What's on my Desk - A Complete Tour! (Winter 2024)

What’s on my Desk Winter 2024: New I/O

Over the years, I’ve posted tours of my desk. I try to update it 2-3 times per year when significant hardware changes happen. Since the last post (Fall 2022), I’ve made several changes to light positioning, I/O devices, and added one big piece to the puzzle

My Current Desk

My current desk is a Fully Jarvis Standing Desk and I love it. The full specs are:

60 x 30″ Rectangle Top
Wire Management Grommets with 1 Powered Grommet
Silver Frame
Mid Range Height
Programmable Handset (the preset heights are totally worth it)
Standing Mat
Gray Cable Trays

I also have a side table from Flexispot that I use as my writing desk. That will be covered next!

Everything on the Desk

From left to right (more or less…if anything’s unclear, let me know):

Rodecaster Pro 2: My interface and Mixer. It’s mounted on a standard VESA arm to keep it off my desk. I highly recommend it if you’re a podcaster!
Shure SM7B: My primary podcasting mic.
DT 770 Pro 250 ohm studio headphones (off-camera, you can see the coil): These are my daily studio monitors and headphones.
Rode PSA 1 Boom Arm: To keep the mic off my desk and out of my face.
Sony a6400: I picked this up to do better video work without relying on my iPhone. It has a Sigma 16mm fixed lens on it. You can see the whole Kit here.
The Elgato Prompter: I hate most teleprompters, but the Elgato Prompter has been incredible. It’s the first teleprompter I’ve really used.
Both the camera and the prompter are on a very sturdy base — the old mount wiggled too much!
Elgato Master Mount System: I’m pretty happy with the new mounting system that Elgato put out. It’s the Mount L with a Solid Arm and Flex Arm.
Elgato Key Lights: My main and fill lights when I stream. Fully automated and integrated with HomeKit too!
iPhone 15 Pro Max: The Standby Mode + Continuity Camera support makes this a mainstay on my desk.
LAB22 iPhone MagSafe Stand: I love this thing. It’s so sleek and perfect for Standby mode. Plus it charges my Airpods too!
Field Notes Brand Notebook: I love these things and always have one on me.
CalDigit TS3 Plus Docking Hub: I re-commissioned this since I was plugging a lot of stuff into the Mac Studio. It works like a charm…and it has a friend I’ll talk about in a second.
Apple Studio Display: The best monitor you can get for your Mac.
Twelve South Curve Riser: I didn’t spring for the +$400 Studio Display stand, and wanted a little elevation. This is perfect. On the shelves, you’ll find a pen carry case and my current Field Notes notebook.
- Poker Chips + Pens: You’ll find these on top of the curve riser.
Elgato Stream Deck XL: I love my Stream Deck. You can see exactly how it’s configured here.
Keychron K2 Pro: I was feeling the itch for a clicky keyboard again, and picked up thus one.
Apple’s Magic Trackpad: I’ve been trying this for the last few months for because the gestures are much better than the Logitech MX Master 3.
Sidekick Notepad: I love this thing. Sections for notes and tasks, fits perfectly under my keyboard.
Elgato Steam Deck Plus: More buttons – and knobs too!
Mac Studio: This will be my new production machine for the next several years. Maxed out M1 Max, 64GB RAM, 4TB storage.
Analog by Ugmonk: My paper-based task list. I stopped using this for a while, but I’m back.
iPad Pro 11″: Still a nifty little companion — though it doesn’t leave my desk too much anymore.
LAB22 Infinity Adjust Stand: This is the perfect iPad stand in my opinion. Adjustable height, it rotates, and it’s sturdy. Hugely helpful for reference text or a script I’m reading.
CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 Element Hub: I originally got this because I wanted a smaller footprint for my peripherals. It’s great behind the iPad, but I ended up continuing to use the TS3 so I can better distribute the cables.
Samsung T7 SSD: I use this drive to house my Photos library. It looks like they’re phasing this out for the T9…so I know what I’m buying next…
Opal C1: I call it skycam, and honestly, it’s just OK. I wouldn’t recommend it.
Hexagonal Acoustic Panels: These replaced my haphazardly put-together pegboard foam. More coverage, and more colorful!

Under the Desk

Elevation Labs Anchor: Those headphones sit on the Anchor, which is attached to the bottom of my desk and looks fantastic.
Elevation Shelf XL Plus: This sits attached to the bottom of my desk and gives me a bunch of extra storage.
Sperax Walking Pad,Under Desk Treadmill: I’ve wanted a desk treadmill for a couple of years now, and picked this up for nearly 50% off on Black Friday.

My Writing Table

My writing desk is for focused work like writing, journaling, and planning. SO much so that I’ve moved all the tech aside so it’s a nice, big writing space. I recently swapped out the Fully table for a second standing desk: the Flexispot E7^*. I love it.

Harry’s Candle: For ambiance. Sadly this was a limited run and it’s now sold out.
Penwell Craftsman by Good Made Better: I lovely pen holder modeled after inkwells. It’s currently housing my TWSBI 580 Mint.
Rocket Mic Lamp: I’m going to be honest. I bought this off a Facebook ad and no longer have a link to it. I really didn’t think I’d get it.
Pencil sharpener and scotch tape.
Gather by Ugmonk: This was the original impetus for me organizing my desk and it looks so good. Jeff over at Ugmonk did a really stellar job designing this.
William Hannah A5 Classic Notebook: This is my content planner. It’s pricey but SO worth it. It’s got lots of different refills and I use it every day. I use it for a little bit of everything.
A regular old letter holder. Black Mesh.
AirPods Max (Blue): I was sick of all the issues I was having with other noise-canceling headphones –especially when it comes to device-switching. These fix those issues and sound fantastic. I usually use them plugged into to my Mac Studio for incredible sound quality.
Anker MagGO Charging Station: This thing is SO clutch for keeping everything on my desk charged without running a bunch of wires.
Stand for Apple Watch Charging Puck: With the Apple Watch Ultra and sleep tracking, I find myself charging the watch in smaller bursts, not just at night. So keep a stand handy in my office, just in case.
Key Light Air: This is my backlight now, and provides more even lighting for my live streams and work area in general.
Behind the desk: assorted cork and whiteboards for planning!

Not Pictured Above

Steelcase Gesture: My office chair!
13″ M1 Macbook Air: After trying to live the iPad-only life for a while, I realized there were too many hurdles for the type of work I did. So I picked up the Macbook Air.
Audio Technica AT8035 Condenser Mic: This used to be mounted on top of the camera, but I moved it onto a tripod so I can get it closer when I want an off-camera mic.
KRK Rokit 6 Studio Monitors: When I bought my house, I ditched my nearly 20-year-old computer speakers and picked up these amazing monitors. They sound incredible.
Audio-Technica ART-M50X Headphones: These studio monitors have moved on to my electric drum set.
Switchpod: I was pretty much instantly sold on this when I heard about it and absolutely love it. it’s lightweight yet sturdy, versatile, and very portable.
8TB Western Digital: For my Time Machine backups.
CyberPower 1000VA UPS: Now that I have a desktop again, I don’t want a power outage to kill my work. This uninterruptible power supply does the trick (and probably more tricks than I need it to do).
MagSafe Battery Pack: I honestly don’t care that people think it’s expensive. It’s very convenient!
HMM Scissors from Ugmonk: As a stationery nerd, I’ve always wanted a nice set of scissors. Well, these fit the bill. They look and (more importantly) cut great!
Key Light Mini: A portable smart light with a magnetic back. Great for supplying extra lighting as needed
HomePod Mini: These are all over my house now.
iPad Mini (Purple): This is honestly my new favorite thing. It doesn’t get much use in the office, but it’s usually with me throughout the rest of the house. You can read how I’m using it here.

Other Surfaces

I also picked up this workbench, which sits to the left of my desk. It have various lights and accessories on it. The drawers are amazing. I usually just use the surface for lego builds.

My Fully Table is now at the back of my office, and is home to my Mac Mini, which I’m using as a server. My kids also do homework there.

Here are a few different angles, as well as the whole space!

Decommissioned

In case you’ve been here before and you’re wondering what happened to certain things, here’s a log of everything that’s been decommissioned since Fall 2021:

Keychron K2 Mechanical Keyboard: I just like Apple’s keyboards better, and I’m not doing computer work on the writing desk anymore.
Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700: The ones that Wix sent me from Wixgate. I ended up giving them to my brother after I picked up the AirPods Max.
Satechi AirPods Pro Charger: This isn’t really decommissioned, but it’s not used too often.
Twelve South HoverBar Duo (Gen 2): I love this, but the LAB22 Infinity Adjust Stand is so good.
Stream Deck Pedal: Mostly for experiments. Now that the treadmill is under desk though, I don’t use it.
ComfortLife Anti Fatigue Standing Mat: See above comment.
Twelve South Curve: Now that I don’t keep my laptop on that desk, I don’t really need this.