my draft 🥂
@desgnwitkinsley
- A single screen for a mobile app for event ticketing + vendor sourcing.
Portfolio: https://t.co/xlRrVoYtQH
Linkedin: https://t.co/29BTUXonEe
You think you love someone, until it’s time to clean up their vomit, help bathe them when they’re sick, and hold them at 2 a.m. while they’re losing their mind and crying their eyes out. You think you love someone, until you’re three months deep into their depressive episode, and they refuse to eat, wake up, shower, be productive, have no sexual appetite, and can’t even show love. You think you love someone, until their “unattractive” side shows up in the early morning hours, the setbacks, the loss of self, the distress, the hopelessness.
You think you love someone? Wait until you’ve seen them at their worst. Right now, you love the rainbow but true love shows up when the skies turn gray.
You’ve been working since morning, straining your back and making your spine wonder why it ended up in the body of a designer.
You decide to take a quick two-minute break to check what’s happening on X. You know, scroll through a few hot takes and ease a little tension.
You’ve curated your Twitter timeline to show mostly design content, your X account is literally “Twitter for UI/UX designers.”
As you scroll, you see a design that catches your eye, it’s amazing. The second one? Stunning.
By the third design, your jaw drops. The right fonts, the best choices in images, layers blurring exactly where they should.
You wonder, How did they do this? How is it so perfect?
Your break is over, and you’re back to your own designs, but now, you’re seeing them differently. You can’t shake off the images you just saw on X. Suddenly, you think, Rubbish. My work is rubbish.
You want to delete everything. The thought creeps in: I’m not good enough. I’ll never measure up to them. Your dopamine crashes, and motivation starts slipping away.
But here’s what you can’t see in this moment: those designers didn’t get there overnight.
Fun fact: If water keeps dropping on a rock for years, it eventually carves the stone.
Your designs might not be perfect yet, but every effort you make is like a drop of water hitting that rock. Consistency is what shapes greatness.
So instead of doubting yourself, study what they did right, learn from it, and keep it moving.
That’s the only way to eventually leave your name etched on the pixelated sands of design.
payment app idea: "pap"
an app that carries out transactions only after a customizable period of time, giving you a chance to rethink impulsive decisions
mistakenly ordered beef shawarma with double sausage when there is rice at home?
pap has got you covered 🙂↔️