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January 17, 2024
At The Malin, We Talk Good, Bad, And Horrible Work Habits
Liana Satenstein, K.O. Nnamdie and Diego Segura share their tips for a better work day.
We’re all finding new ways to work every day. Ways to work better, harder, and sometimes not at all. Nearly three weeks into the New Year, we’ve had just seventeen days to achieve a better routine to reflect on what didn’t work before. Some might say there’s still room for improvement.
I spent far too much of the last year cramming brutal hours into the crevices of my couch. As the new year dawned upon me, so did a new awareness — I have got to get out of my house. I needed a place designed for better work (and only work, no coffee shops with fleeting wifi, no cafes with rogue outlets). I needed a place that would make me, well, a better me.
As a promise to myself, I now spend three days a week at The Malin, minimum. In my palo santo-scented days there, I’ve worked, mingled and observed some of the brightest minds in culture today. Pioneers in their fields! Founders, writers, curators, you name it. I’ve learned a lot about how I like to work. So, I thought I’d ask my fellow Malin-ers: How do you do it? And what have you learned? Below, a few high-minded workers answer.
QIt's a new year in a rapidly developing work world, what habits are you carrying over from 2023?
AI'm still using a flip phone whenever I leave my apartment. I can't focus with my iPhone around; a total brain cell sucker; prefrontal cortex vampire. Also, I started wearing ear plugs when I write. I was always writing to Romanian club music but I don't think it was ultimately helpful...
QWhat habits are you leaving behind?
AAnswering my emails sporadically during the day...I had a really heinous habit where I looked at emails as they came in and made a mental note but then completely forgot to respond. Carving out designated times to message people seems like the way to go for me.
QHow do you set yourself up for success (either day-to-day or long-term)? Any tips or tricks?
AI have started to write everything down. It's helpful...and the Notes app just doesn't work for me. I need to carry a really un-hot, foul self-help planner the size of War and Peace to get the job done. Really not chic but it's worth it.
QWhat's one thing you wish you knew when you first started your career?
ABlock off mornings to work! When I was in corporate editorial, I'd always take interviews and meetings randomly during the day and it completely derailed my focus. I work way better alone in the mornings in an hour to 1.5 blocks without any distractions.
QIt's a new year in a rapidly developing work world, what habits are you carrying over from 2023?
AStarting my day with a workout, matcha and music. Those are the top 3 I'm carrying over.
QWhat habits are you leaving behind?
AUnnecessary snacking and forgetting to recharge after a big energetically taxing experience.
QHow do you set yourself up for success (either day-to-day or long-term)? Any tips or tricks?
ATo move towards any goals I first need to figure out how to achieve them. Workshopping ideas is one way to realistically chart out success. Making a To Do List also helps! Being honest with yourself about your capabilities and limitations is important, and recognizing where there is room for improvement can certainly help. If you follow that up with a commitment to that improvement, even it's just baby steps, you'll be making a good foundation for success however you define it.
QWhat's one thing you wish you knew when you first started your career?
AThe skill of wearing different hats is a skill and not a setback.
QIt’s a new year in a rapidly developing work world, what habits are you carrying over from 2023?
ALest I sound like a shill for clever commercial real estate landlords, I'll be carrying over the monthly costs of my rented desk. Having a beautiful place to work — and around beautiful, albeit sometimes loud people — has brought me so much joy. I used to work from my old investor's office on 17th Street and 5th Avenue. Nobody was there, the lighting wasn't great (until I bought a Floyd Y-Lamp and a table light from Gantri), and in the winter, it got pretty depressing. Any time I find myself annoyed by people being loud in the coworking space, I remember how lucky I am to not be at home, and not be in a lonely, unused liminal space of an office. (Thanks, Chris. I loved using your office while I did.)
QWhat habits are you leaving behind?
AFor both my pocketbook and my personal development: no more escapism traveling. I left the first company I founded early last year after splitting with my co-founder. I was so lost, and I would come to my desk every day and sit, sketch, and think. Nothing clicked. Nothing felt right. So, I traveled for 111 days in total, spending most of that time in Oslo. I got back to New York feeling like a new person. And then two weeks in, I wanted to leave again. I hoped that New York would feel new again upon my return, but it quickly wore off. I was trying to recapture that feeling from when I was 18 years old, had just moved here to apprentice at Collins, and everything felt new and incredible. That's not how I feel anymore, and that's okay. It made me realize that the “newness” and excitement would only come from creating it for myself. So, no more impulse-buying flights. This is a year for staying — and in doing so, reigniting a childlike wonder of what's possible here. (Hint: it's more than just internships.)
QHow do you set yourself up for success (either day-to-day or long-term)? Any tips or tricks?
AI am a massive goal-writer. I have, on my desk, a “visions and paths” document. The visions describe what I want my life to look like — “Spend your life around people who are either extraordinarily beautiful, powerful, or capable. [...] Partner with someone who is all three.” — and the paths describe how I'll get there. For example, to fulfill my vision of being knowledgeable and worldly, the path is to “read publications like Grant's Interest Rate Observer, Puck, Byline, 032c, Office, Bellingcat, Dirt, Doomberg, System.” To do my best work, “Clear your mind more often [...] Do a great job of being able to synthesize, in plain words, what you’re working on at any given moment.” I typed all of this out and printed a few copies to keep in my journals, and I read it all the time. I've even handed copies to a few friends to read. Then we talk about it. My best friend, Anvita and I, sat in my apartment on my birthday a few years back and wrote my goals together. It was one of my favorite evenings ever. Having someone who knows you well sit next to you and imagine what a better future is like is brilliant. Those friends who you can sit around and goal-set with be the friends who are still be around when you've fulfilled your vision.
QWhat’s one thing you wish you knew when you first started your career?
AI could write several more books about this — after all, I was a literal child of 17 years when I dropped out of high school and started working full time in design. If I could go back in time and slam a Post-it note on young me's forehead, it would say, “You'll get there.” In fact, I have a print by a beloved designer and friend, Ryan Carl, that has “SELF” all over it, at different “pacings” over each line, and the caption says, “Pace your self.” He gave those out at a Type Director's Club talk in 2019, and I still have it on the wall next to my bed. Don't get me wrong: impatience can work wonders. It's how I had my first full-time design gig at 17 and did the biggest rebrand (Medium) of my career (still!) at 19. But that impatience to do great work and be better does not have to mean crying in the studio stairwell so often. If you articulate a vision clearly, and reverse-engineer the result you want: you'll get there, just keep making progress every day, with a little less seriousness about it all.
You can also read this article on Byline’s website here.
Photography: Marcus Maddox
