If you are like me, you are always curious about what other people’s offices look like. How do they light it? How do they make it look so aesthetically pleasing? How do they stay organized? My questions are endless.
At the end of the day, however, the most important thing is that our office spaces are productive and fit what we need. Today we’ll dive into what my desk looks like and my methodology for productivity.
What’s On My Desk?
Desk
It took me a long time to have a space that was conducive to being productive with my varied endeavors with marketing (obviously), but also creative media, and music. While some days are still more productive than others, I love this setup.
First and foremost, the actual desk that everything sits on comes from a company called Fully. This desk is their Jarvis 78×30 Sit Stand Desk. I cannot hype this thing up enough. Mine features a fully (no pun intended) programmable memory switch so that at the press of a button I can go to my preset stand height, or back to my sit height which is wonderfully convenient. Occasionally my fiance will work at this desk as well and there are two more assignable presets for her sit and stand height making this desk even better.
When I was in the market for a new desk, I wanted something that was deep so I could spread out as much as I needed to and work on paperwork or note-taking without feeling so cramped. It is also nice that when I want to take a break and practice the piano, I can set my MIDI keyboard up with plenty of extra space.
Computer
If it isn’t abundantly clear already from just the image above, I am a bit of an Apple Fanboy. I love the Mac ecosystem and I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon. My main computer these days is a 2020 27″ 5K iMac that is pretty well pimped out with 72GB of RAM and an AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB. This computer took my render and export time way down for working in my video editing software as well as made processing photos beautiful and easier than ever. The 27″ display is a dream for multitasking as well. Outside of that, my most common and almost always open programs on my computer are Slack, Photoshop, and Chrome with a tab for Trello open. Slack is what we use to talk back and forth while working on projects for clients. It gives great opportunity for us to be endlessly collaborative with our team. I spend more time in Photoshop these days as well, whether its for client photo work or just resizing a photo for web optimization.
Tablet
As previously mentioned, I am a huge Apple fanboy, but I bought this iPad Pro long before the iMac. The iPad Pro purchase was to make my life easier as a college student. I wanted a place to take notes and show changes on graphs a bit easier in my coursework without carrying around a 30 pack of different colored pens. Using the iPad and Pencil to take notes made life super easy with Notability. Not to mention when someone needed notes from a class I could quickly convert my handwriting to text and send the notes on. These days I use the iPad for a lot of digital planning. I really like being able to write on a calendar and keep track of what I have gotten done throughout the day and with Notability and their digital planner, I stay on top of my day and plans so much easier. I highly recommend trying it out.
Audio
Amidst my move to Springfield, Illinois, my audio interface that I had used for the better part of 6 years died. In the interim, I have been borrowing a friend’s Focusrite 2 Channel Interface since. This is essentially just being used to interface with my studio monitors — the KRK Rokit 5s and my headphones — the KZ ZS10s. Nothing too special but gets the job done. Occasionally, I get to use the interface with my Shure SM7B, which is the mic we use to record our video blogs. This is not the latest and greatest in the audio interface world, but it most definitely gets the job done or my simple use cases.
Misc.
A few months back I had a company reach out to me about sending a review unit of their new pocket sized RGB light. This Liber RGB Light comes in handy all the time! I keep it on my desk to add a little pop of light to my face when on video calls and it comes with me on almost every video shoot. It has an adjoining app that makes control super easy and also allows you to color match based on something you scan. Very cool and handy.
Last Apple product on my desk apart from my smartphone (for now), but I recently was gifted a pair of AirPods Pro for running, however they have made their way to my desk for work calls. I am a huge fan of these over my previous pair of AirPods that just did not stay in my ears. Worth the upgrade and so nice that they interface with all of my devices
It wouldn’t be a blog about a desk if we didn’t talk coffee, right? On a trip to KCMO last year, my fiance and I stopped by Messenger Coffee Co. This mug was too cool to not buy and I use it daily for making a pour-over with beans from my favorite local coffee spot, The River Coffee Co.
I don’t keep many trinkets on my desk if any, but the one I do keep on my desk is a miniature painted by my incredibly talented oldest brother. My brother has played Warhammer 40,000 since 2005 and has honed his craft with painting. He is so darn talented and I love getting to show people this miniature he custom painted for me when they ask.
In addition to that, and maybe the most controversial piece in this whole blog is La Croix. I have started a regiment of intermittent fasting, which I find helps me be more productive through my workday, but it does mean I can’t consume anything with calories. That is where La Croix comes in. I told myself years ago I would never drink this stuff and here I am. It is half the reason I have a mini-fridge next to my desk. Truly the most important part of my productivity.
