“I think what I like most isn’t that I can bring it with me when I leave the apartment. It’s that I can take it from my desk to the kitchen table to the couch.”
👆The response when I asked someone how they liked their PowerBook.
I was reminded of this when I was joining meetings with my (distributed) team at my new job.
In each meeting I noticed that what was behind someone would be different. They were changing locations throughout the day. 🤯
I, on the other hand, have been sitting in the same seat in front of the same monitors in the same room facing the same way since mid 2019.
One meeting they’re on the couch. The next a home office setup. Another might be in a bedroom. Or at the kitchen table. Or at the company headquarters, a coffee shop, the gym or a hotel room in another country.
When I moved to a small town, hours from a city, I knew it was unlikely I’d be working from an office anytime soon. So I put a lot of effort into making my home office right for me - I think of it like my mis-en-place. It enables me to be productive and comfortable.
I’m truly fortunate to have a dedicated space to call my office but it feels like cave sometimes. It’s a dark room, with one window, in the basement. After noticing that my teammates would move around I thought it’d be good to disconnect from the desk for parts of my day.
I’ve worked from couches, chairs, my back deck, the front seat of my car, and even the treadmill.
And, I gotta say, it’s really working for me.
I see more daylight. I move my body. I change my ergonomics. I get different perspectives… literally.
I’m learning that, for me at least, different work benefits from different environments.
For example:
Sometimes I want to be focused → one screen, headphones, lyric-free music playing.
Other times I need to juggle multiple inputs and outputs → multiple monitors, a good camera with lighting and a mic, plus desk space for notebooks, reference materials and a beverage.
It’s been fun to explore and experiment with how an environment can help my work.
To quote a co-worker, “Sometimes the kitchen table just feels right.”
Yep.
‘til next time 👋