Home Office Tips

Welcome to Syntax.

On this Monday, hasty treat, we're going to be talking all about optimizing your home office, giving you some tips and tricks into, what a good office and maybe home office or even just general office space feels like to work in.

And if you're anything like me, The last thing you wanna be doing in a cluttered, awful office is debugging your production software. So check out [email protected].

They make debugging and solving your software problems easy, and they, they are the ones presenting syntax, so check it out at century.i0.

What's up, y'all? My name is Scott Tolinski. With me as always is Wes. What's going on, Wes? Stuff. Hey. Not too much. We got a question via

the potluck. And sometimes these questions are so good that we wanna give it its entire episode. So I'll just rattle through this one quickly. I have a question about your home office environment. Do you have any general specific recommendations on how to create a productive, But also relax based for thinking clearly and staying comfortable and focused.

I've been working at home as a web developer for 2 years, And I am still using a room in the house that was once used for kids judging by the cloud wallpaper. It's never really felt like my own space.

And then he goes on to ask for some tips. So this isn't the dream office episode.

We certainly have Scott and I both have our own episodes on that.

Episode 5 16 is Wes' new soundproof office, And Scott's is episode 461, The Level Up Lodge.

And we go through basically like We both have pretty sick offices, and they're ideal because we spend a lot of time recording. We do a lot of video here, and, Overall, we just want to put a lot of time into them, but we know that that's not everybody's set up. A lot of people have a guest room with a bed in the background or a basement closet, and you want to get it dialed in as much as possible so that you can do your best work. So that's what this episode is all about.

Yeah. And I do wanna say too, this even goes for, like, in office office spaces as well. I've worked in plenty of places where there were open offices or, cubicle space or anything like that. So there's definitely a lot of applicable things in this as well For those of you working in an actual office.

And I I do wanna say off the jump here, if you notice that I'm saying things oddly here, I had dental surgery. So just as a disclaimer, maybe just for this in a couple of episodes here, I will be Kind of wonky with some of my words, but I'll be back to normal. So just as a disclaimer.

So, do you wanna get into the very first thing that we have on our list here, Wes? Yeah. This is actually,

something that actually, I went through with my wife, Specifically, we built her an office right across the hall from me, and there's a lot of thought that went into that. And One of the very first things that we did is we had to decide on lighting.

And when we moved into our house, They had put actually pretty expensive, like, Phillips bulbs in every single fixture in the house, but they were all that, like, Extremely cool white, like, way too bright white for you to make the field space feel comfortable. And and I've actually learned since that, like, different cultures around like, I know in Dubai that, like, cool white is very popular because it's very hot there. But In Canada, we much prefer a warm white. It makes the feel space feel a little bit cozy. I have slightly Wider lights in my office because of recording, but Yeah.

We ended up getting pot lights for her that you could adjust and we landed on 35 100 Kelvin.

If you go to the store, just get some new bulbs. I think there's so many people that don't realize that there's different warmth to your light, and it makes the space feel a 1000 times better if you can get something that, In my opinion, it's better like warm light.

Yeah. And if you have cash to spend, the Philips Hue bulbs allow you to adjust. Some of them, even you don't even have to get into the color changing ones. You can get in ones that will adjust the temperature of the light as well.

Stuff. And there is science behind, like, a bright, whiter light being better for concentrating and the the more, You know, warm tones being more calming.

So there is some stuff there. I personally I have all these studio lamps, and it was I I'm already a a fairly pale person, so it was casting a lot of white light on my face at all times. So I end up getting a box that allowed me to have a warm light cast on my face just to give me some color, but that's a totally different need entirely.

My tip for lighting is if if at all possible if at all possible, I I understand this is a, an environment type of thing. Natural light is always going to be the very best. You know, natural light can really help awaken a space in so many ways. So If you can have your room space with lighting, windows, whatever, let's say you're given the option between a closet and a room with a window, pick the room with the window. It it feels like pretty self explanatory, but, yeah, I like natural light in my office if at all possible.

Next one we have here is clutter and cords. This is not something I'm really able to speak on, but that is clutter and cords are your worst enemy.

I have a constant battle. When I first set up my desk, I got every little cord tucked in perfect.

Looked so sweet. You couldn't see a single one, and then, like, 6 months later, they're all dangling because you have to take 1 out and something else works. And Yeah. Some yeah. You gotta unplug and unplug, and stuff. I did end up getting a little, like, USB hub that you can turn on and off with a button, which is really nice. So you don't have to unplug and plug in again, but It's a constant battle of me trying to cable manage but also have access to everything that I need. And when I did all of our new video setup stuff, that a little bit messy.

Yeah. And and there is nothing like, in programming, our work is frustrating. Right? And there's honestly nothing worse And when you're already frustrated by something in your code and then you move something and then it pulls something off your desk or or like Yeah. I I will go absolutely nuts. One time, Wes, I kid you not, I was on a a a video call with Colby Fayock, And we were just doing our intro to level up kind of call, and I went to raise my desk because I you know, I'm I'm stuff. ADHD, I'm standing and sitting all the time. I went to raise my desk, and I had a dangling cable get caught on something, and it pulled my whole desk over.

Stuff. Oh my gosh. Thing

fell backwards, and, it was probably one of the top 10 most frustrating moments.

It was Awful. So cables, they're, you you know, they're awful to to have in a a a way that's going to potentially make you frustrated. I have a number of things that I use. I have a a cable cage, which is like a wire cage that I have screwed to the underneath of my desk.

Any sort of dangling cables, I just tuck in there. It makes it really nice and easy, low effort.

I use these, like, sticky cable holders so that stuff. Where my once my setup is dialed in, it's just a little sticker you put on your desk that holds a cable. Yeah. Those are great. When you unplug something, the cable's not falling off the back of the desk. You don't have to go hunting for it. If you're running cables to your desk and you have a wood floor, I use a one of those rubber, floor runners that you you basically tuck the cables in this rubber thing, and then you sticky that to the floor. You don't want exposed cables on the floor. I use this. Apparently, that's like a a very high

House fire cause is people put like a put a, thing under a rug or something like that, extension cord, And you run over it, and you can't see it. So definitely get something to protect your cables if they are running over the floor. Yeah. Totally.

I use this Tubing for my wires that is like a a neat nylon tubing for your wires that you can tuck them all in to keep all the cables that are our supposed to be run together together.

You can get in various widths. It's nice and easy to work with. I also will recommend

Cutting a hole in your desk. Like, don't be afraid to pop a hole through it. I'm afraid of that. Because you can go grab a what is it like a 2 inch hole saw? Maybe it's a 1 inch, 1 and a half. Whatever the whole side is, you can buy these little grommets, desk grommets off of Amazon and just cut a hole where your wires need to go, and then that will stop them from going over the back of the desk. A lot of people don't necessarily care about it if you can't see it, but, that's one of those things that made a huge difference for me. Just popping a hole right through it. I did also Recently on my whole thing behind me, which is what is it? The whole bookcase? I popped holes in every single the back of the bookcase so that the wires can run down through that.

And stuff. It's pretty easy to do. Just go get a little hole saw if you don't have 1 and buy a bunch of these things. Slap them in. Good to go. Word. Yeah. I also find Nanotape was pretty good as well, not for super heavy things, but for relatively for cords and little boxes, USB hubs. Nanotape is this like reusable tape. Velcro is pretty good.

Stick it to the bottom of your desk at somehow even pipe strap. I have a bunch of pipe strap underneath my desk for the really heavy stuff. Yeah.

Next tip here is to clean.

Judiciously clean. Yeah. I I clean all the time. In fact, I like to clean at the end of each day. I understand that's not possible.

Stuff comes up. At the very least, do a deep clean, like, Friday at 3 PM. I'm talking any trash, Anything that's not supposed to be on your desk, like, stuff accumulates in your workspace. It just Like all the cups in the house? Books and papers.

Look. I got I got I boop I boop Ibuprofen right here. I got a lens cap right here.

I have a a yogurt lid over here. Let's see what what random stuff can I find on my desk here? I got Syntax Yeti, soon to be available on the site store. Yep. I have a A a Blackberry on my desk. Wow.

Don't ask me why. What else we got here? A little nippers, USB bank.

Stuff. Yeah, I have such a because I have such a nice big desk.

It's just flat surfaces, man.

I have a way to do it. And It's gotten a lot better since I moved to the shoebox system, which is I left it open entirely for the Illustration of that. And basically, every single shoebox has, like, a category in it, and you just just throw the cords in there. You don't like, you can tie them up and whatnot, but Just knowing that, okay, if I need a USB C cable, I know that they're in the modern USB box, and I'm not going to be spending forever Looking for that thing. It's nice just to be able to throw it in there and be done with it. Yeah. Totally. And also do, like, actual deep cleaning. You know?

Some simple green spray and some some paper towel or what we we recently bought these, like, reusable paper towels, which are cloth that you can reuse a number of times that are are nice to use. But either way, you need that stuff, man. Clean it on Friday. I'll tell you what. There's absolutely nothing worse than coming in to work on Monday with a messy desk.

If you you're already like, oh, man. I'm going back to work. If you come back to work on Monday with a beautiful clean desk, it feels completely different.

Like a a breath of fresh air. I'm ready to get started rather than Yeah.

Encumbered by all of this stuff around you. But if you if you make a commitment to do it, you know, every Friday as you leave work or whatever, your desk will be

a completely different stress environment for you. I I have a a tip for you. Baby wipes. So if you are on a different level, you don't necessarily have a sink whatever. Like, it's like it's a thing to bring a cloth, you know, over.

Baby wipes, man. Like, you spill a little bit of coffee or, like, Oh, you're sitting on a call and you're like, oh, I should wipe stuff down. It's a little bit dusty. Having just a pack of baby wipes in your office has been Awesome for me because I could just grab 1 and get out of even like my keyboard. My mouse gets a little bit gross sometimes, and Every now and then, I'll just especially if I'm, like, watching, like, a video on, like, how to do something.

While I'm doing that, I'll I'll just grab a baby wipe and go to town on it. Word.

That's a nice tip. Next one we have here is, sound absorption.

So you don't need to create an entirely soundproof office obviously, but having an office that absorbs the sounds that are happening in your office will, At least for me, makes me so much more calm. Like, if you've ever been in a, like, a gymnasium or, like, a room that is not yet finished or anything like that, and there's people talking and you feel really irritated or overwhelmed.

It might be because the sound waves are bouncing around and just, like, kind of overwhelming you. So also, like, if your Zoom calls sound like garbage When you're on the call with somebody that is hurting your team as well.

So stick something up. It could be a tapestry. It could be like, obviously, you can build sound panels.

I have several of those, But just putting little pieces of phone, literally anything, a couch, a rug, something in your office that will absorb those echoey sounds will make a massive difference both like as you're talking on at least for me, if I hear myself talking and Like, a major echo, it really throws me off. But then whenever there's, like, a nice room tone, it's a lot easier for me to get my thoughts out. Yeah. Totally. And

I've often put, like, furniture like, let's say, we had a couch in our house forever, old IKEA couch. Right? Yeah. My wife wanted to get rid of it. It said, it's not it's kind of a ratty couch. I'm gonna be honest. But it's we we've had a very long time here. But when the couch, came up for grabs, I said, I'm going to throw that couch in my office regardless of how well it fits in here or not.

It's gonna absorb a ton of sound. It's gonna give me some place to chill out. But, like, having anything in here that absorbs that sound. All all hard surfaces is a bad idea in general for making yourself sound good.

Another thing here, if you're working in a real office sound because His old house, the dogs barking, kids talking, whatever.

You know, you're gonna hear everything.

Noise canceling headphones stuff. Will separate you from that world in a very positive way that will take you out and just put you into a completely different headspace. So if you cannot have any sort of I I know soundproofing is like a whole whole topic. And and, in fact, most people probably even should've dive into actual soundproofing or anything like that. So Noise canceling headphones will will do a world of soundproofing for you in a way for your own personal headspace rather than, you know, what does your microphone sound like.

And also, here's another one for focusing, some place you can shut the door.

Because stuff. If you're setting up your space in a common area of your house, not being able to shut the door invites people walking through that space, jump. Kids walking through that space, anything that can pull you out of not only your head space, but can just, like, Distract you, make you feel scattered. And it's not about being 100% productive.

For me, it's more about, like, Not getting frustrated with the problems I'm trying to solve. Let's face it. We're we're working on, you know, stuff that can be very the Mentally taxing and being able to put yourself in a headspace that minimizes, stuff. I wanna say, like, aggression, but just like that sort of frustration that comes about when working in problem solving. Yeah. Noise canceling headphones are

Like a game changer. I wear mine all day long, and I have 2 pair because the battery does last all day. But if I forget to charge them, and I'm in like a middle of a call and I just grabbed the other pair.

I specifically have worn the QC 35 for probably 6 or 7 years now.

I have tried the 7 100. They are hot garbage.

And then I know the Sony XW 4 mine Jade emoji. What do you got?

Come Come on. Just give just give us, like, a a Sony Noise Pro, you know, whatever. They don't have to do the Apple thing, but just give us a real product name instead of some giant string of numbers. Yeah. And we we got my kids, the y's, like, the w y zed e. We got them the noise canceling headphones, and they are so comfy.

Having headphones that hurt your head can drain your energy, and they are so comfortable to put on. They don't sound amazing. Like, I don't think that I would do it for listening music all day long. But if you're not like an audiophile or You don't necessarily care or you just want to have the noise canceling thing on all day long, then that's a good set to have. It looks like they're sold out.

I think they regularly go on sale for 50, $60. Their website says the white ones are $20 And the black ones are 100, but they're both sold out. So I don't even know if they're going to go back in stock. But there's tons of these like second tough ear noise canceling headphones. You don't have to buy a $500 pair.

Yeah. No. Totally. Just anything.

And even honestly, stuff. I I I know they like, in ear ones, Samsung or whoever, makes some decent ones that are are not, like, crazy expensive. They're are good. Another thing here is is get your ergonomics dialed in.

There's a lot here.

And and you don't have To be, you know, that, like, classic image of the guy with the footrest and the hand and every you don't have to be the the picture perfect ergonomic, a caricature, but I think it's important to be ergonomically comfortable in a a way that makes you productive.

I personally the things that I value here is a sit stand desk.

You can get them for fairly cheap. With the cranky ones IKEA or a mechanical one, I just used the Jarvis legs in an IKEA countertop.

I know, Wes, you did something somewhat similar.

Jump. Being able to sit stand, it's huge for me. And and on that same degree, a fatigue mat for when you're standing is really nice on your feet And I'll make you stand longer.

But just that transition can put you in a different headspace sometimes. For, like, a 100 and $40,

150. You can get a pair of Sandy desk legs, which is I was surprised at how affordable they are. And then just Even your existing desk.

I think that's the ideal, especially if you're not going to be standing. It's still nice to get the height of the desk dialed in. Absolutely perfect. But you could if you have to go up, just put some pieces of wood underneath your desk. Get it Perfect.

You know, like spend some time on it and sit with it for a couple days. Nah, maybe a little bit higher, maybe a little bit lower because That was a game changer for me for getting it absolutely dialed in. It's just so much more comfortable.

And then get a monitor arm or raise your monitor to the right height. I know a lot of people just put O'Reilly books underneath their monitor or like an Amazon box.

Obviously, that works. But at the very least, get a piece of wood and paint it. Make it look nice, you know, because, like, if you are staring at an Amazon box to lift your monitor up, I feel like I feel like that's not good. I don't know. Maybe it's not a big deal, but I feel like a monitor arm is like 20 or $30.

Just get one and then dial it into the perfect height so you can really enjoy sitting at your desk. So it's the monitor arm, the desk height, and your chair height. Play with the chair height as get it dialed in. Those things are super important to being comfortable.

Yeah. In here, I've linked to a Vivo one that's, like it's $40 on Amazon, and it's, pneumatic.

So it, like, truly stays wherever you put it. You're not gas arms. Those are great. Yeah. You're not having to worry about and and, honestly, I move mine all the time.

I'm feeling like I need to engage. I'll bring it closer. I feel like it's too high. I'll move it. I'm you know what? I'm I'm crazy with it. I'll move it all over the place. So, Sometimes I don't even want it. Move it all the way. Who cares? So, like, having a a a decent monitor is a good thing.

And another thing I like is I have a foam knee pad that you can get off of Amazon for cheap. It's just a like a little foam knee pad.

And sometimes I'll bring my desk down and kneel, or I'll do lunges and and get some movement in while I'm working. Jeff. Maybe it's just because I'm hyperactive, but, like, that stuff really is important to me. I was often known as the guy who, sat on the floor at work and stretched.

Yep. He's on the floor again stretching. Alright.

That's good.

Last 1 I have here is rollerblade wheels.

This was a major game changer for me. If you don't know, pretty much every office chair out there will accept third party wheels for it. So it probably came with some cheap plastic casters, even if, like, I have an expensive Herman Miller one, and It comes with these casters and you can pop them out and swap them with these roller blade casters and they are so smooth.

If you are on carpet, if you are on a rug, if you're on hardwood, It's so much nicer. Like, my wife got a brand new chair the other day, and immediately it's like, take these things off. 1st, they're going to scratch up our flooring down here. I feel like I can get the spacing absolutely perfect with these wheels.

You might not notice, but you might just be pushing your body to the right or to the left just slightly.

Or if you have a monitor that's not perfectly centered, you might just, like, have your eyes off to the side. You might be leaning one way. I feel like with the roller blade wheels, your chair will adjust to those micro movements in your weight, And it does a better job at sort of centering you for where you wanna go. Plus, you go fast as hell, and you can spin around. So that's fun as well. Yeah. Totally.

They are awesome. And the best part is, like, you got rugs. You got whatever.

They just roll over anything to the point where, like, stuff. I don't know about you, Wes, but, like like I've mentioned several times in this episode, when you're already frustrated with your code, the last thing you wanna do is be frustrated by something external that could be prevented. Yeah. The under blade wheels just rolling over stuff just stuff.

It removes one of those points where you could, further frustrate yourself in the midst of being annoyed with something else. Yeah.

Need one of those, you know, those plastic pads, then you roll off of it and you Oh, yeah. You know, you fall off the end and they're they're cracked.

Get your toe stuck in the crack, and it pinches you. You don't need those things with the rollerblade build. Spikey. What's up with the like, have you ever tried to pick one of those left? Oh, yeah. Try and think about it? Are they poking you? Now.

Although I have seen they have there's glass ones. I know. We're we get the same Instagram as I'm sure. Yeah. I don't know if I would ever do it, but, like, Man, that those look sick. I

am way too clumsy and destructive to own a glass of flour.

Yeah. You could drop something in. I don't know. Like, if it's made out of stuff the cars are made out of, you know, car car windows. If you ever watch videos of people try to break a car window, You realize,

oh, heroin was a pretty strong. There's a really good one of that guy who there's a guy who who's, like, trying to road rage, And he comes over to a car and starts pounding on the window. Boom. Boom. And you're just like, oh, buddy.

Awesome. Alright. I think that's all of our tips here. If you have some tips for getting your office dialed in, making it As comfortable as possible, let us know. Tweet us at syntax fm. We'll retweet a couple. Word. Alright. Alright. Peace. Peace.

Head on over to syntax.fm for a full archive of all of our shows, and don't forget to subscribe in your podcast player Or drop a review if you like this show.