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Adjusting to the remote work lifestyle can take time. I remember when I started working from home it was just me and my laptop on the couch. This sounds like it would be fun, but it honestly starts to get uncomfortable after a few hours. Not to mention, it felt unprofessional and awkward to take a meeting from the couch.
I started to get in a good groove when I set up my home office. I was significantly more productive and it was in general a lot easier to get in the working mood. I also find it easier to step away from work now that I have a dedicated space. When 5 o’clock hits I slam my computer shut (okay maybe not slam) and walk away. I am to not go near that area again until the morning. So today I bring you my work-from-home office set-up essentials.
The Best Work From Home Office Set-Up For Remote Work
Hardware
I am an Apple girl through and through. I love that all of the Apple devices can easily connect through the iCloud. It allows me to share notes, text messages, images, browsers, and more between all of my devices. The company I work for supplies us with a computer, but I like to do my personal work on a separate computer. I did however buy the same computer for my personal life which is the 2022 Mac Book Pro Laptop 13 inch 16 GB RAM.
The 2022 Mac Book Pro is insanely quick and is capable of doing all of my basic needs when it comes to editing videos, design work, and coding. The battery life is also phenomenal, up to 20 hours. I can work the whole day at a coffee shop and never need to plug in.
I also have a second monitor, which I highly recommend getting one. It is a game changer. Oftentimes, I will have my Slack and Calendar up on my laptop and then do any of marketing work on the monitor since it’s significantly larger. I also enjoy having two screen when I’m working through reporting and forecasting. I can have my reports on one screen and then the forecasting workbook on the other screen. Makes it so much more efficient. The monitor I use is the HP M27fwa 27-inch, if your role is heavy in graphic design I probably would go with a higher-end monitor. But for basic marketing needs, this monitor is budget-friendly and works great. To connect the monitor to your laptop you will need an HDMI-> USBC cord.
Standing Desk
A standing desk is a work-from-home essential. Since you’re not in an office, you’ll find yourself sitting there for HOURS without moving. I feel like when I was in the office I got up often to ask people questions, go into meetings, get snacks, etc. Now I’m glued to my chair from 8am to 5pm. Having the option to take meetings standing has helped me get up and moving. You can also put a walking pad under a standing desk!
The standing desk I have is so old, I honestly don’t know where it came from. The first company I worked at bought standing desks back in 2017 and then when COVID hit they shut down the office and let us take the furniture home. I’ve been in the market for a new standing desk though. You have to literally crank it to go up and down like old-school car windows and the handle to crank it is broken. So I’m going to tag some of the standing desks that I am looking at purchasing!
My favorite ($179): Flexispot Electric Standing Desk
The affordable option ($129): SMUG Electric Standing Desk
The splurge ($399): Fezibo Electric Standing Desk with Double Drawers
Laptop & Monitor Stand
There are two different ways you can go here. And I’ve gone both ways.
Laptop and monitor stand in one. This is what my setup currently is and I love it. I bought this shelf from IKEA. Yes, a shelf. It somehow fits perfectly on my desk and it has two drawers where I can keep headphones, notebooks, and loose paper. This helps to keep my space tidy on the surface. If you go this route I highly suggest purchasing a keyboard and mouse. I prefer the Bluetooth Apple keyboard and mouse to reduce the plug-ins and clutter.
A separate stand for both your monitor and your laptop. I think this setup works better if you don’t like typing on a keyboard and mouse and prefer to work directly on your laptop. Here is a monitor stand that has little compartments to stay organized. This laptop stand is adjustable so you can manipulate it to be most comfortable for you.
Headphones
Alright, I’m not going to lie. I have the world’s smallest ears and literally no set of earbuds can fit in my ears besides the ones that came in the iPhone pages back in like 2012. These are still a generation off, but I do use the Apple Wired EarPods too. I live alone so most of the time I just go without any headphones at all.
Notebooks
If there was a world’s biggest note-taker and list-maker award, it would go to me. I make list upon list. There is today’s to-do list, this week’s to-do list, next week’s to-do list, and this quarter’s to-do list. I like to keep my weekly to-do list on paper. I have one similar to this Spiral Notepad, it makes me feel like I’m in an episode of Blue’s Clues with my handy dandy notebook. The rest of my tasks I keep in Asana which is a project management platform. I’ll create a whole blog just on that here soon.
I also love to have just a normal spiral-bound notebook to take notes on during meetings. Which ends up looking like chicken scratch and I never can understand what the notes are saying. But somehow it makes me feel better during the meeting to be taking notes.
These are my all-time favorite felt tip pens by PaperMate. I love how smooth they write and all of the fun colors.
All Set!
That wraps up my desk space! I’d love to know what other desk essentials you love to have in your home office in the comments.