The most significant choices in our lives involve where we live, who we live with, and how we spend our time. Though external constraints influence our decisions (income, illness, family, love), we may easily say that life is designed, that it is in fact quite deliberate; decisions we make today reflect our values and interests, incrementally shaping a larger picture of how others perceive us. Significantly, this too is what we designers set out to accomplish for our clients. But what happens when we apply design thinking to our own lives?

Be your own client

A designer's designed life is something to behold. Charles and Ray Eames, among other designer couples, spring to mind because their whole lives centered around their craft. It bound together their relationship, careers and family. When career and life blend in such a harmonious way, they become one in the same: Life is design, and design is life. Each informs the other.

It is certainly possible to take a designed life to the extreme, to become too reliant on gadgets or obscenely focused on design minutiae, but design principles applied to lifestyle can help make a designer more effective. A designer, for example, is like a composition. A well-balanced composition is more effective, as is a well-balanced designer a stronger force. Here are some other ways to achieve an improved lifestyle through design methodologies.

Set the brief

In design, as in life, we begin with other people making most of our decisions for us. Parents decide what we eat, touch and do. In a design career the equivalent is the creative director or boss writing the brief that outlines project constraints and goals. Then as careers progress and responsibility increases, the designer begins to write their own project brief. The brief becomes more important than ever because the designer now has ownership over their creative work.

This ownership is important because it signifies a shift from dependent to independent. Designers who have a greater investment in the outcome will work harder and usually more efficiently, often having a more enjoyable time doing it.

Setting life goals, much like setting clear and measurable design objectives, means writing that initial project brief. What problem are you trying to solve? What are the constraints to work within? How will you overcome them? Applying foresight and planning and asking the appropriate questions is a common design strategy, but it can also help us figure out what we really want our lives to stand for. What is the big picture? What do you want out of life? Do you want to write a book, to put a dent in poverty, to start your own company or to make family a priority? Write this brief to make your goals more visible and attainable.

Collaborate wisely

I'm a firm believer that the best things in life are the results of collaborations, whether they are iPhone apps or children. Working well with someone else exposes you to new ways of thinking and new ideas, as well as new networks, all of which can streamline and boost a career.

On the other hand, jumping into mismatched collaborations is harmful. Working in an office culture that doesn't suit you, with a business partner whose work habits are destructive for your own, or designing for clients you don't believe in are all examples of mismatched collaborations. How you spend your time, and who you spend time doing business with, is a huge part of daily life. Ultimately it will reflect who you are outside the nine to five.

Thank your critics

While a creative's ability to keep doing what they're doing often hinges upon ignoring critics, the critics aren't necessarily all bad or all wrong. Sometimes they are worth listening to. After all, the role of a critic is to encourage reflection. That moment of pause – a moment you may not have taken without prompting – is invaluable. A critic has engaged with your work the way a friend engages with your life, revealing an opportunity for growth in your work or in your life that can be difficult to see for yourself.

In defense of sleep

Young designers want to know how to fit it all in, and the going advice is more often than not, "Don't sleep." A good night's rest has become a personal indulgence. But being able to juggle different sets of projects, information, or people includes taking care of yourself. Sleep is vital to healthy living. Sacrifices must certainly be weighed and measured, but I've seen employees passed over for promotions for working all the time, instead of being praised for it. Time-management, organization and prioritization demonstrate a greater maturity than showing up at work bleary-eyed.

Quality assurance

The end of a lengthy project often brings about a recap of lessons learned. This kind of review rarely happens in the literal sense for life's milestones except in private journals (when was the last time you reviewed a wedding with your peers, weighing successes against failures?).

Self-aware folks do mull over life experiences, but how we judge these experiences can be tricky. The quality of a designed end-product is often measured by what we can see, touch, or hear, but the value of what we do outside of work is much more ethereal. To combat this, determine a set of standards for what is important to you. Is it money, experience, spiritual or emotional satisfaction?

As designers, we are expected to know our clients' businesses and products thoroughly, but ultimately, we are our own product and we have an obligation to know ourselves well. Being clear about our values and beliefs contributes to this self-awareness and creates measurable constraints by which we value our success.

When you think you're done...

I think of my grandparents' lives as masterpieces. Though their careers had nothing to do with design, their lives were industrious, deliberate, passionate and most certainly designed. They actively pursued all of the above characteristics: balance, drive, community, humility, self-awareness and quality. In addition to this, whatever their hardships, they simply kept going. If we set our minds to our goals with passion and perseverance, we will shape the world around us.

Why design your life?

The great question of Why brings us back to the initial appeal of design. What drew us into this craft in the first place? Boiled down, I believe we designers love figuring out how things work. Designers are tinkerers, experimenters and makers, exploring the world through visual ephemera, translating and making sense out of some things, injecting mystery and intrigue into others. Through figuring out how things work, we hope it make them better, to improve the quality of life. By consistently applying design principles to our own lives, we have infinitely more potential to reflect this value.