Tech

My Productive Desk Setup - 2022

Sabrina Huyke

Sabrina Huyke

— 8 min read

When I first started working from home I was absolutely not equipped to do it. The past two years have been a journey in getting to know myself and designing the best workspace possible for myself in my home. Today I am going to be sharing with you a little bit about all the things that help me in my day-to-day work life when it comes to tech and also when it comes to just feeling comfortable and motivated in my workspace. So let’s jump right into it.

There is also a Youtube video about this, so feel free to check it out for an even more detailed opinion of each of the things mentioned here:

Today, I am going to be showing you around my most productive desk setup to date. When I first transitioned to working from home I had just moved to a new apartment to live by myself for the first time in my life and I had no furniture at all, my mattress was even on the floor. I had to start teaching from my house and I would spend more than 12 hours just sitting on a mattress on the floor with my laptop on my lap trying my best to share my knowledge with my students. This was obviously not ideal, my back and my neck were hurting me, and I decided to invest in my work-from-home space. It has not been an easy, cheap or quick thing to do, but today I am going to be sharing my progress so far with you and how this setup helps me be my most productive self to date and keeps me motivated. So let’s get started:

The core elements of my setup:

I recently just bought this laptop. I needed a new laptop because I was working with a borrowed laptop from a friend. It was not cheap, this was actually very much outside of my budget but I decided to invest in it because I needed something to make the process of editing these videos easier, with the one I was using before the laptop would take so much time just to include a little bit of text to the sequence. It’s also the first-ever gaming laptop that I buy in my life and so I thought you know what? I can also use it to kind of relax and unwind at the end of a heavy work day. And honestly, the computer is so fast and works so well for absolutely everything I do that I tell my friends this is a spaceship.

This keyboard was actually a Christmas present from my best friend Isabella and her boyfriend Andres, who is also my friend. I had been telling them for a while that I wanted to change the keyboard that I had because when I first bought an extra keyboard for my desk set up it was a really cheap and hard one that was not really RGB it was just specific lights that were always on. And they both decided to go ahead and give it to me. In the beginning, this keyboard seemed to be a little too hard for me to click on as well but after some time I think the keys kind of start softening a little so it’s a lot easier to type through it. If you don’t like that it may not be exactly your ideal keyboard but I type A LOT during the day so having the keyboard kind of adjust to that is a plus for me. It also comes with a wrist rest, and this is the first time that I use a wrist rest. If you had asked me before using it, I would have said that I absolutely see no reason why adding that would be necessary, but now that I’ve had the experience for a little over three months I honestly could not imagine going back to not using it. Your hands just feel so much more comfortable with it.

Now, this may seem unnecessary for many people, because why would you need an expensive microphone for your day-to-day activities? But honestly, it has been one of the best purchases that I have made for this setup. I only recently started using it more adamantly for my videos, but I have had this mic for about two years now, and it never disappoints. First of all, I know that whenever I go into a meeting I am going to impress whoever I am meeting with the quality of my audio. Second of all, the quality and the range of this thing seems to be amazing, because I can be walking around my room still speaking and people tell me they can still listen to me as if I am right next to the microphone, which is amazing for when I am trying to multi-task and fix things around my bedroom. And when it comes to making these videos, it is said that people will sit through a video that has poor video quality but they will never sit through a video that has poor audio quality, and I believe this mic more than does the job for me. Overall, I would really recommend anyone who is remotely thinking about it to give it a go and invest in a good mic.

Now, this stand is also a relatively new addition to the setup, however, I would say that it has improved the quality of my workspace by a huge amount. You never realize how much space the monitor stand is occupying on your desk until... it’s not occupying it anymore and you can easily move your keyboard out of place to have lunch while you watch some Killing Eve. Now, when it comes to durability I am very please with the quality of the stand, I’m never worried about the monitor falling or anything like that, and it’s fairly stable. A lot of my friends say that I angry type a lot, which I don’t agree with I think I am simply typing fast, not angrily, but anyways, the monitor never shakes or moves out of place. When it comes to how flexible the stand is, that might not be your favorite thing. You can move it from left to right so that the screen is facing one way or the other, but there is no such thing as up or down like other stands, and when it comes to adjusting the angle of the screen vertically you kind of have to go all the way to the back to loosen up the screws and then tighten them back up again. That might not be your favorite thing. But when it comes to costs, this was very cost-effective for me, and I don’t see myself moving the monitor around that much either way. It also has nice cable management bits included which I believe has honestly helped me a lot, because I suck at cable management.

The nice to have elements:

This is a nice to have because it is absolutely not necessary for my day-to-day work life, I could most definitely find a replacement for everything I do in it and it would have been cheaper than buying the thing. But an iPad is pretty much the only apple product that I like, so I decided to buy it second-hand from a friend that was selling his. I mainly use it to take notes whenever I am listening to an audiobook because writing the notes by hand helps me retain and interpret the information better. I later type those notes into my notion pages and all that. I also use it to take notes for any of the meetings that I am in if it’s necessary or to take notes from videos that I watch. It’s also a lot more portable than my laptop, since I have my laptop plugged into so many things on my desk, I can use it in case I need to do any urgent work things whenever I am out running errands or something like that. I also eventually want to start taking up illustration again, drawing and all that. And I think the iPad will be useful. But first I’m focused on these videos hehe.

Now the trackpad is absolutely optional. It’s also a new addition to the setup, and I decided to buy it because since I kind of prop my laptop up in the stand, it’s a little bit more difficult and uncomfortable to use the integrated one it has. This trackpad also works with specific hand gestures and depending on the number of fingers I use and the motion that I use it can minimize everything on my computer screen, bring it back up, show me the apps that are open to choose where to go, scroll up and down, and just some other comfortable things. It also has the handy mute button in case you need it. But I could also just do without it, it’s just a nice addition. The quality of the trackpad itself seems very nice, and it feels heavy and steady on the desk, I would have only liked it to be wireless, and yes there were other wireless options, but I chose this one because it was the one with the best reviews out there.

Now, I have the headphones in the nice to have category just because I wouldn’t die without them. The laptop has some very nice quality speakers that make everything pretty enjoyable as well, but I do use these headphones for a lot of things, whether that is meetings or video editing or just listening to music while I write these scripts. On the positive side, they are wireless but also come with the cable in case you need to plug them in because you forgot to charge them. Like me. I have found that at least to me it seems like, when you plug the headphones in instead of using them wirelessly, the sound is a lot higher. They are fairly nice and comfortable to wear, but they are just small enough that it might cause some discomfort if you wear them for too long. I am also not very picky when it comes to the noise-canceling side of things, and the quality of the audio is nice enough for the cost of the headphones. Battery life is promoted as being 40 hours, but I am not sure that is actually the case, I haven’t actually counted the hours but it seems like a lot less than 40 hours. Now I will say that sometimes when I turn them on and they automatically connect to the laptop, I have to turn them back off and then back on because the sound will sound kind of weird at first. I am not sure why that is, but it happens. Still, they were relatively cheap and for that, I will not complain.

Productivity and Motivation

This part about productivity and motivation is more about how I want to feel when I am sitting down at my desk and the things that I want to accomplish outside of work. Designing the space where you spend most of your time and being intentional about the things that you have close to you has a great impact on your day-to-day activities. That’s why it’s also important for me not to have clutter on top of my desk or in my bedroom in general because I find that it really brings me down when it comes to my mood and as a consequence, I do everything else that I have to do with the worst of approaches. So, this next part is more of a, what do I have in my desk to help me feel motivated and nice and do more of the things that I want to do and do the things that I have to do while in a good mood.

  • The next books on my to-read list. I wanted to read more this year and getting the books closer to me on my desk helps me with that
  • A notebook. Sometimes I like to write some things down on paper. It feels traditional and relaxing.
  • My mangas. I like how they look, having a space that looks good and makes you feel nice helps you with feeling motivated. And I also have to read them of course.

Now, this is all for this post. This desk will probably grow and evolve before the end of this year, but right now, this current setup is something that I have worked on for the past two years and a half more or less, and I thought that I might as well share it with the world in case anyone can get some inspiration from a setup that is kind of nice and comfortable but not super high budget like many other setups out there.

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Please note that none of the links above are affiliate links, they are just meant to help you find the products mentioned more easily, but I don't get any type of benefit if you decide to purchase them. 

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