Page 1 of 1

Designing Your Life


https://storage.tally.so/0a160d03-a0d4-41fa-bab5-ea076e5a7a57/Screenshot-2025-09-18-at-1.54.40-PM.png

Designers create worlds and solve problems using design thinking. Look around your office or home—at the tablet or smartphone you may be holding or the chair you are sitting in. Everything in our lives was designed by someone. And every design starts with a problem that a designer or team of designers seeks to solve. In this book, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans show us how design thinking can help us create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are. The same design thinking responsible for amazing technology, products, and spaces can be used to design and build your career and your life, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of surprise


The 5 Core Steps

1. Start Where You Are
- Assess 4 key areas of your life using a dashboard: Work / Play / Love / Health
- Look for imbalance and where to focus your design energy.

2. Build a Compass
- Define Work view: Why do you work? What does work mean to you?
- Define Life view: What gives life meaning? Your beliefs, values, and worldview.
- Integration of these two = your internal compass for decision-making.

3. Wayfinding
- Don’t overthink “one true calling”—look for clues in:
- Engagement: When are you most “in flow”?
- Energy: What activities energize or drain you?
- Use a Good Time Journal to log and analyze real experiences.

4. Prototype Your Future
- Try things before committing to big decisions.
- Conversations (Life Design Interviews): Talk to people doing things you’re curious about.
- Experiences: Volunteer, shadow, and do short experiments.

5. Design Your Lives
- Create 3 Odyssey Plans (5-year futures):
- Option 1: Continue on current path.
- Option 2: Make a pivot.
- Option 3: Go bold / out of left field. Use these plans to expand your thinking and reduce fear of change.