Published by Leonardo Calcagno
Who are you : My name is Steve Wallin
Your current job : I’m a furniture Designer and Maker
In which city are you located? Toronto, Ontario.
A word to define what kind of worker you are : Passionate
What tools are essential to your life (app, software, etc..) For office work, iMac, Sketchup and a desktop email client (I really dislike using a phone for emailing anything longer than a sentence). In the studio, pretty much everything is essential.
What does your office space look like? At home I have a small space dedicated as my “office” where I can draw, keep up on correspondence and paper work. My studio is a small, private unit in a mixed use industrial building.
What kind of music do you listen when you are working? For the last year or so Iv’e actually been listening to less and less music. I listen to almost only talk stuff now, podcasts, satellite radio and audio books.
Do you have a way to organize your day to maximize your work? To be completely honest, time management is one of my weaknesses. I just try my best to make a decent schedule and try and stick to it.
What tips would you give to improve productivity? Know/learn when to walk away for a while and comeback fresh (as much as you can afford at least). It’s easy, especially when stress is high to spiral into a mindset that is entirely counter productive.
You’re better than your colleagues at : I work alone. I suppose my colleagues would be other skilled people that I hire when i’m not able to perform a certain process. So, in that case nothing.
What is the best advice anyone has given you? I’m not sure iv’e received any words that stand out to the degree that they’ve affected my outlook. I feel like iv’e learned everything the hard way, through failures in life and business. Screwing up and learning from it.
What is your best tip for saving time ? Using the right tool or method for the job. There are often many ways to perform any given task, but usually only a few or even just one of those are the most efficient and at the same time yield the best result. I find the wrong way can often look most tempting, fight the urge to take the easy route and do it right. This saves all the time you will most likely spend fixing things if you choose the wrong/easy way.
What is your routine start and end of the day ? I don’t really have any routines, what I have to do on any given day is often highly variable. I run my day in whatever way makes the most sense for that particular day. I don’t smoke or drink coffee, I have no rituals. I just wake up and begin.
Aside from your computer and your phone, what gadget can you not go without? In the office, there isn’t one. In the studio, my Festool Domino; it is non essential but, at the same time indispensable since it’s become a part of my tool collection.
stevewallin.ca // twitter.com/StephenWallin // instagram.com/steve_wallin // facebook.com/stevewallinfurniture // pinterest.com/stevewallin //
