Comments on: Creating a Productive Home Office

By: Creating a Productive Home Office – Update 1 - DIGTD - Making You More Productive

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:01:48 +0000

[...] wrote a few weeks ago about my aim to totally revamp my home office and make it a truly productive home office. Well, I just thought I would provide an update as to where I am with [...]

By: Sven Fechner

Sven Fechner — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:06:03 +0000

Great read. I will be moving houses in September and for the first time will have a huge space for my home office. So far it has always been in the corner of some other room. I certainly consider a bit more filing space and cupboards for books than yourself. But I certainly agree on nice, large table for very few equipment – just like the Galant ones from IKEA you have mentioned. But I am always a bit concerned about cable clutter which is difficult to avoid with regular or free standing desks. There is usually a lot of cables around: USB hub, printer, external hard drive, iPhone dock, digital camera usb cable, … so hence I am looking into a setup where I’ll have a little shade in front of my desk which will be facing the room.

By: Business Development | Social Media Literacy |…words » Productivity Links- Thursday, June 18th/09

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:50:24 +0000

[...] Andrew Mason of Did I Get Things Done? writes about his personal attempt at organizing his home workspace in his post “Creating A Productive Home Office”. http://www.didigetthingsdone.com/2009/06/12/creating-a-productive-home-office/ [...]

By: Tony Garland

Tony Garland — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:29:08 +0000

The power bars are from Taiwan (bought in Hong Kong, where I live). I suggest that a better one would have the sockets a little further spaced. The cable management is just pvc trunking 65 x 65 mm with slots on the side walls to allow cables to enter and leave at any point. I have it about 4″ above the desk top and the power bar above that and then use flexible conduit to route cables to equipment. You can pick up the trunking from an electrical contractor who makes control panels as it is standard kit for that – cheap as chips! If you want a photo of my set up let me have an e-mail address.

By: Andrew Mason

Andrew Mason — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 07:10:04 +0000

@Tony Garland: Sounds like we are both going to have the same desk! I agree with power and the problem with leads. I currently hide these under my desk. With a quick count up I need 9 plugs in my office, with a couple spare for when I plug chargers in etc. So this means I need 11 sockets! Would love to know more details about the cable management you have and where you bought it all from. I know the Galant desk range does have a cable management tray you can attach to it and I have been looking at getting a 16 strip power bar similar to what are used in racks. The APC Power Bar's looks awesome, although expensive. These have a web interface so I can remotely power devices on and off. Handy for turning on my NAS so I can access it from anywhere in the world through my VPN or MobileMe! Thanks for the great comment!

By: Andrew Mason

Andrew Mason — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 07:06:07 +0000

@DannyT: Thanks for the comment Danny. I agree that social networking such as Facebook and Twitter can be counter productive and it does take great self control to ensure these do not interfere with your productivity. Luckily, I think I have this in hand although I do normally have two laptops on my desk. My main MacBook Pro with my 30" TFT and also my MacBook Air. I normally use Spaces and set up my second screen with all my social networking and I do limit how much time I spend on it although I do get a lot of great work related content from my social networks.

By: Tony Garland

Tony Garland — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 05:55:02 +0000

You don’t mention about how to get power to your techie gadgets! This is critical for a good layout as cables all over place really detracts from effective working.

I upgraded my home office last year, the key element being a corner Gallant desk from IKEA. I found a block of sockets designed for installing in a computer rack. I installed 1 on each wall with a 3″ slotted cable duct beneath to carry the cables around the desk. One has 12 sockets and the other 16. I was told I was mad for having so many but they are already around two thirds full with plugs.

I still have cables on the desk but the floor is clear and there are far less cables hanging about and getting in the way.

Only problem is that the sockets are too close together for some of the larger power transformers, so some end up being unusable.

By: DannyT

DannyT — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:21:03 +0000

This might add undesired footprint but if I were to do this I would aim to have another computer/laptop available in the office purely for email, social networking, twitter and anything non-core-work related.

Having it physically distant from your main computer (e.g. opposite side of the room, or at the end of the desk) so you have to do more than a few degrees of swivel to access it, will allow for a form of ‘caves and commons’ type setup. When you’re at your main computer you’re solely focused on the task in hand, when your mind starts to wander move to the other computer to have a much more distinct separation. This way you will not be blurring the lines between distraction and work and will hopefully appreciate the downtime more whilst away from your work unit yet also not feel like you’re sort-of working when you’re really not.

This is all of course just based on my own dreamt up theory but sounds good in my head!

By: Andrew Mason

Andrew Mason — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:50:08 +0000

@eurig harries: Great to hear you are liking the ScanSnap. I do like the portability of the 300 but the 510 looks better for my home office right now. Still undecided though. Thanks for the comment.

By: eurig harries

eurig harries — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 09:26:44 +0000

I have recently bought a Fujitsu scansnap S300 to go with evernote and it has revolutionised my office. The ability to instantly store a document in a computer folder rather than having to try and find space in my filing cabinet, and the ability to access that document from any computer has been fantastic. I am now getting rid of the boxes full of “not sure where to put this” documents.
I bought the S300 as though it won’t scan as many sheets at once it allows me to scan at home, work and when I’m on call.