If in doubt, give it the overnight test

There is a saying my creative director had way back. He said ‘if you ever had an inkling that the creative was not right, give it the overnight test’. That’s exactly what we used to do. We would hang the artwork on the wall, and examine it the next day.

Writing a proposal or a difficult email late at night can benefit from the overnight test too. Creatives tend to practice this more than client service. With fresh eyes the following morning, you see more objectively.

When you are tired, or distracted, it is easy for the meaning of an email or an idea to become distorted. It is better to delay sending until you have had time to review it the next day.

Delaying sending it can avoid the necessity of apologising and re-writing a new one.

To conduct an overnight test, leave proposals on your desktop, and emails in your draft folder. In the morning you can correct ambiguous explanations, and remove any tone which may be misinterpreted.

This practice backs-up the idea of doing less, but doing it better. By getting it right the first time, you conserve energy and save yourself the time repeating the task.