1 year of workspace upgrades

Almost a year into working from home, do you want to know what I changed over the past year to increase my productivity and boosted my physical and mental wellbeing? Just read on.

Why sharing?

After a year of working from home, I’d like to share what I did to improve my workspace and what made me move to do a more thorough upgrade of my workspace. Just as you, I spent last year more and more time at the same desk, room, environment caused by the pandemic. It took over our (social) lives. Over time, I noticed my requirements for a good workspace changed, as I went from “it’s OK for now” to; nothing will change on a short term basis, so you will be stuck with this setup for a while. This gave me the green light 🚦 for upgrading my workspace to a more then decent place to work and have fun as well 😄.

2020

September

I started with upgrading my desk chair. My old chair I ‘inherited’ from my first employer over 8 years ago. My estimate is that the chair was already 10+ years old (3+ years intensively used at offices) and multiple years as my workspace chair. It made funny noises when I sat on it and when the lockdown started in March I got some comments about it during video calls. I decided to upgrade to an ergonomic chair, that not only sits good and has multiple adjustment features, but also looks nice. I decided to purchase the Autonomous ErgoChair 2. Delivery took a while, I ordered it in July and received it in September, but it was worth the wait.

October

I already had an ANC (Active Noice Cancelling) headphone, with a cord and had to change a battery once in a while. This was more like a convenient upgrade then a must have I have to say. The fact was that I daily struggled with the cord, hanging over my keyboard and tied up in a knot. So I went looking for good cordless ANC headphones. After checking and trying out some options I ended up with the Sony WH-1000XM4. Just using the headphone as a daily driver is for me reason enough to not compromise on quality, feature set and usage. I’m willing to spend a little bit more for an item that I know will be worth it for the long run, then to spend less and always have to hassle. So far I love them, good ANC, cordless 😄, well built quality and with multi device connectivity features - this makes the price worth while for me.

December

Until now, I did all of my work on my Surface Pro 6, Intel I7, 16GB RAM, 512 GB storage provided by my employer, Portiva. A fine work machine, mobile and plenty of power. However, thermal wise it is not that great. I like to multitask, and when working from home, more video calls, more development, more processing power is required continuously ending up in a super hot Microsoft Surface where thermal throttling was becoming more and more noticeable. During this time the PlayStation 5 and XBOX series came out (I currently also own a PS4 slim), so I was wondering what to do. Well.. I ended up with the decision to build my own PC, so I could configure and build it with all components I like to have in it. Also I’m not picking a side (Microsoft vs Sony), having a multipurpose monster that I can use for work and fun. A home built PC is also visually more attractive in my opinion these days than in the past. My last home PC build was more then 10 years ago, so there was a (steep) learning curve involved. But hey, it’s also a hobby right 😉. I ended up with the following configuration;

• AMD Ryzen 7 3700x (8 cores, 16 threads)
• Corsair 32GB RAM (3200 Mhz)
• Gigabyte B550 Aurus Elite V2
• Kraken X53 Water cooled AIO
• EVGA GTX 1660 Ti
• 1 TB Samsung NVMe SSD
• 1 TB Intel SSD
• NZXT H510i black case
• Cooler Master MWE Gold 650 (full modular) PSU

I’m super thrilled with the end result, in the coming years this will be my preferred choice of hardware for work and fun.

2021

Januari

During the pandemic I noticed that sitting all day while working is a damn bad habit. I loved the idea to switch between standing and sitting however the price for such a setup stopped me for buying one. During the Christmas season however, my wife also required a dedicated workspace and my kids wanted to sleep together in just one room. An internal juggle and move was unavoidable and the result was that my workspace ended up in a dedicated room ( I can’t complain about this 😄 ). Also, an additional desk was required. This time multiple factors were involved before I (we) decided to get a proper new desk. After some digging around the internet about what’s available I picked the following setup:

• FlexiSpot E5 (FlexiSpot E5)
• Dark brown oak tabletop (180x80cm)

What I personally like about this setup are; full electric motors (no hassle with a swingarm), the programmable height buttons, timer (notification after x period) and the simplicity. Nothing fancy, just a good desk for the next 10-15 years (or more I hope 😄).

Februari

I recently upgraded my primary monitor as well. I had two 24" screens that did the job, however these monitors I acquired 6 years ago ( during a hardware giveaway bingo at a former employer of mine) were already 8 years old back then. Overall pretty old right? During some game sessions I also noticed that my main monitor couldn’t keep up with my new and modern hardware. I.E. refresh rates, response times, color and resolution. This made me to decide to upgrade. I upgraded my main monitor with a Dell monitor as well. After having monitors that perform 15+ years, you cannot disagree that Dell can produce quality monitors. After some searching I ended up with the Dell S3220DGF. Which combines business looks with gaming performance. The resolution and HDR it features are also well suited for doing a lot of work on it. I am looking forward to enjoying this monitor for a long time. If it perseveres 15+ years of service? We’ll see.

Peripherals

I don’t spend much time in this blog on my peripherals. Some I acquired just recently, some I already bought before the pandemic started and some I took over from a friend. Here’s the complete list:

• Webcam: Logitech C922 Pro stream
• Lights:
  • Unbranded ring light (from amazon)
  • Eyocean LED desk light
• Microphone: Neewer NW-700
• Keyboard: DAS Keyboard 4 Professional
• Mouse: Logitech MX master 2S
• Apple Ipad - 2018

Final thoughts

Over a period of a few months I bought quite some new hardware for making my workspace suited for my needs. Nevertheless I expect that I will continue to improve my setup, one step at a time. It still remains currently the place where you can find me the most part of the day.

Want to know more about my setup and experience with some products? Just leave a comment and let me know!