After I finish a book, I love thinking about how its ideas might fit into my own life. Recently, I thought it would be interesting to see how lessons from some of my favorite books could connect to design and design leadership.
If this turns out to be fun, I might turn it into a series. If you have any book suggestions for future posts, I’d love to hear them in the comments.
One of my all-time favorites is Stephen R. Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” I last read this book back in 2024, but its practical principles are still on my mind most days.
For those who might not have read it yet, the seven habits are:
Be proactive. You have to take responsibility for your life and your choices. Focus on what you can control, not what you can’t.
Begin with the end in mind. Start with a clear vision of your destination.
Put first things first. Prioritize tasks based on importance, not urgency.
Think win-win. Seek mutually beneficial solutions in all interactions.
Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Listen with the intention of understanding, not just to respond.
Synergize. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Sharpen the saw. Continually renew yourself physically, mentally, spiritually, and socially.
So, what does this mean for us designers?
The world of design can feel chaotic. You’re constantly juggling deadlines, navigating feedback, and trying to keep up with the latest trends. It’s easy to feel like you’re constantly reacting.
What if you could take back control? What if you could go from being reactive to proactive, from simply doing the work to designing your own career?
If we take the right perspective, we can translate these principles into a roadmap for growth, a guide to becoming a designer who doesn’t just make things, but who makes a meaningful impact.
1. Be proactive
In the design world, it’s easy to fall into the “reactive” trap. You get a Jira ticket, a Slack message, or an urgent email, and you just get to work. You’re a human Figma file, waiting for someone to drop a request on your canvas.
The most effective designers don’t just wait for problems to appear. They go looking for them. They know there’s a big difference between being proactive and being reactive.
Being proactive means taking ownership of your work and focusing on what Covey refers to as the “circle of influence” rather than getting bogged down by your “circle of concern.” Your circle of concern is everything you can’t control: a corporate reorganization, the shifting job market, or political drama between teams. It’s a whirlpool of things that suck up your energy but don’t move the needle.
Your circle of influence, however, is where the real magic happens. It’s everything you can control. This includes your ability to ask better questions in a kickoff meeting, to influence your team’s roadmap with thoughtful insights, or to identify a user pain point before anyone else does.
This is the shift from just drawing rectangles to making real progress. It’s the difference between being a human ticket-taker and being a true problem-solver. It’s about owning your decisions, your growth, and your impact.
2. Begin with the end in mind
This habit is all about intention. As Covey says, “All things are created twice. There’s a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation to all things.”
For us designers, this principle is the difference between simply doing and truly designing. It’s the moment you step back from the wireframes and prototypes and ask: “What does success look like for this project? What is the ideal outcome we are trying to create?”
Think of it as a journey. Before you pack your bags, you need to know your destination. Is your goal to drive more sign-ups, reduce support tickets, or create a more accessible user experience? Without a clear goal, you might end up somewhere that looks good but doesn’t really help anyone.
Beginning with the end in mind means defining your destination before you start sketching. It’s about asking tough questions and making sure your team and stakeholders are on the same page. This shared vision is what helps you get through challenges when they come up.
3. Put first things first
This habit is about one thing: discipline. It’s the art of prioritizing your work based on importance, not just urgency.
Think about your average day. Maybe it’s a flurry of Slack messages, last-minute requests, and meetings that should’ve been emails. It’s easy to get caught in the trap of working on whatever is screaming the loudest, leaving little time for the high-impact, strategic work that actually moves the needle.
In his book, Stephen Covey introduced his time management matrix (similar to the Eisenhower Matrix). It’s a simple tool to help you put things in their place. This matrix helps you sort your tasks into four quadrants:
Urgent + Important (fire drills)
Urgent + Not Important (interruptions and distractions)
Not Urgent + Important (long-term strategy, research, and self-improvement)
Not Urgent + Not Important (time-wasters)
For designers, this means getting out of the “Urgent + Not Important” trap and spending more time on what’s “Important + Not Urgent.” This is where you do the deep work that shapes a product’s future, like user research, documenting a design system, or mentoring a junior designer.
When you focus on what’s truly important, you stop just managing a to-do list and start building a meaningful career. You become proactive instead of just reacting to whatever comes your way.
4. Think win-win
Collaboration is the lifeblood of any design project. But too often, it can feel like a tug-of-war. The engineer wants the solution to be simpler, the product manager wants it faster, and the designer wants to do what’s best for the user. It can feel like someone has to lose for someone else to win.
But what if everyone could win?
This habit is about looking for a third option — a solution that’s better than either of the first two ideas. It’s not just about compromise, but about working together to create something new and better.
For a designer, this applies to every interaction you have. When an engineer pushes back on a complex interaction, don’t just compromise by simplifying it. Instead, engage them to find a solution that still meets the user’s needs while being easier to build. When a product manager requests a feature that feels off-brand, don’t just say no. Work with them to explore an option that achieves their business goal and upholds the design integrity.
A win-win mindset turns conflicts into chances to be creative. You start seeing your teammates as partners, not opponents, and work together to build something great.
5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood
This habit is arguably the most fundamental principle for any designer. It’s the difference between hearing and truly listening. The natural human tendency is to listen with the intent to reply. You’re so busy formulating your next thought that you miss the core of what the other person is saying.
Effective designers do the opposite. They listen with the genuine intent to understand. They practice what’s known as “empathetic listening,” which means stepping into another person’s shoes to see the world from their perspective.
This is the very essence of user research. When you’re in a user interview, the goal isn’t to sell your design; it’s to understand their pain points, their motivations, and their mental models. It’s about being a detective, not a salesperson.
But this habit isn’t just for user interviews. It’s for every collaboration you have. When an engineer tells you why a feature is difficult to build, don’t immediately defend your design. First, seek to understand their constraints. When a product manager brings up a new idea, understand their rationale and their goals before you start poking holes in it.
By truly understanding others first, you build the trust and rapport needed for them to listen to you in return. It’s the key to turning your feedback into meaningful dialogue and your designs into accepted solutions.
6. Synergize
Okay, I know. This word sounds like it belongs on a bad corporate motivational poster from the ‘90s. But bear with me, because at its core, “synergy” is a powerful idea: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
For designers, this is the very reason we work in teams. “Synergizing” is about valuing and leveraging the differences in people — their unique skills, perspectives, and experiences — to create something new and innovative that no single person could have created alone.
Imagine a product manager who sees the world through data, an engineer who thinks in systems, and a content strategist who understands human psychology. When you bring these minds together, you don’t just get three different ideas; you get a fourth, fifth, and sixth idea that are all born from the tension and collaboration between those perspectives.
It’s about going from just working alongside each other to actually creating together. When a designer’s vision meets an engineer’s technical know-how and a product manager’s business sense, you don’t just compromise — you find new solutions that none of you could have come up with alone.
7. Sharpen the saw
This last habit makes all the others possible. It’s about taking care of yourself and always finding ways to grow. Just like a saw gets dull if you don’t sharpen it, your creativity and energy can run out if you don’t look after them.
Sharpening the saw means taking time for yourself across four key dimensions:
Physical - Prioritize your health through exercise, nutrition, and rest. This is how you avoid the kind of burnout that makes even the most exciting project feel like a chore.
Mental - Stay curious and humble. This can be as simple as reading a book, learning a new skill, or exploring a new topic that has nothing to do with design.
Social/Emotional - Nurture your relationships with friends, family, and coworkers. Great design doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and neither does a great career.
Spritual - Take time for reflection, mindfulness, or anything that helps you feel centered. This is how you reconnect with your purpose and the “why” behind your work.
Taking this time for yourself isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s essential. It helps you show up every day with the energy and creativity you need to do your best work.
The final takeaway
You can see now that these aren’t just abstract principles for CEOs in corner offices. They’re a practical, powerful toolkit for designers who want to move beyond simply pushing pixels and start creating meaningful impact.
When you adopt these habits, you’re not just changing how you work — you’re changing how you see yourself. You go from reacting to everything to taking charge. You become a leader who solves problems before they happen and a partner who brings real value to your team, your users, and yourself.
So, which habit will you start with? The journey to becoming a highly effective designer isn’t a single step; it’s a commitment to continuous growth and renewal.
The first step is to simply begin.