So I have to admit something. I am HORRIBLE at multitasking.

For example, I can’t look something up on my phone while having a conversation. I can’t cook dinner while putting together a grocery list.

“How about listen to your wife while doing anything else?” my wife added after I had asked her for examples.

But the truth is, I’m not alone in this bad at multitasking thing. Most people are really bad at multitasking.

…individuals almost always take longer to complete a task and do so with more errors when switching between tasks than when they stay with one task.”

Multicosts of Multitasking – Cerebrum

So what does multitasking have to do with report writing?

If it truly was just report writing, there wouldn’t really be an issue. But modern report writing isn’t just report writing.

Creating a modern visual report requires a mix of at least three major tasks:

• Writing
• Illustrating
• Designing

One of the biggest mistakes that can slow down a reporting process is trying to accomplish all three of these major tasks at the same time.

You can complain all you want about Microsoft Word, but you were the one who decided to spend 30 minutes tweaking the design of a table that will eventually need to be recreated in Adobe anyway. You were also the one who spent a bunch of time creating a chart in Excel that will need to be redesigned with new brand colors and fonts.

How to single task your report writing.

The solution to the multitasking issue is to intentionally single task your reporting process. This means separating out the different report creation tasks.

Let’s talk about each one of the big three individually.

1. The design task.
2. The writing task.
3. The illustration task.

1. The design task.

So I listed the design task first. This was intentional.

Lots of evaluators tend to think about design as being something you do after you finish your report. But this can be a pretty big mistake.

Here is what happens. Evaluator sits down to write report, opens up Word. Proceeds to brain dump into word document. When nearing end of draft 1, decides that nobody would likely want to read their stream of thought 200 pages.

Okay, so maybe that’s an exaggeration (I hope). But you get the point. One of the things that happens when you just write first is that you tend to over do it. You write more than you need, and sometimes WAY more than you need.

Even before you put pen to paper you know certain things that will influence the design of the report.

Such as…

• Target page count.
• How visual you want the report.
• The branding guidelines for your organization.
• The sections that need to be included.

Take all of that and design a report shell with the proper fonts and colors. You can change this later, but having it will show you how many words and pictures you’ll need. It will also give you a sense of what you can’t fit, and save you from writing things that will definitely get cut.

And if you don’t know the proper fonts, colors, and other branding guidelines, now is the time to find out.

2. The writing task.

Now that you know where you’re headed, it’s time to start writing.

This is the time to open up Word or Google Docs. Don’t worry about formatting, charts, or pictures. Just the words. Also make sure to use headings and subheadings where appropriate. And if you have something you want in a call-out box or sidebar, don’t bother creating the call-out box or sidebar. Just write something like “Sidebar:” as a header for the text.

And what about data tables? I would suggest putting in the data tables, but not worrying about the formatting. As long as it is readable. Often it can be really helpful to see the numbers you are discussing during the writing process.

Eventually you are going to take the words from this document and put them into the report shell. But I suggest waiting until you’ve gone through most, if not all, of your drafts and revisions.

3. The illustration task.

So illustration is not the same as design. During the design process you are going to put in placeholder images and charts. During the illustration process, you are going to create your images and charts.

Data visualization is an illustration task. Your goal is to make the data approachable, and you also want it to fit within the context of your report.

Creating explanatory figures and diagrams is an illustration task. Your goal is to create a visual explanation, and fit it within the context of your report.

Deciding on stock images is also an illustration task. The types of visuals you choose should support the words in your report.

Bouncing back and forth.

Okay, so this is almost never entirely chronological. You are likely going to have to task switch throughout your reporting process. But do it intentionally.

I usually start with design then go into writing. After writing I Illustrate. Then I go back into design mode to pull everything together. I also might need to tweak the designs where the content demands a different approach.

If you are working with a team, get feedback at all the different stages. Approve the design shell/template before putting in all the words. Try to get the writing as complete as possible before putting it all into the template (multiple revisions). Same with illustrations.

All the other tasks.

So designing, illustrating, and writing are not the only tasks required when writing a report. You’ll also likely need to incorporate tasks like proofreading, editing, sourcing, accessibility checking, etc. Just like with the other tasks, separate those parts of the process.

How do you create your reports?

• Do you start with notecards or sticky notes?
• Do create your design shell first, or just open up Word and start writing?
• Do you treat illustration as a separate task or just insert images/charts as you write?
• Do you start by building a detailed outline with bullet points and goals for each section of your report?

Let me know in the comments.

In today’s post I’ll share the steps I used in creating a line graph centered infographic.

The more I use Flourish, the more I like Flourish. Canva is a super easy tool for infographic design, but its chart builder leaves a lot to be desired. But since there is a native connection to Flourish, there is not really a reason why I should ever need to use Canva’s chart builder.

Starting with the Data

Before we can create an infographic we need a story to tell.

Inflation is in the news with rising prices across the globe.

Here in the US we track this data through the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s Consumer Price Index. The most recent numbers that show pricing data through March of 2022 puts us at a 20 year high for prices across all items.

There is a longstanding connection between energy prices and everything else, and when you search the data you can see the correlation.

The argument I’m going to make in my infographic is that Russia’s expanded invasion of Ukraine sparked a rise in energy costs. And with the energy price’s rapid rise, all items have followed.

According to data from the international energy agency most of the world’s energy comes from three sources, oil, natural gas, and coal. Globally, Russia is the second largest exporter of crude oil, the biggest exporter of natural gas, and the third largest exporter of coal.

So as the war continues, and sanctions bring increased isolation of Russia from the global economy, energy prices continue their rise.

Creating a line graph using Flourish

For this infographic I’m going to redraw the Consumer Price Index line graph shared above using Flourish.

In Flourish, we’ll use the simple Line Chart starting point.

Every time you start a new visualization in Flourish, your first step is to choose a template starting point.

After selecting the template, Flourish will give us a chart with dummy data.

Click on the “Data” tab and you’ll see how the line graph data is structured.

Depending on how your own data is structured, you might simply need to copy/paste. Unfortunately our data needs just a little cleaning.

Preparing our data in Excel for Flourish

So our BLS chart does come with a data table. But in its current format a simple copy/paste into Flourish won’t work. Sometimes you need to try a few things to get your data into the format you need.

With this table I found I just needed to click on the “Show Table” button. Then use CTL “A” to highlight all the data on the page. Then I just pasted everything into an Excel worksheet.

The copy action took more than just the table, so I just have to delete some rows and extraneous info. And since I really only want to plot two lines I cut the data down to just “All items” and “Energy.”

This isn’t a perfect worksheet, but that doesn’t matter. I just wanted to get the data to this point, where I can copy it and paste it right into Flourish.

Creating the line graph in Flourish

Our job now is to paste the data into Flourish, and delete any extraneous rows.

That’s all I had to do to have a pretty solid starting line graph in Flourish. If my goal was to create an embeddable interactive line graph I might take some more time tweaking the style. But I want to turn this chart into an infographic.

So instead of making the chart a self-contained finished product, I’m going to strip it down to the bare essentials. Then I’ll take it into Canva.

Turning the Flourish line graph into an infographic using Canva

First thing is to choose the style of infographic I want to create in Canva. I decided just to create a square, so I used a blank Instagram post.

Yes, there is an infographic category in Canva, but I don’t really like the long image format.

Once I’m in the Canva design app, I’ll venture down to the “More” menu button on the bottom left of the page and find the “Flourish” app.

This let’s me import in visuals I created in Flourish.

This isn’t simply an image right now, but an embedded interactive graph. I can adjust the size without distorting the visual right within Canva. I can also double click the box to interact with the visual, which lets me see individual data points.

With my infographic style chart I’m not worried about showing the numbers for all the data. I just want to make sure I label the high point, low point, beginning, end, and any other spot that would be instrumental in telling my story.

I just the eyedropper in document colors to adjust the labels color to match each specific line (All items or Energy).

I also went ahead and dropped in a gray heavily transparent line to show where 0% would be in my line graph. I’m not worried about going any deeper because I’ll also share a link to the underlying data source.

My next step will be to add annotations to tell the story. You’ll notice that I’m not really being super direct, more inferring the relationship. There is certainly a relationship between the war in Ukraine and the rise in inflation, and while it’s definitely not the only plausible explanation, there is enough of a connection to make for an interesting infographic.

My next step is to just tell a little bit of the story and what we are looking at in the chart. Just because an infographic is a visual thing doesn’t mean we have to rely solely on the graph.

Not sure if this is an improvement or not, but I ended a few square color blocks to create a little more separation. I think it makes the chart look a little like a widescreen movie and helps to draw your eyes.

And here is my final infographic.