I — for the most part — adore working at home. I am lucky to have a big space, by New York city standards anyhow, all to myself, but I still lack a dedicated office space. My dining room does double duty as my office around eighty percent of the time, but I’m okay with that; I get a decent amount of light, I rarely feel stifled and everything I need is within reach. A life of freelancing took some getting used to, and while I found distractions (like television, noisy kids off school during the summer, the desire to bake instead of work) a bit rough at first to zone out, once I dedicated a space to work in, things were a million times easier for me, and my productivity and ability to multitask grew exponentially. I’ve included a full list of my workplace staples after the jump, but tell me this: what kind of environment do you need to work in to be the most productive you can be?

Hardware setup: BlackBerry 8700g, MacBook, wireless Mighty Mouse, Apple Keyboard (which has actually eliminated all the wrist/forearm pain I had when I was just using my laptop keyboard)

Accessories: Belkin Mousetrap, Mozi Laptop Sleeve

Productivity Tools: Behance Action Book, my glasses

Periodicals (changes daily): Domino, Blueprint, Food & Wine.

Random other stuff: Custom Slobot (Slospear!) by Mike Heisler (thanks, dude!), vintage sterling dish for my keys and Piper’s first collar. Print on the wall is from Hero Design Studio.

I keep things pretty uncluttered — I find the same translates to my brain. Most of the time, anyhow.


Danny Friday, 10.12.07 @ 11:31 am

OOOHHH. These are always fun. I recently crammed my workspace back into my teeny bedroom (under a loft bed..ugh). We had a 2 station studio going where our living room used to be, but I got tired of not having a living room.

Here’s my setup:
Hardware setup: MacBook (on an iCurve), 3 external drives, Dell LCD, USB hub, Apple keyboard (still hankering for the new one), Wacom tablet, Canon Rebel, scanner hiding somewhere, Logitech Z-4 speakers.

Accessories: InCase sleeve, Timbuk bag, spare macbook power cord for couch surfing (best investment ever)

Productivity Tools: a couple of random notebooks in varying sizes along with a bunch of design books

Periodicals (changes often): Dwell, Metropolis, Fast Company, Food & Wine, AdWeek, catalogs.

Random other stuff: Eames Soft Pad Chair…LOVE this baby

Unfortunately, I can’t claim no clutter for my work space. Part and parcel of having office space/bedroom in NYC I guess, but I manage to be productive enough amidst the piles.


Carmel Friday, 10.12.07 @ 11:34 am

I need:

+ Caffeine
+ A pretty place to stare off into when my brain quits working
+ Noise, in the form of people chatting (but not in the form of headphones glued to my ears- I can’t write when I’m rawking)
+ Magazines like Lemon and Anthem to steal creative energy from
+ Pictures of Piper (to fawn over, get jealous of, and warm up the part of my soul that myspace killed)
+ “Motivational” (”AHEM”) emails from Heather


lexy Friday, 10.12.07 @ 11:41 am

i need things to be clean. i don’t only mean that everything should be in their place, but physically clean to the touch. it takes my mind off of anything else except my work at hand. it’s a great feeling when everything can smell of lysol, febreeze and cleaning products.


Joey Jackson Friday, 10.12.07 @ 12:09 pm

My workspace has to be extremely clean and uncluttered, music has to good and loud (as possible) + Diet Coke has to be ice cold! :)


sygyzy Friday, 10.12.07 @ 1:05 pm

Great topic for Talk Shop Fridays! I like your workspace and want a slobot for mine!


onethousandohms Friday, 10.12.07 @ 2:00 pm

Clean table, rain, and the Ramones for sure. But honestly the most important thing I need is the presence of some other obligation. It is amazing how the paints start to fly if I have a drafting deadline to work. Is procrastination really procrastination if one is productive? Probably.

And for those who might not have seen it, the Guardian did a nice article on writer’s workspaces here (via Fecal Face for me at least):

http://books.guardian.co.uk/writersrooms


Ben Saturday, 10.13.07 @ 6:02 am

Oh god, I didn’t realise you were a girl and I’ve been reading this site since forever!

My setup is a eizo flexscan 17inch screen, my macbook pro, and a wacom intuos 2.

Next to that I have a bunch of books laying around and pens and papers. One noteworthy thing is my motivational book. Which states in big letters = “its not how good you are, its how good you want to be.”


Ben Saturday, 10.13.07 @ 6:05 am

But obviously now I realise this was not posted by josh spear. woops :-)


walter Saturday, 10.13.07 @ 7:48 am

I’m in a 400 sq.ft. studio in Philly and have been working for 2 years from there. My work area is literally 40 sq.ft.! Here’s what’s on my desk:
17″ MacBook Pro on a “Rain” stand, wireless keyboard and mouse, Tizio desklamp, my cell phone, a pen, and a calculator. (Anything past 12×12 and I’m lost!) The best part is that it all sits in front of a huge window overlooking Old City…the only problem is it faces east, and on sunny days, I can’t work until after lunch because of the sun glare… (really, it’s a great excuse for not working!)


bryanv Monday, 10.15.07 @ 12:04 am

I actually need 3 keyboards to get my work done everyday. I also like to work with only one shoe on, which can get pretty ridiculous sometimes. I work around 20 or so douche bags in there 50’s who like to talk about republican bulls@#T all day and guns…eliminate all of that and you have a perfect workspace for yours truly…but do not get rid of the 3 rd keyboard, I need the size.


Adriean Monday, 10.15.07 @ 2:25 pm

I’m useless without my espresso machine. God love that little guy.




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