Desk of Tobias von Schneider

by Katie Kirsch

You could plan your life, or you could design it

The human-centered design process — from empathy and research to rapid prototyping, iteration and so forth — often helps us to bring meaning, joy and discovery into other people's worlds. But what...
by Tobias van Schneider

An ancient, long-forgotten trick for doing good work

In this industry, we live and breathe productivity. We tap our forearms and inject articles about optimization and efficiency into our veins. We are rabid for hacks, tips, shortcuts, templates, tutori...
by Tobias van Schneider

For ONE magazine, print is far from dead

We've been talking about the death of print for so long now, the conversation itself long dead. While its true media has moved mostly online, print has persisted. That's especially true for the fashio...
by Tobias van Schneider

You could monitor your team, or you could motivate them

Given the past several months, it’s no wonder everyone’s feeling tired, distracted and unproductive. Employees and managers are doing their best to navigate uncharted waters. And those waters are...
by Tobias van Schneider

How can we build an extension of your mind?

For the first time last week, I wrote about a new project that has consumed a large part of the last year for me. I shared my frustration with the current landscape, how instead of mastering our tool...
by Tobias van Schneider

My new secret project — an extension of your mind

The time has come. I'm ready to talk about a product I've been working on with my partner for almost a year now. I first shared this last week with my personal email list. It's a different kind of pr...
by Tobias van Schneider

Julie Kraulis’ timepiece drawings are an ode to detail

I first discovered Julie Kraulis' work at the A. Lange & Söhne boutique in New York. It was astounding. It's something you appreciate in layers: First, you register the fact that it's a pencil d...
by Terri Lee

Designing in quarantine

Many of us are nearly through our second month working from home during the pandemic, and if you’re like me, it’s been difficult to navigate how to be a good employee and maintain focus. Every we...
by Tobias van Schneider

How to be helpful

This applies whether you’re working with a client, running a business, doing customer support, trying to be useful within your team or simply trying to help someone out. “Be useful.” As I’ve...
by Man-Ping Wu

Design school vs. the real world: My first month as a design intern

It's been just over a month since I received my offer for a three-month design internship with House of van Schneider. It has been an exciting time as I learn, for the first time, to be a productive a...
by Tobias van Schneider

How to stay motivated when you’re spread thin

With this series, I am attempting to answer questions from readers asking for design advice. I can’t promise I know the right answer, but I’ll always do my best to be honest and share the most pra...
by Tobias van Schneider

The art of doing

I’ve written about this so many times. Directly and indirectly, inspired not only by my own thoughts, dreams or concerns, but often those around me. A conversation with a friend that keeps repeating...
by Tobias van Schneider

The writer’s secret for designers

For writers, first drafts are celebrated. In theory, they present opportunity and promise with none of the pressure. They say a wastepaper basket is a writer’s best friend. Writers are encouraged t...
by Tobias van Schneider

How to procrastinate

People always ask me how I get so much stuff done. The truth is that I procrastinate on my work – a lot. But at the same time, I am quite productive. How does this make any sense? I've been a mas...
by Tobias van Schneider

Overdeliver

With every project I do, I aim to overdeliver. I built my career on this attitude. I try to take every step of the project, down to the smallest details, above and beyond what’s expected. In an indu...
by Tobias van Schneider

Drip project management

If you need something from someone, don’t ask for it all at once. This only overwhelms a person. They will mark your message “unread” and let it sink into the abyss of their inbox until you foll...
by Tobias van Schneider

You only have to start

Many designers, both early and far into their career, do daily challenges. Most notably the “poster a day” projects and “daily UX challenge.” These exercises have become so popular that some,...
by Tobias van Schneider

The struggle for simplicity

In all the work I do, I strive for the most simple solution. I mean, the name of my business literally translates to “simple.” But simplicity is ironically one of the most difficult things to do w...
by Tobias van Schneider

Dreams vs. goals

The end of the year is quickly approaching and with it, New Year's Resolutions. Studies say only 8% of people achieve their resolutions, mostly because we set unrealistic or unspecific goals. I believ...
by Tobias van Schneider

It’s all been done before

It’s one of the main challenges I experience with writing. One moment I’m struck with an idea or a revelation, something I feel compelled to write about. The very next moment I think, well, maybe...
by Tobias van Schneider

How to manage your time as a remote worker

Recently I wrote an article titled How to Not Suck at Remote Working. One of the main rules was to know who you are, as I believe remote working is just not for everyone. However, if time management i...
by Tobias van Schneider

How to not suck at remote working

I’ve been trying to work remotely (from home, in my case) since the moment I had my first job. I’m not sure why exactly, but I just wasn’t made for the 9 to 5 office life. I dislike everything...
by Lizzy Spano

Embrace the chaos, or don’t

Last weekend I bought a desk. It was a Craigslist find, only $20, an adjustable drafting table meant for architects or illustrators. I was delighted. I brought the table home, cleared a space for it a...
by Tobias van Schneider

When to share your work

The moment before sharing your work is equal parts fear and excitement. It’s all kinds of feelings spanning all of two seconds: A rush of adrenaline followed immediately by dread, then either relief...
by Lizzy Spano

The anxiety of alone time

As a writer, remote worker and introvert-in-denial, I spend quite a bit of time alone. Most often I relish this time to myself. If I'm not working, I'm reading, riding my bike, cooking. I am rarely b...
by Lizzy Spano

Waste your ideas

It happens most often when I’m doing work for a client. An idea comes into my head, or I see the opportunity to use an idea I’ve previously had, and I hold back. I file the idea away thinking now...
by Tobias van Schneider

10 Things & Learned from “The Tools of Titans”

Over the past two weeks I started and finished reading Tim Ferris' new book "The Tools of Titans"** Reading is an understatement, it felt more like rushing through it. I was addicted and couldn't put...
by Tobias van Schneider

My 23 Favorite Books on Creativity, Productivity & Life

I read a lot. I didn't used to, but over the last couple years I made an effort to change myself and I'm happy to report that I've succeeded. One of the best decisions I made was ordering a Kindle f...
by Tobias van Schneider

Perfectionism ruined my productivity

The one thing that makes designers great is the same thing that makes them the worst people to work with: perfectionism. It’s part of what drives us to design in the first place. We’re not satisfi...
by Tobias van Schneider

Do you need an agent?

If you're a designer, illustrator or other creative, this article might help you answer this question. When we imagine leaving our nine-to-five job and going freelance, we picture a world opened up t...
by Tobias van Schneider

How to email a busy person & get a reply

While I don’t like to consider myself a busy person, I do receive an average of  150 emails a day. And I often have trouble catching up with everyone and getting my work done too. I pride myself o...
by Tobias van Schneider

Is the Ringelmann effect holding you back?

In 1913, a guy named Max Ringelmann noticed something strange about humans. Ringelmann, a French agricultural engineer, took a rope and asked individual people to pull on it. Then he asked those same...
by Tobias van Schneider

Dream big, but stay small

Let’s get one thing straight. If you’re in communication design to make big money, you might as well cash out and jump ship now. The service design industry at its core isn't scalable. Most des...
by Tobias van Schneider

11 Most Used Tools & Apps Essential to my Work

Below you can find a list of my Top11 essential apps that you might have not heard about. I'm focusing on "lesser" known apps on purpose as there is no need to tell you that I use Spotify, Dropbox, S...
by Tobias van Schneider

Why I Write

I thought about this question a lot in the last couple weeks. All I know is that writing had a huge impact on my life. And the more I thought about it, the more I found out what exactly writing did t...
by Tobias van Schneider

Creativity Is like breathing

The author of the Oatmeal recently published a comic strip called "Creativity is like breathing" and it was one of the best things I've seen on the Internet in a while, so I wanted to share it with yo...
by Tobias van Schneider

Best Must-have Apps to Edit Your Instagram Pictures

There are a lot of reasons why I edit my pictures on the iPhone, but for some reason it has a therapeutic effect on me. Sitting on the couch, on the train or in the restaurant or wherever I want and e...
by Tobias van Schneider

One video, article or side project can change your life

One piece of content, one little thing you create or publish, can change everything you do in the future. One article you write and publish can change your life. One video you upload and share...
by Tobias van Schneider

Work/Life Balance Is Bullsh*t

Every time someone asks me that question I struggle with a straight answer. Then start one of my usual rants about why you just can't ask this kind of question in the first place. For me the concep...
by Tobias van Schneider

It’s Been One Year!

That's a huge achievement for me, considering that I was pretty afraid of writing just two years ago. I always considered myself a designer, not a writer - Up until now! The majority of my articles...
by Tobias van Schneider

Be useful

Two simple words that are so easy to forget. Every day when I wake up I try to remind myself of just that: Be useful. It serves almost as some sort of mission or vision to guide me through the day. E...
by Tobias van Schneider

The Broken Window Theory In Product Design

The original theory states that maintaining urban environments to prevent small crimes such as vandalism or public drinking will help to create an atmosphere of order. And most importantly, will pre...
by Tobias van Schneider

Why I Try to Avoid a Daily Schedule

If you're following me on Instagram you mostly likely have seen a couple pictures from my Iceland trip already. If not, make sure to follow me because there are many great ones coming. (Iceland is jus...
by Tobias van Schneider

Victims of the sunk cost fallacy

As I sat down today deciding what to write, I kept refining a specific article I wanted to share with you. It took me most of my evening but I just couldn't get excited about the piece. It just wasn'...
by Tobias van Schneider

If you don’t do it, someone else will

I learned this early on a long time ago as a little kid. My mother always had weird ways to raise us kids, and one was in particular outstanding and made a big impression on me. My room was always a...
by Tobias van Schneider

This is for you, internet

Today I'm writing to you from Hong Kong where I've been staying for the past week. I was invited to be a judge at the Hong Kong Global Design awards. I started thinking about what brought me here, to...
by Tobias van Schneider

Designers, limit your tools

15 years ago I would call myself a “Webmaster”. I still think that sounds awesome. I remember that I made about $400 a month as a computer scientist apprentice, just enough to cover rent & fo...
by Tobias van Schneider

What Excites You?

(listen to the same song I enjoyed to when writing this article) It's such an easy thing to say. When you've found something you love and others ask how they can find it too, you just say "f...
by Tobias van Schneider

Why you should change your mind

But when it comes to bigger decisions or anything related to our identity or profession, changing our mind happens much less frequently. Generally we believe that this is a good thing, “sticking to...
by Tobias van Schneider

The worst case scenario

Not being brave enough to take these risks we often don’t change anything and keep on doing the things we know. Ultimately this ends up being worse than taking the risk. Existential fear is deeply...
by Tobias van Schneider

Be Stupid

If you’re new to this blog, you can read the four principles I already wrote about below: 1. Ignore Everybody 2. A Jack Of All Trades 3. Trust Your Gut 4. Stay Busy Today I like to talk about m...
by Tobias van Schneider

The Secret Is the Beginning

Those are the things that make big headlines and motivate us to push harder every day. While these stories are motivating and inspiring, they are also intimidating. Often so intimidating that we ques...
by Tobias van Schneider

Be Lazy, It’s worth It!

In my last article I talked about being busy. Why I try to stay busy actually doing something and avoid being busy for the sake of being busy. Make sure to read this first in case you just joined my e...
by Tobias van Schneider

To Stay Productive, Stay Busy

If you’ve missed the first three, you can read them here: 1. Ignore Everybody 2. A Jack Of All Trades 3. Trust Your Gut Today I like to share Nr.4 with you. For those of you who have seen my tal...
by Tobias van Schneider

Ignore Everybody

But still, there is something magical about a great idea. We have to understand that ideas are by nature very fragile. They’re like little naked babies, unable to protect themselves. If we really b...
by Tobias van Schneider

Curiosity vs. judgment

(this article was written in September 2015 as a response to the Google re-design) In September 2015 Google introduced us to their new digital identity. As you can imagine, the design community was...
by Tobias van Schneider

How to Read a Book

I changed my approach on how I read a book a while ago which since then has helped me to complete more books than I ever imagined. (obviously it’s not just about completion) I read because it opens...
by Tobias van Schneider

The inspiration lie

We’re always waiting for inspiration to find us. We’re waiting to get inspired to paint our perfect piece of art, to build the next big thing or to come up with this great advertising idea. We’...
by Tobias van Schneider

My Top Reading Recommendations Part I

1. How to make friends & influence people by Dale Carnegie This book written by Dale Carnegie is a classic. The title is cheesy but I read it already 3 times. It’s a book everyone should read a...
by Tobias van Schneider

Why Side Projects Should Be Stupid

The article below is an interview interview I did with FirstRound Capital back in 2014 but remains one of my favorite interviews today. If you're interested in getting some insight in how I approach m...

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