Nerve Endings Firing Away

I’ve been lurking around personal workspace sites recently; notably at Lifehacker and Unclutterer. It is a fascinating insight into people’s lives and homes that gives you plenty of ideas to make your workspace unique and productive. These spaces are not workplaces where you do not have much leeway into decorating and customizing. Although not all people work from home or even work at home, almost everyone has a nook where their computer sits. This often doubles up as your personal workspace where you do your homework, manage your household finances, or simply surf the web. In today’s wireless world, there is a sense of purposiveness when you are tethered to a desk. For an organizational freak like sometimes I like to be, it is in fact a calming place.

Minimalism is all the rage in home workspace organization and without actually experiencing or putting yourself through the paces of reducing your clutter, it may seem like a fad. Try reducing your clutter to the absolute bare essential and you’ll find how difficult it can be. Inspired by these brilliant examples on the web, I’m planning on making my workspace more efficient at least at home first. The first step is to tidy up a little and capture your current and existing setup for comparison sake later. Featured below is my home workspace located in the guest bedroom:

Apart from a little sprucing up, it is pictured as it exists. I tried making this a meme on Twitter but only Parag responded and Sakshi promised but has not yet delivered (will my blog readers be more cooperative?)I have a IBM Thinkpad T60 which is the only brand I’ve trusted over the year and remain impressed by its robustness; for at least three years. I use a Logitech laptop stand for ergonomic reasons and having typed up my 280-page dissertation recently, I can vouch for my carpal tunnel syndrome-free wrists. I even carry it with me in my backpack when I go to the neighborhood coffee shop and have received plenty of “I wish I had one of that” remarks. I prefer a mouse instead of using the laptop’s track pad and my Moleskine sits right next to me for quick hard-copy notes. Given the scant HDD space on my Thinkpad, I use a Fantom Drive external HDD to store my music and backup my documents and photos. The wall behind the screen featured family photos. The JBL woofer sits hidden behind the laptop although I’ve moved it out to the living room now. A comfy leather chair makes the workspace complete and the window on my right keeps me connected to the world outside. Other images from my workspace are here and here. Don’t forget to scroll over the images for notes. Adding these images to the Lifehacker Featured Workspace pool on Flickr has garnered nearly 1,500 views so far making them the top 5 images in my Flickr photostream already. I guess plenty of people are equally obsessed about personal workspaces.

Using 19″ dual monitors at work, I have found them immensely productive. Recently, I got a Dell 22″ widescreen monitor, an Apple bluetooth wireless keyboard, and a Logitech wireless optical mouse. This not only lets me enjoy a much wider screen space but also greatly reduces my cable clutter. The revised workspace is featured below:

The laptop can stay closed now and I access it through the keyboard and the mouse with a widescreen with a 1680 x 1050 resolution. Thanks to Arzan’s suggestion, I’ve placed the laptop on the keyboard tray now freeing up precious deskspace. Updated picture coming soon. I hope to get a new laptop soon; I’ve had my eye on the Macbook Pro for more than a year now. Hopefully I get it as a graduation gift ;) Until then the Thinkpad quietly chugs along albeit close to its three-year anniversary when my previous laptops have died.

How about sharing your personal workspaces? Put them on Flickr or Picasa if you don’t have a blog and past the link in the comments.

Update: After working on Arzan’s suggestion, I tucked away my laptop on the keyboard tray underneath along with the external HDD (see image below). This made it easier for the cabling too. The desk space now has only the monitor, keyboard and the mouse. I’m thinking of getting rid of the bookshelf above the desk and raise the height of the monitor by 2-4 inches and a curved deskpad from IKEA to avoid the sharp edge cutting into my wrists while I type. But that’s for another day.