In my never-ending-quest to find desktop utopia, I decided it was time to move on from my Dell UP2414Q, and select something bigger. All the reviews (and the wirecutter seems to be typical) suggest that the Dell P2715Q is the class of the field. However, given the exchange rate this was beyond my budget, even after literally emptying out my change jar. So, casting my net further I found the memorably named Samsung U28E850R.
I spend quite a lot of time on conference calls, often at short notice and without prior clue was to what I will be talking about. I’ve been using my laptop as a speakerphone for a while, but I miss physical buttons. I looked at SOHO VOIP phones, as l like the idea of an old-fashioned handset. However, with limited desktop space for they seemed a cumbersome extravagance. Most of the SOHO handsets are Android based and include some level of Skype integration, but I just couldn’t find exactly what I wanted. Continue reading
For most of my professional life I have sat on my arse, staring at a screen. You get to thirty something and start worrying about the long-term health drawbacks of a such a sedentary lifestyle. Spurned on by a home-office move and ongoing back grumbles I bought myself an IKEA BEKANT standing desk. You can easily spend a fortune on these things, however I’m unashamed to have made more than a few “tactical” Ikea furniture purchases. It’s built to a precise price point, if you are happy with that definition of value then it’s been generally been acceptable.
In a bid to improve productivity for the complex design/build stuff that I do, I’ve been trying to integrate a Dell 24″ 4k monitor into my work environment for the past couple of months. This has been a frustrating experience; but finally, I think I’m done, and I’m done spending money.
Just to recap, my previous set up was:
I’d be lying if I said I found it easy to focus for long periods, especially when working from home.
One things I have found that help enormously is dealing with my phone, and treating it like, you know a phone..
I don’t have that many apps on my phone, but I’ve notice that I’m getting about 20 notifications an hour from twitter, linkedin, G+, not to mention about 3 mail accounts. This is about 160 times a day my already fragile concentration is broken.
So: I put my phone on charge in the next room. I can still hear the ringer if someone actually rings me. Most of the notifications I also get on my laptop anyway, but I’m not tempted to pointlessly acknowledge the same e-mail outlook notified me about 10 seconds earlier.
So there you go. Now stop hooning about on the Internet and do some work!
Creative Commons image courtesy of ronocdh
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