Revisiting My Working Environment

Last year I opined for having a better work environment. This is where I have netted out.

Last year, I took Black Friday as an opportunity to make a Figma moodboard of the objects that could fill my space and create an ideal creative environment. You can read that post here: Thinking About Work Environments. While I did not buy everything from the moodboard, I did make some major changes to my working environment this year. Today, instead of dreaming about all the nice things to make a creative space, I am sharing what is actually in my workspace. I will go in-depth on three things that I have noticed this year back in an office.

Items that are in my office organized in a public Figma document, 2023

First, I moved into a coworking space. While I had a great seven year run working from home (or for many of those days working from a cafe), this year I decided to move to an office; a coworking space to be exact. It comes with a big dedicated desk. This allows me to actually leave stuff at the desk. It is a simple gesture, but it has helped me leave my thoughts at the office as well. To boot, given the scant desire to work in an office these days, my coworking desk is actually a private office at the price of a shared office. On top of all this, the office is a 15 minute walk from my home. The walk home also allows me to let go of work and leave my work related thoughts in the office.

It took a long time to find the right monitor. In my ideal Figma moodboard I had selected Apple’s Studio Display as my preferred monitor. But, as I did more research I found out that the refresh rate was capped at 60hz. This is probably obvious to the gamers out there, but smartphones and new MacBooks have much higher refresh rates. A high refresh rate creates an incredibly snappy experience. For me, this is more important than the resolution or the design of the monitor. So, I discovered the Dough Spectrum monitor. It is a gamer monitor, but is not overtly flashy. It also has a USB hub so that I can connect a single Thunderbolt port to my MacBook and extend both my headphones and wired keyboard to the computer. It feels luxurious in a way I could never achieve via a nomadic working style. I also spruced it up with some Unwilted flowers to hide all the cables.

A photo of my desk in the office, 2023

Lastly, it is hard to beat pen and paper. I invested in an iPad Mini this year. I got a bunch of different accessories to make it feel more like paper and paid for the well made Procreate app. Despite this, I find myself going back to my Leuchtturm 1917 sketchbook and Faber Castell Micron Pens. It is much lighter than an iPad Mini for on the go note taking and jotting. I find myself flipping through the pages much more frequently than going to my iPad Mini. If you are a tablet person, I would love to hear any recommendations on how to get the most out of your device.

There are other things in the Figma that I did not cover that are great for my app development workflows and a few splurge items (like my PlayStation 5, AIAIAI headphones and Ableton Push) that give me hours of use and fun. This, I have found to be more important than actual objects that inhabit my working environment.

To sum up, I was not able create my ideal workspace, but it is a great (and affordable) workspace that I enjoy coming to. What does your workspace look like these days?

—Jono