I’ve been planning to write a post describing my remote work setup for several months, but now that a global pandemic is forcing most of the world to work from home, I thought perhaps a description of my setup might be helpful to others who are figuring this out for the first time.
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to dial in this setup over the last three years while working from home full-time. I figure since I spend thousands of hours per year using this setup, I should love it and try to get every aspect just right. It’s always a work in progress, but I’m very happy with the decisions I’ve made for now.
My criteria were pretty simple:
- Minimalist aesthetic that integrates cleanly with my living space
- Seamless transition between sitting and standing
- Flexibility to dial in the ergonomic aspect of every single component
- Use the smallest desk that comfortably accommodates my computing setup alongside reference materials (books/papers)
- Minimize desk surface area taken up by fixed objects (i.e. I sometimes like to spread out papers and books over the desk without being blocked by a monitor stand)
I’ll start with some photos and then give a link and a few short comments on each item.
Furniture
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Uplift V2 Standing Desk: I chose the UPLIFT Desk based on the Wirecutter review. I LOVE this desk. It is rock solid, aesthetic, and probably the best value I could find in all my research. I chose white hardware so it would blend in with the trim in my house. I also highly recommend the curved desk surface as it feels much more ergonomic than any straight desk I have used. The sit/stand heights are programmable (you really want this instead of trying to dial in the height each time you transition). The cable management is great. Note that it comes in a wide variety of sizes (5), types of wood (20), and hardware colors (4). My configuration: 1” thick Carbonized Bamboo Desktop - 48” x 30” curved with grommets, white frame.
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Herman Miller Aeron chair: This chair has a Wikipedia article and needs no introduction. All I will say is that I bought a perfect condition two-year-old model from an office liquidation sale on Craigslist for under $400. You can buy them at this price/condition all day long on Craigslist; there’s no reason to by a new one at $1700.
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Fully Jarvis Single Monitor Arm: Another Wirecutter recommendation, I got turned on to using a monitor arm after seeing photos of Paul Stamatiou’s setup. The Jarvis monitor arm in white perfectly matches the aesthetic of my Uplift desk, and it has been very stable with a 34” ultra widescreen monitor (discussed below). I found that attaching it via the right grommet opening was much more solid than clamping to the back edge (it comes with hardware for both). YMMV. Highly recommend a monitor arm; it opens up a ton of space on your work surface and gives you much more control when dialing in the height and depth of the monitor.
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Polycarbonate Plastic Chair Mat: This mat is amazing. It is almost completely clear (you can hardly see it in the photos above), hard plastic, ships flat in a box. This means it blends well with your carpet and also doesn’t roll up like those cheap vinyl ones, but lays perfectly flat.
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Imprint Cumulus Pro Anti-Fatigue Mat: A high quality anti-fatigue mat is a non-negotiable requirement if you spend any time standing. For me, having this is the difference between standing for hours vs. standing occasionally.
Computing
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MacBook Pro 15 inch: Not much to say here.
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LG 34BK95U-W 34” UltraWide 5K monitor: When my CEO offered to get me this monitor, I thought it would be way too big. But I love it. I can easily scale from having a single window open in the center, to having VS Code open with two editing windows, a vertical terminal window, file tree, etc., all at a readable text size.
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Henge Vertical Docking Station: This dock is very solid and also clears a lot of space on my work surface. Since all of my peripherals are Bluetooth, this only has a single Thunderbolt connection that powers the MacBook Pro and connects to the external display. Highly recommend this one.
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Keychron K2 mechanical keyboard: People either love or hate mechanical keybaords. I like this one because: (a) it’s wireless, (b) it’s Mac-first and has the standard Mac modifier keys for audio control, etc., (c) it has full function row, arrow keys, and nav keys which are harder to get in a compact mechanical keyboard, and (d) you get quite a few choices for switches (I chose blue, ask my wife what she thinks about that). I suggest the RGB backlight as I found it more fun than I expected.
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Keychron K2 Walnut Wood Palm Rest: Keychron’s palm rest is perfectly sized to the keyboard and looks great. Disclaimer: The one I got doesn’t have the Keychron logo, which looks a little jarring in the current product images on their website.
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Apple Magic Trackpad 2: Again, wireless peripheral to keep my work surface clean and devoid of cables. The charge on this lasts forever. Also, space gray obviously.
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Apple AirPods: I primarily use AirPods for music listening and video conferencing all day for work. I like the ones with the charging case so I can use them with my desk’s built-in wireless charger.
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Clock screensaver: Just a design-ey flipclock screensaver.
Peripherals & Miscellanea
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Xiaomi Mi LED lamp: This is a simple desk lamp that folds away, and is easily tunable for both brightness and warmth via a single knob/button. The white aesthetic blends perfectly with the desk and monitor arm hardware. Also provides some nice ambient light. It won design awards or something; I like how it looks. Discovered via Paul Stamatiou.
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Bower for Areaware Table Tile Coaster: I bought a few sets of these geometric coasters at the MoMA Design Store in NYC several years ago.
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IKEA Wireless charger in grommet: It doesn’t look like this is available anymore at IKEA online (maybe in-store?), but several years ago I bought a set of wireless chargers at IKEA thinking they were standalone chargers. It turns out they were intended to be mounted in a grommet but I wasn’t about to drill holes in our bedside tables, so they sat in a closet for a few years. After I bought the desk and realized there was an unused grommet, I remembered this charger. I use this to charge either my iPhone or AirPods. I will probably replace this with a white option at some point since the black kind of stands out.
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Rogue Fitness 16kg Kettlebell: I keep a 35 lb kettlebell right next to my desk. Most days I do 15 sets of 10 swings sometime during my work day when I hit a slump. Having it next to my desk reminds me to use it. No special clothes or additional equipment required.
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Bamboo Motion-X Wobble Board: Another small convenience that makes using a standing desk more sustainable and a little more fun. This shipped as a free add-on when I bought my Uplift desk.
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Trond mountable power strip: I have this mounted on the underside of the desk near the back, right beside the cable management tray came with the desk. This has both standard power and USB sockets. Everything you see in the photos plugs into it; its white power cord is the only visible cable leaving the desk.
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Bose QC25 Noise Cancelling Headphones: Not pictured, but primarily used on airplanes and when I need to get into a hacker fugue state.
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Air plant: Not pictured because it died. :(
Disclaimer: Affiliate links throughout.