Beginner’s Guide to the Ultimate Productivity Setup

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Machines talk, we tech.

9 min readJan 17, 2022

This is my productivity setup — not so long ago when I encountered such setup images I thought “this setup is so clean and tidy just for the photo, no one works like that”. Today I know that once you achieve such a setup, it’s very easy to maintain.
Let me take you on a journey for the ultimate productivity setup. You’ll find that it’s very easy to achieve, doesn’t require a lot of time nor a big budget.

Importance of Clean and Tidy Workspace

Why should you care about your workspace? According to this study, undergraduates who were exposed to a neat workspace were able to concentrate on a highly complicated task 1.5 times longer than those who’d been exposed to the messy workspace.

Hygiene is important as well, keeping the workspace clean reduces the chance of getting sick.

Working From Home Challenges

Many people nowadays are working from home. Most of us don’t have a dedicated room to work from, so we find a generic place at home. I see many colleagues working from the living room, kitchen, bedroom, etc. This is an ergonomic disaster.

Poor lighting, messy desks, small monitors and noisy environments can distract us and reduce our productivity.

We spend most of our day working. A clean and comfortable environment will help us stay healthy and improve our productivity.

Motivation

Recently, I started a new job at Augury and things got a little more complicated. I got a MacBook that I work on directly, and since I have a lot of software and personal data on my PC, I wanted to continue using that too.

Connecting and disconnecting many cables each time I want to switch between the PC and the MacBook is not comfortable. Working in a hybrid mode means that I have to disconnect/reconnect my devices a few times a week.

Luckily Augury gives a big budget for this purpose exactly. I wasn’t on a limited budget before, but it did give me extra motivation to invest more thought and money in my setup.

I’ll share with you some of the key aspects that will boost your setup. Let’s dive into the details and start with the most important aspect, ergonomics.

Ergonomics

Neck and back pain are common for those who work in front of a computer a lot, can be reduced or eliminated with a few simple steps.
I suggest following this visual guide — make sure your chair is at the right height as well as your screens.

Your hands and wrists should be in a neutral posture.
Make sure you have proper support for your lower back.
I would recommend going to a physical store with a big variety of chairs. Select the one most comfortable for you and don’t rely on online reviews.
Alan Hedge, a Professor Emeritus at Cornell University in the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis explains the areas of focus for an ergonomic setup.

Ease Of Use

To set up my PC and MacBook together I used a KVM switch. I searched for a switch that will support 2 monitors with HDMI and DP connections, audio, and multiple USB ports for my keyboard, mouse, and webcam. The TESmart Dual Monitor KVM Switch answers all of those.

Note that in this switch the audio is being passed through the HDMI cable as there is only 3.5mm output for the sound, but no dedicated input. For this to work at least 1 of your monitors should have an HDMI input. I also tested a few HDMI to DP active adapters, but they didn’t pass the sound.

I was using the Logitech MK295 wireless mouse & keyboard since it’s super silent. The mouse is very small so I searched for a silent replacement. The Scettar mouse looked promising and it was one of the cheapest with many good reviews on Amazon, plus it comes in a big variety of patterns and RGB colors to choose from. I can confirm that the left and right buttons and the scroller are completely silent. I also started using the extra buttons on the side that allow quick access for back and forth navigation.

Voila! Everything was working and I was happy. For a week.

Most original monitor stands are too short, I’m tall and to achieve the proper monitor height I used books under my monitor stands. I placed the switch between the books with all the cables on my desk. Everything was connected and working as I expected, but it was just a big mess.

Aesthetics

Monitors’ Setup

To reduce the load on my desk, I decided to buy a monitor stand that can hold 2 monitors. This way I won’t need the books, moreover, one single stand at the edge of the table is much cleaner.
I’m not adjusting my monitors at all so I don’t need an arm that will allow a flexible setup for the monitors. I went for the VIVO Dual Monitor Desk Mount Stand as the reviews stated it’s very stable. The only downside of this stand, as for many others, was that it’s too short. The pole is about 17" long, which means my monitors will be placed 1–2" lower than I expected. Since my desk is only 1" thick I could use an old wooden puzzle as an extension of my desk. The pole starts a bit higher, which does the trick. The stand comes with some plastic parts for cable management that help hide the cables and create a cleaner look.

Place your monitors according to your usage.

And for triple monitor setup

Electronics Placement

After watching some setup wars on youtube, I realized I don’t need to place all the electronics on the desk, I can just throw them under. I still didn’t have any gear to organize and hide the cables, but it was a good start.
I moved all the electronics I could to the floor, and channeled the cables that I still had behind the desk from the closest place the device was sitting.

My printer was still on the desk. It was taking up too much space and I don’t use it much, so I moved it under the desk as well. I use a printer without WI-FI, so it still needs to be close to my PC. It will be easier to hide your printer if it has WI-FI and can be placed anywhere.

Lighting

I found an old LED strip I got a while ago. I wrapped it around the monitor’s arms. It creates a nice backlight when I work at night. In my current room, direct light comes from behind the screens, which is not optimal. If you have the opportunity to position your table freely, avoid direct light behind or in front of the monitors.

At this point my desk looked super clean, the setup was very comfortable and I could stop here, but after looking at so many setups, I got the urge to make it even more elegant.

Gadgets

I got a vertical laptop stand so my MacBook would take even less space. My old Creative speakers have excellent sound quality, but since I always use a very low volume and I’m not too sensitive to sound quality, I decided to go for the Redragon GS510 RGB Speakers to boost the look of my setup. No subwoofer, so less space needed and also less power — only a USB cable for the LEDs. To be honest, the sound quality is not that good, but I just love the look of them.

I admit I fell in love with these RGB gadgets, so I added an extended pad with RGB as well. I didn’t find any additional comfort in it, but it frames my keyboard and mouse area, and it looks good. I’m using extra pad support for the mouse and keyboard to avoid wrist pain.

I added a fake plastic plant just to have a little green touch. 2 minutes of DIY and I managed to squeeze it into my new merchandised cup. Also got my first funko pop in place.

Another cool gadget is my headphones stand, it has 4 USB ports that allow me to power my pad and charge my mouse and headphones.

Awesome, right? I still had one area of unfinished business — cables, cables everywhere!

Cable Management

Connecting many devices to 2 computers simultaneously requires a lot of cables.

I started grouping the cables with reusable cable straps. 8" is probably long enough for most usages. I wanted to buy a cable holder from IKEA (SIGNUM ~15$) but it was not in stock so I found a cable management tray on Amazon instead.
I suggest first grouping the cables that go together with the straps, it’ll be easier to set them along with the tray later.
The next step is placing the cable holder — don’t place it at the end of your desk, as you’ll need easy access to it when connecting your electronics.

There are many more gadgets that help organize cables. You can search for them and choose what fits your setup best.

Make It Personal

Use additional gadgets and cool accessories to boost your setup. Funko pops, ducks, fidget cubes, or any other touches with your favorite figures and/or colors. These additions are important, they’ll transform your setup from a generic clean productive setup to your setup.

My setup increases my productivity as a developer and it’s perfect for me. You might want to put emphasis on different aspects. Podcast creators and Vloggers will need to place a microphone and a different lighting setup. Others will prefer to use an adjustable height desk or flexible monitor stands. There is no 1 perfect setup, share your setup, ideas, and cool accessories in the comments.

Setup Wars — TechSource Youtube Channel

TESmart Dual Monitor KVM Switch (273$)