Sonia, thank you so much for the kind words and thoughtful questions.

Question: Have you ever had a time in your career when your daily routine started with the critical thinking hours?
Yes, half of the mornings in my week actually begin with writing. This quiet time is often when I get my best work done! Cause there’s nothing around to distract me. On the days I go to the gym, I often start with biking or running to warm up, while I consume new content and jot down ideas from what I’m learning.

Mornings are a very valuable time to me, but even the afternoons can be quite powerful as long as I create an undistracted block of time and space to work in.

Question: How the ideal workplace for designers should look like?

I love and hate open workspaces. Much of my career has been in an open workspace, however, most of the people I’ve worked with always seem to stay focused and work with their headphones on. I’ve been lucky.

In our workspace at The Futur, everyone that doesn’t have an office has printed out a “sprint” sign. It’s an image of a runner. Whenever it’s up near their desk, everyone knows they’re in sprint mode with their headphones on. No one talks to them till the sign comes down.

We established these rules, and everyone respects it. Maybe you can talk to your boss and peoples to see if you can highlight the problem (disruptive distractions), and figure out rules and processes to address them.

I hope that helps!