A website is nothing more than a series of good decisions, made with a specific goal in mind.

It’s easy to get tangled up in the "distracting" details of things like border radius, gradients, or pixel-perfect kerning — and frankly, I think you SHOULD get tangled up in those things! Just not at the expense of the big picture. The question: How do each of these small 1% choices make the whole better?

When you have the full context in mind of what you’re building, it’s much easier to prioritize and mentally delegate your creativity towards certain design problems. But, it’s a chicken or egg situation: The details need priority in order for everything to feel special, but the core layout and higher-level decisions are required to build the framework for the details to have a place to live.

I’ve come to terms with my somewhat messy approach of mixing everything together. When building a site, I might get 50% through a page’s core structure (often with more pages left to do), but spend two hours on a certain piece that will make the whole thing hum. I'll often hone in on the elements that excite me or that can be used later in the site, no matter if I'm "supposed to" be working on the foundation first. Everything gets done, just done in an mildly unorthodox order.

Do what works for you, and put all of your effort into making one good decision after another. If you can do that, you're miles ahead of those who simply follow the rules for the rules' sake.