Work from home must-haves

Mouse wiggler

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Have dual monitors and a surface pro already,

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my setup; with my surface on the desk that makes 3 monitors. its not a 'oh look how cool' its literally necessary for all the crap i have to be looking at and moving stuff from one app to the other.

i went to a standing desk after the first 6 months of covid where i felt like i never stood for 8 hours. it took a short period of time to adjust but now i can't imagine sitting. i'm in a perma-stand position and its great to be able to pace and walk in circles while i'm trying to figure something out.

coffeemaker/espresso is a good one; i'm and addict and it gets me off my game to have to go downstairs to make fresh coffee.

i have one of those 'kitchen prep' foam rugs from costco under me and i'm more comfortable going barefoot all day than with shoes. in fact shoes start to irritate me after an hour or so standing so i'm all-bare-feet-all-the-time now. shoes are by the office door so i can slip them on when i'm going to deal w/ the dogs or something.

i bought a cheap 'soundbar' type speaker that lives under my monitor and its been a game-changer for teams calls. i was using the tiny-arse speaker built into the surface that was off to the side and it was never loud enough. this is just a cheap amazon chinese speaker with an analog DIAL on top that lives under my main monitor and having that knob to adjust sound on the fly without dealing w/ the pc volume control nonsense is huge.

speaking of audio, i have a stereo pair of sonos across the room from me; love that. i can listen to music all day and not be interrupted by the sound coming out of my pc if i'm testing something with audio or video. plus using a sonos for a glorified teams call speaker would have been a huge waste.

i have lots of little plastic hook/eyelets under my desk and route all my charging crap through those so i don't have a bunch of dangling cables. my fitbit, phone, kindle, keyboard, mouse, etc. can be charged without playing musical-plugs. speaking of which i have a GOOD surge protector/usb/power strip thingie so everything is plugged in.

regarding cables; i bought a wireless keyboard & mouse and that really helps to reduce the cable clutter. i charge the mouse & keyboard *MAYBE* once every 6 months. if i ever forget i can always use the surface keyboard or trackpad while they're charging.

i also have a UPS in my server rack that powers my server and fiber router. this has been a life-saver as i've had probably a dozen brief power-outages in the last year and aside from a storm that knocked power out for 24 hours, this maintains my internet connection even when this goes out during a teams call which makes my remote work more professional. i'm amazed at how often other people 'lost internet' during work calls and it inconveniences everyone else on the call. i don't want to be THAT GUY.

i have a side table/hobby table/coffe station/printer stand to one side in my office so that's my 'catch all' to keep the clutter at bay from my main desk which is pretty much filled by the monitors.

as for lighting; i try to have some backlighting in my office so that evens out video but having a large window and lots of sun i rarely need it. i'm not trying to take a selfie but a washed out/too dark person on a call looks lazy to me. it doesn't take that much to look professional with proper lighting.

finally i keep a dress shirt on the back of the chair at my side table. if anyone notices i'm almost always in the same dress shirt they haven't said anything. its better than the white tshirt i'm almost always rocking.

Might go without saying, but keep all personal communications and data - phone, email, text, files, IM, TigerDroppings, etc. - off employer-owned devices and networks.

Employers still own the data on their networks and devices, regardless of where you're working.

fleshlight and amazon subscribe and save for KY/lotion

49” ultrawide monitor. Word doc, excel spreadsheet and email side by side by side and all easily legible.

Standing desk, I have the IKEA Idasen with a custom wood top I made for it. The Idasen base use to be a steal for how sturdy it is, but Covid raised it through the roof. Has good electronics and super stable.

An iPad Pro and Duet Display for iPad with an unlimited data plan on your cell phone to tether. Why work from home when you have a laptop and an iPad for a second display and can work anywhere.

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I hear constantly about the Herman Miller chairs but I don't see that in my budget.

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i wish you lived closer to me. i have a HM chair piled high with crap sitting at the table across from me that I bought from work when we downsized our office.

brand new; i'd sell it to you cheap but unless you're in middle tn and can pick it up it would be a chore to ship.

seems like a lot of work. my wiggler stays plugged into my usb hub and have never had any issues running it like that. it may even only do the every-so-often-mouse-move if the mouse is idle. i have this one amazon - mouse wiggler

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I am actually trying to do this job

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same.

i do enough work outside of normal hours that i'm not trying to justify my mouse not moving all day long. i mow the lawn, pick up kids from school etc during the day.