My Home Office Setup
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My home office setup has evolved significantly since 2019, when I left behind a traditional office setting. In fact, my “desk” for the first six months or so was a couch and a laptop. No wonder I have back problems.
When I realized that sitting on a couch all day long was a bad idea, I moved to sitting on a floor chair and using my basement TV as a wireless monitor.
It didn’t take long before I couldn’t take myself seriously as a professional. I decided to upgrade after about a year to a utility table from Amazon. I even bought myself a real desk chair, which I still have and love.
The utility table is gone, though. As I began to realize that my days in an office are likely limited to zero, I figured it was time to get serious. Here is what my home office setup includes today.
I also share this information in a Youtube video.
The Desk
After a couple of years of working on a couch, on the floor, and then at a cheap utility table, my first big upgrade was my desk.
My lower back had been killing me from all of the sitting, and I decided I wanted a desk I could opt to stand at as well. I almost made the mistake of picking the first highly-rated standing desk I found online. Fortunately I dug into the research just enough to stumble across the excellent and more affordable Vari Standing Desk.
This thing goes from a height of 25” (way shorter than most would need) all the way to 50.5”. For reference, I’m about 6’3” and set it to 47.5” for standing, so there is still some wiggle room. The movement from standing to sitting and back is smooth and quiet. It is unbelievably easy to change positions on the fly.
I went with the black, 60”x30” desk option. It is a nice surface, awesome size, and works like a charm. I’m now able to stand until my legs are tired, click a button to lower the desk to sitting height, then stand again when I’m ready. It’s been great, and the setup only took about 15 minutes.
The Vari, while not inexpensive, is hundreds of dollars cheaper than the other option I was looking into. I therefore felt obliged to splurge on the Vari cable management tray. I’m a bit of a neat freak and the idea of tons of cords and charging cables pouring out of my desk bothered me. This fixes that problem.
I’m only a month into this desk arrangement, but I love it so far.
The Chair
As I mentioned, I did buy a desk chair some time ago that I still have and like a lot. There were a thousand options of varying price ranges. I went middle of the road and bought the Duramont Ergonomic Office Chair.
This is nothing fancy, but has some nice features and adjustment options. If you’re as confused as I was scouring the Internet for office chair options, maybe give this one a go.
The Tech
I’m something of a “tech guy” and “minimalist” combo. I like good gadgets that make my life better, but don’t want drawers full of cheap gear that I don’t end up using. I’m definitely selective about the items that follow.
Several years ago I was gifted a pair of Bose QuietComfort noise canceling headphones, which promptly changed my life. At the time I was in consulting, traveling near and far, and these things made my flights much more tolerable.
Until recently, these were my primary audio device for web meetings and for listening to Brain.fm background noise during the work day. I no longer travel with them because they are amazingly bulky compared to my AirPods Pro.
The Bose headphones have become my audio backup, however, since I began using a fancy Shure SM7B microphone for web meetings (and for other future recordings, such as music, interviews, etc.). I just recently bought this, as well as a simple audio interface to connect the mic to my computer.
Since I like to keep my desktop rather clean, I bought a microphone stand that clamps to the side of the desk so I can swing the mic out of the way when not in use. For non-headphone audio, I purchased a small Klipsch bluetooth speaker that blends in well with my desktop and looks pretty cool.
My webcam is also one that I’ve had for a while. I bought the Logitech C920S during the COVID lockdowns when it seemed like I was doing a web meeting every 30 minutes or so. It has been a good investment.
I didn’t do anything fancy in terms of keyboard, mouse, or monitor (except that the latter is a widescreen). My keyboard is a minimalistic one from Amazon, the mouse is Logitech, and the monitor is LG. All pretty standard stuff.
Other Accessories
Again, I try to keep a clean desk (my home office setup itself is a bit of a mess because it is an open room in a basement with lots of other things going on) so I mainly have “accessories” designed to keep the desk area tidy.
The first is a vertical laptop stand for my Mac. This sets up next to the edge of my desk and keeps a lot of surface area open.
Another is my monitor mount that clamps to the desk so as not to take up any real space. It is new, but I’m liking it.
The last are just a couple of hooks that came with my Vari desk – they mount to the edge of the desk and give me a spot to hang my hat and headphones when not in use.
There are so many little aspects of a home office setup that affect our productivity. Many people will be spending hours a day in a home office environment and tweaking it to accommodate unique needs is important.
We will be moving into a home next year where I’ll have a more private, dedicated workspace that I’m excited about. Until then, I’m grateful to have pulled together all of the key gear and tools that I need for a productive workday at home.
What does your home office setup look like? Any of essentials that help you stay productive at home? Send me your thoughts at michael@theothermichaeljordan.com. I hope to hear from you.
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