Today I’m grateful for my desk. It’s been three years since we designed them and had them custom-built, and both Pepper and I love them.
We’re so glad we decided to incorporate the adjustable-height motors, so we can sit or stand as we like. I remember back in my home office how I used cinder blocks beneath my desk to give me a standing option. A few years after that, at the recommendation of a friend I bought a Varidesk platform to raise my keyboard and monitors to a standing height. It’s actually a great little device, but it only has space for two monitors and once you go to three, you don’t go back. When designing our desks, I carefully measured to ensure I’d have room for a set of three thirty-inch beasts.
Although I don’t do web development eight or ten hours a day any more, I still spend a considerable amount of time at the computer. There are always photos to be edited, board games to be designed, and blog posts to be written. It’s really nice to sit for a while, then stand for a while, then go back to sitting, and so on. I keep my desk and workspace fairly clutter-free (a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, or something like that). It means I can always pull out a project and get right to work.
A while back, Thom and I had a fun discussion about desks and how the way one organizes a desk can boost (or hinder) the work that happens there. I actually thought a lot about that, and even as my desk has evolved over the years, I continue to find it a place where I can feel productive and creative.