I’ve been working from home full-time for three years as of today. While it’s not perfect, my setup has come a long way since then – originally I had a tiny 60cm x 100cm (24” x 40”) desk wedged between my bed and a window. Nowadays I have a separate office, which helps a lot with establishing boundaries between work and home.
Please excuse the dust 😳
1. Ring light For meetings – the elevation keeps the reflection from showing up in my glasses. The filter isn’t quite as warm as I’d like, but for right now it’s fine – much less harsh than turning on the overhead lights. It’s connected to a Meross smart plug, so I can keep it dialed in at the right brightness level and just ask Siri to turn it off and on.
2. Ikea lamp with LIFX White bulb In summer this is the main light source in the room - it’s too hot outside to have the blinds open. In winter I open them up wide and let some natural light in. I’m planning to replace it with a White to Warm bulb to provide some variation in the colour temperature and give a sense of time of day.
3. HomePod mini One of three in the house - I run audio through here sometimes, or put calls on speaker. I like HomePod a lot, but I wish Intercom was a bit more intuitive.
4. Choetech wireless charger Works, but much more slowly than MagSafe. Mostly just here so I can see notifications while charging.
5. LG UltraFine 5K display Great camera, powers the MBP with a single cable, 5K resolution - what’s not to love? (Though I have been considering a 34” curved monitor.)
6. Google Home Hub Mostly for the photo frame functionality, though occasionally for broadcasting to specific rooms.
7. Orbitkey Desk Mat Backed this on Kickstarter and love it. The cable retention in particular is 😙👌
8. Logitech MX Keys for Mac Slightly more travel than the Magic Keyboard, which isn’t ideal (I’m one of those freaks who like super flat keyboards) but it’s got a surprising amount of heft which means it doesn’t move around the desk. The backlighting and multi-device support are the icing on the cake.
9. Logitech MX Master The first version of the redesigned MX series. Definitely want to upgrade to the MX Master 3 though.
10. 16” MacBook Pro (2019) 2.6GHz hexa-core i7, 32GB RAM, dual graphics cards, yadda yadda. This thing feels like an absolute dinosaur compared to the 13” M1 – can’t wait to upgrade.
11. Jabra Evolve2 40 Noise cancelling, automatic muting/unmuting when the boom is raised/lowered, “do not disturb” indicators for when I’m on a call. The Jabra software blows, but you can’t have everything I guess.
12. Steelcase Gesture chair Best chair ever. Amazingly comfortable, adjustable in every dimension you could want, reinforces good posture, but still lets you recline when you really want to. Wouldn’t trade it for anything.
13. Ikea desk Made up of a Linnmon 200cm x 60cm (80” x 24”) top and two Alex drawer units. Not too deep, but tons of desktop space and storage.
14. Nexstand Roost but cheaper - the Nexstand is a full $100 AUD less.
15. Map All the places I’ve been for work (white pins) and for fun (black pins).