Given the corona virus craze, a lot more people are considering working from home. I wanted to share my set-up since I spent considerable time designing my home office.
I believe in spending good money in some key areas. A proper posture and work-setup will help me avoid physical pain later. A good set-up will help me stay healthier and more engaged when working.
The sound
My home office was pretty echoey. When I would hop on calls with co-workers, it annoyed me how I used to hear my own echo. It threw me off.
The sound bounces off hard surfaces much more easily than cloth or other softer surfaces. So, I tried many things to reduce the echo. First, I hanged some curtains and I bought a small rug to put in the middle of the room. I got them from Target. It wasn’t a huge improvement.
Then, what helped the most, was buying these foam soundproofing wall tiles. I also bought some double sided tape to tape them to the wall. Very cheap fix. I placed them around my monitor so that my voice goes at them when I’m on video calls.
My desk
I bought my desk from fully.com. It’s a programmable sit-stand desk. Yes, I stand often. When I notice myself slouching, it’s time to hit the button!
My experience from using the website is great and I highly recommend it. It’s a 72 x 30 Jarvis Laminate Desktop with a Walnut finish and steel alloy legs. It’s large enough that I can have my huge monitor and my desktop on it.
I chose to get a powered grommet. I love it. I no longer have to do yoga whenever I want to unplug my laptop charger to go on travel. I simply unplug it from the top of my desk. The same is true for my headphones.
My monitor
My monitor is expensive and phenomenal. It’s a Dell U3818DW. Here’s a YouTube review on it that pushed me over the edge. It came with a 3-year warranty. I actually put it to use because my first monitor had a strange glitch. The support from Dell was great and they shipped me a new monitor right away without receiving the old one.
It’s massive. Almost a bit too large. I love it though.
One of my favorite features of my large Dell monitor over my LG monitor is it’s KVM-switch like features. Meaning, I can hook up multiple computers to this monitor and keyboard/mouse and switch between the set-ups with a push of a button. It’s very easy for me to have my desktop computer hooked up at all times and also plug-in my work laptop without having to unplug an excessive amount of cables.
I also have this LG monitor at the New Signature office and it’s also great. Certainly a lot cheaper. It does not have the KVM switch features.
My chair
It’s a budget chair. If I had more money at the time, I would have splurged. But, this chair is really comfortable and functional for the price. Not a bad pick. I will say, I had to return the first one because the first box they’ve sent me came in terrible condition and it had missing parts.
My keyboard
I have an old mechanical keyboard. The Das professional with MX Cherry Brown switches. I have had this keyboard for over 8 years and it still works great. In order to spruce it up and trick myself into not buying a ridiculously expensive new mechanical keyboard, is buying keyboard caps on Amazon. They don’t all fit.
I chose to let go of my perfectionist side. This way, I saved hundreds of dollars.
My mice
I have two mice, one cheap and one expensive one. The cheap one is for when I forget the expensive one at the office.
The expensive one is a Logitech MX Master. It’s very comfortable and I love the scrolling mechanism. It also supports and remembers up to 3 computers to be paired with. Making it very easy to take it with you and use with multiple workstations. If you’re going to do that, I recommend that you get a small case it as well. I had things jammed into it before because I just dropped into my bag.
What’s next?
Next, I will be installing a window AC unit. I live in sunny Florida and it gets really hot in my home office in the summer. My computer sounds like it’s going to take off from a runway because the fan is so loud.
I will also upgrade my web cam. At the moment, I have an old 720p web cam. Lastly, my company will also be providing me with a dock for the laptop. That should help me cut down in cables. Hopefully, it will work with my fancy monitor.