Saturday is my cleaning day. I've recently started expanding the cleaning concept to my digital and management clutter. So it's a day for tying loose ends. Sort, toss, tidy. Finish and archive.

This week has been about initiating the setup for our intern as well as developing and finishing a handfull of print jobs, a few still pending, needing to get done before monday morning. Work seems to come in waves.

I've agreed to read and correct spelling and markup mistakes in a client's blog, possibly providing him with graphics (already did the creative part of that). The task could be postponed, but it's better to do it ahead to take out stress of dealing with eventual failures and mistakes. It's never fun to do that last minute before - or even after the newsletter is sent out. Visit the blog Vejviseren at Byvandring.nu this Monday at noon (it's in Danish).

I'll start a new habit of backing up and updating my computer on Saturdays today. We use git for version control of our web sites, and I've started using it for my design documents, but lacked the habit tied to using it in that area of my work, so the archive is not up to date, and frankly, it's a mess, tying my effectiveness down when searching for reference files for new jobs for the same client.

If I can squeeze it in, it would be nice to spend some time in the garden, it needs tending. But it's probably better to postpone that for tomorrow or use those tasks for a productive break from screen time. Compost, strawberry plants and the usual removal of a hundred out of thousands of small trees.

Touching issues

Following a conversation with Jonas about it, pointing towards CouchDesign, here are some of the subjects I've been touching with my client work this week, each somehow related to our pending's list:

• layered pdf with pdf inclusion
• color management (for press and for print)
• bar code generation
• process documentation
• archive structure
• key signing (using caff)
• design management
• licensing
• slippy maps
• scss
• vector drawing optimization
• documenting work, tracking

Demerits

I sent an advent calendar to the printers' shop without the date numbers. I somehow tied the design of that part to the producer, subconsciously presuming they came with the diecut drawing. I never even gave it a thought, and was reminded by the client asking.

I struggled more, however, with dealing with a reported color failure on another job. It's been a while since I've had issues with that, and it took me by surprise. It was an office printer job. Jonas had yet another long read to deepen his already rather extensive knowledge on color management and to brush up on what to take into consideration. I've successfully taken care of it from his hints, and now I/we are going to document what I did.

Documenting manifesto of today

Documenting a routine is not the same as improving it, even if it needs it. Confronted with an unfinished or dormant project, issue or bug, it is not the right time to deal with it. Simply document it.