A minimalist’s desk tour

Intentional Living

Sep 23, 2021

Stephen King said that writers should put their desks in a corner, not in the middle of the room. And Dr. Andrew Huberman has tons of tips for how to optimize your workspace for the ultimate productivity and focus (backed by science).

I recently re-did my work from home desk setup and wanted to share it with you. Plus, it’s under an eve on the second floor of my tiny Cape Cod, so that works out even better for making it feel cave-like and optimized for productivity.

Watch the video below for the full tour.

Pin for later

My minimalist work from home desk tour, optimized for productivity and focus.jpg

The external monitor for my at-home workstation

My external monitor is at eye level, which according to Huberman, is the optimal height for heightened energy. Apparently if your eyes are downcast (as in pointed down toward your laptop screen), it sends a signal to your brain that you should be more tired.

I propped up my monitor on top of two books so that it’d be at the right height and so I wouldn’t have any laptop/monitor screen overlap.

Behind the monitor are LED lights to help with the brightness factor. These aren’t as bright as I thought they’d be; I was hoping for an outdoor window type of effect so the lighting would be better for video calls, but it’s still a nice effect.

The general minimalist desk setup

You’ll notice the lack of tech accessories—I don’t have an external keyboard or external mouse or trackpad. I prefer to keep it that way! I can easily plug in my personal laptop or my work laptop and just open up the screen and be on my merry way. Plus, extra accessories like that tend to junk up my space, and I’m not a fan.

The desk is new from Amazon. I’m really impressed that something this beautiful and sturdy came from Amazon!

My chair is a simple dining room chair with a nice cushion on top of it. Below the desk I have a footrest to help with ergonomics and to stave off lower back pain.

Of course, I have my iPad on my desk so that I can plan digitally in Notability.

My mediation corner is nearby, too. I’ve been meditating on the regular lately, which feels really, really great.

Decor around my work-from-home desk

I have a whiteboard planner to the right of my desk (similar, but smaller item) that I’ll use (eventually) for content planning and important dates.

I have a nice ZZ-plant to remind me that nature is cool and to go outside.

To the left is my art wall; right now I just have my handmade enamel pin banner on there, but eventually I’ll have more stuff.

Other random desk stuff

My desk lamp is a pleasant little industrial-looking lamp which is dimmable for 3 settings. It has USB plugs if needed and has a matching counterpart in the other part of our room.

In the storage areas of my desk, I have whatever computer I’m not using. I also have cloth napkins for my allergies and the unopened Paperlike screen protector for my iPad, which I have yet to install.

I forgot to mention my wireless charger dock in the video, but it’s pretty great. I can charge my phone, watch, and AirPod Pro’s on there all at the same time. It doesn’t have the quickest charging, but it’s great knowing that I have a nice minimal charging station at the ready.

  
    Here's the video transcript
  
This is my minimalist office tour. My workspace is now optimized per Andrew Huberman's very awesomely prescriptive episode 28 of his podcast, where he talked about how to optimize your workspace so that you get the most done and have the most focus and have all the physiological benefits of the way things are set up.
First. I should note that my most optimal times for focus are after the kids go to school. This is now 9:08 in the morning. This is my ultimate time to get things done for between 9 and 10:30. That 90 minute block is really what I'm talking about.
The monitor is up high and at eye level, because when things are at eye level, your brain starts to wake up. And when you are looking down at a laptop screen, your, your eyes will actually cast dashboard and it'll make you sleepier. That's why you may feel a little bit of a slump as you look down at a laptop. So having your main windows up on the screen above is going to really help wake you up and help you stay alert. I will note that the monitor is propped up on two books so that it is more on eye level. And so that I don't have some screen overlap here. And I have it on top of one of my favorite books, Atomic Habits by James clear and one I have yet to read, which is Think Again by Adam Grant. I picked them because they're white and I like white as you can tell by my office.
This monitor is backed by a strip of LED lights, which just kind of brings a little bit more light to the situation because this is under an eve. It works really well. And I will say that I was hoping the lights were going to be a lot brighter to kind of emulate a light pad or a window, but it works. It works for now.
The screens are turned up to their brightest setting. That way you have the most blue light coming into your eyes and you might say, oh, blue light. That's so bad for you, but actually blue light during the day is natural. And it's okay. As long as you're not doing this setup, right, when you're trying to go to bed or in the middle of the night, that'll really mess you up. But this is actually okay.
I have this egg crate kind of squishy thing on the chair so that it gives a little bit more cushion and just allows me to be a little bit more comfortable considering this is just the dining room chair and not a fancy office chair.
And I also have a foot rest under here.
My laptop and desk setup is very minimal in that I do not have an external keyboard. I do not have an external mouse. Everything you need is right here, and you can just change the settings of your MacBook and external monitor so that it's one on top of the other. You can just easily go from the laptop screen to the external monitor, and you have all the benefits of the track pad for the Apple. It's just really easy to switch screens and move things around, do Mission Control, things like that. So I love having it there.
The other thing on my desk is a plant to remind me to go outside instead of sitting on my butt in here all day.
the other thing is a light over here, which is really cool. It actually dims. So I have it at the brightest setting when I really want to be awake and alert.
I have my iPad over here so that I can have my digital planner and my Notability. And so I know what I'm doing throughout the day and can check off the most important tasks.
    

      Fasting in the morning is a great way to maintain focus and energy by only doing coffee and water, you will just kind of zone in on your focus and keep that energy level up. And then I usually break my fast around 11 and 12 when it gets to the point where I'm so hungry that I just need to eat or else I won't be able to focus.
Other things about my workspace is that I have a beautiful, beautiful calendar whiteboard. And it is so minimal that I have nothing on it. I'm just kidding, I really would like to have things on it. I will eventually have my content calendar on there and important dates that I need to keep track of. However, I just have not gone downstairs to get a whiteboard marker because I'm lazy. 
My desk has a nice little drawer for hiding ugly things, which right now is just mostly receipts and cords. Not too many things in here. I just have to go through that periodically to make sure that it doesn't start overflowing and becoming unwieldy.
The other thing I have in my desk in the open drawer space is my personal laptop because I have a work laptop and a personal laptop. I have this cloth to help keep my screens clean. I have these reusable napkins, which I use for tissues, because my allergies are always horrible. I keep my iPhone case in here for when I want to pop the case back on it. And I also have the Paperlike screen protector for my iPad, which I have not yet installed because I want to film a video doing so, which is, you know, it's kind of ironic. It's like, why don't I just do it? And then talk about how much I like it or don't like it, I don't know. It's just one of those things.
Elsewhere in my office area, I have my backpack. That's where all my things go when I need to move from one place to another in the house, which happens quite often because let's face it when the kids are home and I still need to be working. I need to move all my stuff downstairs. So instead of like awkwardly carrying it down the stairs, I'm going to plop it in my backpack and be good to go and have everything well-organized in there. And I also know that's where things are.
In my office there happens to be my meditation corner just simply because that's where the benchtop sits and that's a good spot as any other in the room to do so. So every night for a week now, actually I've sat there for at least 10 minutes up to 25 minutes and just done a silent meditation, not a guided meditation. And it's been really nice. It's helped me sleep a little bit here and there.
And finally over here, I have my enamel pin banner and this is just something that I love because number one, I created it. Number two, I embroidered it. And number three, I just love it. And I will, pins are so cute and fun. And it's a nice collectible without being like over the top and taking up a lot of space. I have a tutorial for the banner. If you're interested on my blog, you can check it out.
I hope you enjoyed my office tour. I'm really excited about my new setup. It definitely helps me focus and find my place to just get things done. And if you have any questions, let me know in the comments below and I'll see you next time