What's on my Desk - A Complete Tour! (Fall 2022)

Fall 2022: Mount Everything

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. For Fall 2022, I got made a few upgrades, including mounting my Rodecaster Pro 2 to make more room on the desk.

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 Fully 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.
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.
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!
Elgato Stream Deck XL: I love my Stream Deck. You can see exactly how it’s configured here.
iPhone 14 Pro Max: With the always-on display, I wanted this back on my desk.
MagSafe Charging Stand: It’s a simple solution for mounting my phone for charging. You’ll have to get the charging puck separately. Usually, my phone is there. It can also flip up to charge the AirPods.
DT 770 Pro 250 ohm studio headphones (off-camera, you can see the coil): I got new studio headphones after 6 years. My M50Xs have moved over to my electric drum set.
Apple Studio Display: I’ve been waiting patiently for Apple to make a new monitor, and I’m not disappointed! On the foot is a pen I’m currently using: the Mark Two by Studio Neat.
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.
Mac Studio: This will be my new production machine for the next several years. Maxed out M1 Max, 64GB RAM, 4TB storage.
A Disney Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge Black Spire Outpost Millennium Falcon Statue is on top of the Mac Studio. I got it when I previewed Galaxy’s Edge before it opened.
Full-Size Magic Keyboard with TouchID + Magic Mouse. Not pictured: Space Grey Magic Trackpad
Panopad by Studio Neat: For note-taking!
iPad Pro 11″: I went on a bit of a vision quest in 2019 to figure out my desk travel gear, and I settled on the 11″ model after using the 12.9″ for a while. When I’m not traveling, it’s a tertiary monitor.
Twelve South HoverBar Duo (Gen 2): The iPad sits in the Hover Duo, which allows me to keep it at eye level, right next to my monitor to serve as a sidecar, especially when I’m live streaming. But lately, I’ve been using Universal Control a ton. Such a great feature.
Custom Poker Chips + Pens: You’ll find these on the base of the HoverBar Duo. Members get a “memberchip,” and the pens are whatever I’m using that day.
Analog by Ugmonk: My paper-based task list. I love it.
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.
Hexagonal Acoustic Panels: These replaced my haphazardly put-together pegboard foam. More coverage, and more colorful!
Gather corkboard coaster and headphones stand (more on the Gather below).
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.
Satachi Headphones Stand: For the same reason I re-commissioned the CalDigit, I wanted a few more ports on my desk.
Phillips Hue Lights on Stands: to add a little more color to my desk. They face the wall.

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.
Key Light Mini: A portable smart light with a magnetic back. Great for supplying extra lighting as needed
Stream Deck Pedal: Mostly for experiments. I can see it being super helpful for pre-recorded videos.
ComfortLife Anti Fatigue Standing Mat: For what I’m using the standing part of my standing desk.

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.

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.
HomePod Mini: These are all over my house now.
This Rocket Thing I got from an Instagram ad.
Theme System Journal: My daily journal. I love it. Wrote about it here.
Other miscellaneous notebooks
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. You can find a breakdown of its current configuration here.
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.
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.
Twelve South Curve: I got this beautiful and sturdy stand, which basically now serves as a charging shelf for my Air, and a way to hide a bunch of wires!
Anker MagGO Charging Station: This thing is SO clutch for keeping everything on my desk charged without running a bunch of wires.
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.
Apple Pencil: Pretty much a requirement with my iPad.
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!
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.
Samsung T7 SSD: For my Photos Library
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).
Satechi Headphone Stand: This bad boy comes with USB ports built-in for charging stuff.
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!

…I also picked up this workbench, which sits to the left of my desk.

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.

Improvements/Goals

This is the happiest I’ve been with my setup since moving to the house. I think the biggest improvement I can make is to wire management. Oh…and I still want an orange HomePod Mini…