My Productivity Desk Setup - Ali Abdaal in Dailymotion
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dailymotion.com/arshian
How to guarantee you regret your life:https : //dai.ly/x93180y
My honest advice to a perfectionist:https : //dai.ly/x9319i4
My honest advice to someone who’s doing too much : https://dai.ly/x9319ty
My honest advice to someone who feels behind in life : https://dai.ly/x931a78
My honest advice to someone who wants financial freedom : https://dai.ly/x931ex2
If I Wanted to Be a Millionaire Before 30, I'd Do This : https://dai.ly/x931gzm
The Best Book I've Ever Read about Making Money : https://dai.ly/x931j9y
How to Go From $0 to $10,000 a Month in 4 Steps : https://dai.ly/x931kb6
How to Make $10,000 Month Writing Online : https://dai.ly/x931l42
How to 10x Your Income The 4 Ladders of Wealth : https://dai.ly/x931ldm
Why You Feel Lost in Life by Ali Abdaal : https://dai.ly/x933252
How to Figure Out What You Really Want in Life : https://dai.ly/x933hm8
How to Change your Life in a Year - 3 Simple Ideas : https://dai.ly/x933u78
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LearningTranscript
00:00Hey friends, welcome back to the channel and to the annual productivity desk setup tour.
00:19As usual in this video, I'll be taking you through all of the things I've got on my desk
00:22and how they work together to add to my workflow to make me a productivity grease monkey.
00:26Let's start firstly with the hardware.
00:28Now this entire desk setup is being powered by the 2020 M1 Mac Mini.
00:32I've maxed it out to the 16 gigabytes of RAM and the two terabyte hard drive, which is
00:35fantastic for all the large video files that I normally have to deal with.
00:38And connected to the Mac Mini via USB-C is this huge ass LG 49 inch ultra wide monitor,
00:43which has a resolution of 5120 by 1440.
00:46LG very kindly sent me this monitor two years ago and I've had no reason to upgrade because
00:49this is absolutely sick.
00:50And it's really nice having the ultra wide setup because it's like having two 27 inch
00:54monitors just side by side, but without the bezel in the middle.
00:57And so normally what I have is that I've got a sort of 27 inch window in the middle
01:01of the screen that has my main window.
01:03And then off to the side, I've got two other windows.
01:05Now I use an app called Moom, which lets me create keyboard shortcuts that lets me easily
01:09switch between the different window configurations.
01:11So I've got one option that's middle and two windows on the side.
01:14But for example, if I'm taking notes from a book and I want two windows to be in the
01:17center of my vision, I've got another keyboard shortcut that lets me split the middle of
01:22the monitor into two separate windows, which works really nicely.
01:24In terms of peripherals, I've got a dual cursor setup with the Magic Trackpad from
01:28Apple and the Logitech MX Master 3, although I really wish this was in white because it
01:32would go with the desk setup better.
01:34And it's nice having both the mouse and the trackpad.
01:36I normally use the mouse for navigating day to day, but the trackpad is really nice for
01:39smooth scrolling, which just the mouse is a little bit like tick, tick, tick when you
01:43scroll.
01:44Whereas the trackpad, it's like, oh, it's a joy to scroll with the trackpad.
01:47The trackpad is also great for those gestures like, you know, four finger swipe up, three
01:50finger swipe up, you know, getting rid of everything on the desktop by pinching outwards.
01:55It's all quite handy.
01:56The keyboard that is powering this whole thing is the IQUNIX F96 Mechanical Keyboard, and
02:01I believe I have the Cherry Blue switches.
02:04I'll put a link in the video description and I'll also link to a video where I've reviewed
02:06this keyboard in depth.
02:08This is a nice mechanical keyboard that has a nice sound.
02:13But the annoying thing about having such a loud keyboard is that if you're on a Zoom
02:16call and you're like trying to do something on the side or trying to type up notes from
02:20the call without the person on the other end knowing that you're typing, it's hard
02:24to like hide that particular sound.
02:25So that is like the one drawback of having a very loud mechanical keyboard.
02:28Now, the slightly annoying thing about the 2020 M1 Mac Mini that's powering this whole
02:32setup is that it's only got two Thunderbolt ports and two USB ports.
02:36And because usually I need more ports than that.
02:38What I've got plugged in is the CalDigit TS3+, which is like a Thunderbolt dock, which connects
02:44straight to the Mac Mini and gives me a much larger choice of ports, including an SD card
02:48slot and extra USB ports, which is basically what I need.
02:51And normally I've got the dock sitting behind the Mac Mini so that you can't really see
02:54it.
02:55And I very artfully and cleverly use this fake Ikea plant, which adds some greenery
02:59to my desk to boost my creativity.
03:01But I also use that to hide the absolute mess of wires that the Mac Mini and the Thunderbolt
03:05dock otherwise generate.
03:06In terms of speakers, I'm currently using the Kanto U2 speakers on top of their little
03:11speaker stands that elevates them by about 15 degrees, which is quite nice.
03:14And the main reason to go for these was that they're white and I think they look quite
03:17nice on a desk.
03:18And I actually got by with some very cheap LG speakers for the last like five years,
03:22but I thought, you know what?
03:23This YouTube channel is making some money now, so I can afford to splash out on a fancy
03:25set of speakers.
03:26There's a few other things that really tie this off as a pure productivity desk setup.
03:30And those are three peripherals that I've got connected to the Mac Mini.
03:33Firstly, I've got one of these, this is called the Elgato Cam Link 4K.
03:37And what it does is that it plugs into an HDMI cable.
03:40And so if I'm on Zoom calls, which I've been spending a lot of time on, or if I'm doing
03:43live streams, I can plug an HDMI cable into this camera that then plugs into the Elgato
03:48Cam Link, which plugs into my Mac Mini.
03:50And therefore I use the input from this camera, which acts as my webcam.
03:54And that's like a real flex if I'm on a Zoom call with people who are using their crappy
03:57quality webcams.
03:58And because when you're on live streams or doing Zoom calls, audio quality is even more
04:02important and even more of a flex than video quality.
04:05I've got the Shure SM7B top of the line podcasting microphone connected to the Rode PSA1 microphone
04:10arm.
04:11And so if I'm hopping on a call, I will just weave this over here, get the microphone in
04:16front of my face.
04:17Normally I have the webcam over to the side and I can be talking into the microphone and
04:21can deepen my voice a little bit to make myself sound a little bit more manly when I'm on
04:25a Zoom call.
04:26And then when I'm finished with a call, I will just put the microphone away.
04:31And usually it bangs into that plant, which is why that plant is not getting a lot of
04:34love because it's been molested by that microphone significantly.
04:37The microphone itself is plugged into the Cloudlifter, which is a little fancy gizmo
04:40that boosts the gain on the microphone, whatever that means.
04:43And that is plugged into the Focusrite 2i4 audio interface, which is also what I use
04:47when I'm recording myself playing the guitar or piano or things like that.
04:50Moving away from the main electronics, let's now talk about the furniture and the chair
04:54and stuff.
04:55So in terms of desks, this is the Fuli Bamboo Jarvis standing desk.
04:59And so normally I have it in the sitting configuration, but if I want, I can turn it into standing
05:03configuration.
05:04And same as with the monitor, Fuli very kindly sent me this about two years ago and I've
05:07absolutely loved it and haven't had any need to change it.
05:10And now I think I'm going to have a motorized standing desk in whatever desk setup I ever
05:13have in the future, just because it's so nice to be able to switch between sitting and standing
05:17mode.
05:18And in terms of chair now, this is very exciting because this is the Herman Miller Sail in
05:22a nice sort of white, silver and blue colour, which goes with my whole general blue accent
05:26colour that I like for myself.
05:28And for a long time, I didn't splash out on a fancy ass chair.
05:30Before I would ask my mum for permission to spend 700 pounds on a chair and she would
05:34say, hell no, why the hell would you spend 700 pounds on a chair?
05:37So this year I decided, you know what, I'm 26 years old now, I'm just going to go ahead
05:41and order one of these chairs without asking her permission.
05:43So now I have one of these and now I've ordered it and now she can't say anything.
05:46So I'm an adult now, mum, I can make my own decisions.
05:49This chair is particularly nice because it's got arms that can go up and down.
05:53And now when they delivered it, there was a guy from Herman Miller who came in and showed
05:57me the appropriate ergonomics of this sort of chair.
06:00And basically what you want is you want it to be like this, whereby the arms of the chair
06:04are just above the desk itself.
06:06And that means if you sit back like this, or if you're sitting on the desk, you've got
06:09your arms at a sort of 90 degree position.
06:12So that's why this desk is kind of low.
06:13In the past, I used to have it a bit higher, but like this, this was bad ergonomically
06:17according to this Herman Miller dude.
06:19So now I have it quite low and it's just like such a comfortable position.
06:22And now even when I'm sitting on this desk for hours and hours and hours at a time, like
06:25I'm doing in lockdown and after I quit my job as a doctor, I now don't really get any
06:29back pain, which I've always had in the past with other chairs that I've used.
06:32And it's kind of cool.
06:33It's got a setting where you can like, you can go all the way back.
06:34So if you're on a Zoom call or something, and you want to be a real flex, you can be
06:37like, oh yeah, and do, do that whole flexing the pecs or whatever that is.
06:43And you can lock it and I can't go back on it.
06:45So Herman Miller sale, fantastic chair.
06:47The other cool feature of this desk is that underneath they've got these two magnetic
06:50hooks.
06:51And so I have my Bose QC 700s and now my new AirPod Pro Max, whatever these things are
06:57called on the hooks underneath my desk.
06:59It's mostly been the AirPods that I've been using for the last week or so.
07:01But the Bose QC 700s I was using for a few months before that, which is quite nice.
07:05And on the other side of the desk, I've got an Ikea Alex drawer unit.
07:09In my old desk setup, I used to have two of those.
07:10Now I've dropped down to one.
07:12And that basically has all of the tech that I need on a daily basis.
07:14So cameras, leads, cables, screws, all of that kind of stuff.
07:19Let's talk about desk accessories now.
07:20And this is an area where I've really upgraded this year compared to last year.
07:23So basically all of the desk accessories on my desk are from Ugmonk, which is a fantastic
07:28brand.
07:29I'll put an affiliate link in the video description if you want to check out some of their stuff.
07:31It's really cool.
07:32And I've been lusting after this brand for ages.
07:33They're a little bit expensive, but the stuff looks really, really nice.
07:36And now again, that this YouTube channel is making money, I thought, you know what, let's
07:40splash out on some desk accessories.
07:41So number one, we have the Gather from Ugmonk.
07:46This is what it looks like.
07:47It's basically this like modular unit that you can stick on your desk and you can buy
07:52like little bits for it.
07:54And it comes with like a starter kit.
07:55So this is like the starter kit.
07:56And it's really cool because it's got like a walnut wooden base.
08:00And then it's got these white bits that go on top of it.
08:02And you can move them around and you can put them in whatever configuration you want.
08:06So the way that I've got it is I've got my post-it unit, my post-it note holder over
08:09here.
08:10And then I've got this little pouch, which has pencil thingies for my mechanical pencils
08:14and usually some SD cards and my AirPods.
08:16I've got this thing over here, which has more pens and pencils.
08:20This is a holder for my phone, which normally goes over here.
08:22I've got the three notebooks, which have like nice inspiring messages on them, which I've
08:26not yet used, but it's quite nice having them if I need them.
08:29And then I've got this sort of pen and pencil holder.
08:31And it's just nice having this on my desk as a way of organising the paper and non-tech
08:37accessories that I use every day.
08:39The other cool thing that we've got from Ugmonk, this is called Analogue, which is an analogue
08:44to-do list system.
08:46Now this thing is really cool.
08:47I've been using it for the last few weeks and it's actually sick.
08:49It's very simple.
08:50Some would say it's overpriced for what it is, but I think it's great and nicely designed
08:53and minimalistic.
08:54And when you want something with a minimalist aesthetic, you have to be prepared to pay
08:57a little bit extra for it.
08:58Basically, they give you these like cards.
09:00We've got a series of cards for today.
09:03We've got some cards for next, and we have cards for someday.
09:06And the idea is that every day you take one of these today cards and you write down your
09:10to-do list that you're going to be doing that day.
09:12And then as you're going about the day, you can cross off the items on your to-do list.
09:15And the really cool thing is that you can store all of the extra cards underneath.
09:19But this, again, walnut wooden stand has a nice little place where you can just like
09:24prop up your today card.
09:26And so usually I have the sitting on my desk right in front of me.
09:29So I have an analogue to-do list that I see all the time and I can be like, oh, you know,
09:33I should call my grandma.
09:34Tick.
09:35Let's do that.
09:36Oh, you know, I've got a date night with this person.
09:37I should, I should do that.
09:38At least that's what I pretend to do.
09:40And finally, again, from Ugmonk, I have one of these coasters, which says enjoy the journey,
09:43which is one of my mantras in life.
09:45So this is quite nice.
09:46And the second coaster that I have on my desk says clam rats.
09:48And this was a group of university friends.
09:50One of the guys called Marcus made one of this for us.
09:52And it has like all of the initials of the little people in our, in our friendship group.
09:57I shouldn't say little people, but like the people in our friendship group, and it's all
10:00very nice and wholesome and cute.
10:01And it reminds me that I actually have some friends in this world, which is why I always
10:04have that coaster on my desk.
10:05There's another thing which is usually on my desk off to the side.
10:08And this is the Remarkable 2 tablet.
10:10Now, I've had this for the last few weeks and I've been testing it out and I actually
10:14quite like it.
10:15I'm going to do a proper review on it in a little while.
10:17But this is basically a glorified piece of paper.
10:19And this is now like if I'm on a call or something, and I don't want to type on my
10:24loud ass keyboard, I'll take out the Remarkable and I'll do some notes on it by hand.
10:27And then that syncs with all my devices.
10:29Yeah, it's kind of useful.
10:30It's basically like an iPad, but less good.
10:33But in a way that's kind of nice because I actually would rarely use an iPad for handwritten
10:38notes, even though my iPad is great.
10:40My iPad Pro 12.9 inch, Apple Pencil, paper-like screen protector, all of that's really nice
10:43for taking handwritten notes.
10:44But it's just the iPad is such a, an overkill device for just busting out, just take handwritten
10:49notes that I was never actually using it.
10:51Whereas probably because of some kind of novelty factor, I've now started using the Remarkable
10:552 to take handwritten notes for whatever that's worth.
10:57In terms of other accessories, I also have this weird ass looking letter opener on my
11:00desk, which I keep here for opening letters and packages.
11:03Finally, on the other side of my desk, I've got one of these Kentia Palm potted plant
11:07thingies, which sort of overhangs and it's kind of nice having a little bit of greenery
11:10in my life.
11:11Unfortunately, the plant is dying because it's been attacked by the microphone stand
11:14a few too many times.
11:15So I probably do need to take better care of it.
11:17And then on the other side, on top of the drawer unit, I've got my little Japanese cup
11:23thingies.
11:24One of which stores lots of pens and markers and Sharpies, and the other one has like excess
11:28coins in it.
11:29And I got these from Japan when I went on a research project in my second year of med
11:31school in like 2014.
11:33There's a few other things that I usually have on top of the Alex drawer unit.
11:36So firstly, I have my moisturizer, which reminds me to moisturize my face.
11:39This is the Natio Daily Protection Face Moisturizer with SPF 15, which, you know, whatever.
11:44I also usually have a camera lens.
11:46This is the Sony 16-35 G Master.
11:49And at the moment I'm filming on the 24mm F1.4 G Master, but usually I'll swap these
11:52around and the one that I'm not using, I will stick on top of the drawer unit.
11:55Right now I've got an extra camera on there.
11:57This is the Sony a7 III, which normally features as part of my overhead rig with the Tamron
12:0028-75mm lens on it.
12:03And I normally have my physical notebook.
12:04This is the Leuchtturm 1917, which is my favourite physical notebook.
12:08I normally have that lying around.
12:10Usually that is sort of propped up in between the Focusrite audio interface and the plant pot.
12:14Two more things to talk about.
12:15The lamps.
12:16So in the corner of my desk, I have the Tomons desk lamp, which sort of looks like one of
12:19those articulating Pixar-y type lamps.
12:22I'm not a huge fan of it, looking to upgrade it soon.
12:24And on the other side, I have a random lamp.
12:26I think it's from Wayfair.
12:27Usually I have it pointing up, so it creates a little bit of a glow.
12:30And of course, I've got Philips Hue light bulbs connected to all of the lamps in the
12:32living room.
12:33And so I could say, for example, Alexa, turn on Ice and Fire in the living room.
12:38Looks like that.
12:39Or Alexa, turn on Arctic Aurora in the living room.
12:43Alexa, turn on Savannah Sunset in the living room.
12:46And usually when it gets to the evening or night time, I'd say, Alexa, turn on Relax
12:50in the living room.
12:52And that turns the lights nice and warm and dim.
12:54And that's the setup I've been using for filming this video.
12:56Two more things to mention now.
12:57Firstly, let's talk about cable management.
12:59Now, the slightly annoying thing about having a standing desk is that you do have to think
13:03quite hard about cable management, because when you turn your desk to standing mode,
13:07you don't want any cables to just fall off, or you don't want your laptop to get to topple
13:11down or anything weird to happen.
13:12And so in terms of cable management, this really doesn't look very good.
13:15In one corner of the desk, I've got a huge mess of cables, which is normally hidden by
13:18this bamboo bin that, again, Philly sent me.
13:21And on the other side, I've actually got one of these light boxes from Aputure that I hide
13:24an extra extension cable box thing in, because when it comes to plugging in lights or microphones
13:28or camera gear, it's really annoying having it away from me, and it's nice having this
13:33extra set of cables towards the middle of the room.
13:35But to avoid it being an eyesore, it's nicely hidden away in the box.
13:38And I guess the final thing to mention about the desk setup really is that this year, I've
13:42added in ways to make the friction of filming YouTube videos a lot less.
13:46And so I've actually got a ceiling-mounted light, along with a ceiling-mounted screw,
13:50which my overhead rig can screw onto nicely.
13:53And so if I want to film a video, I actually don't have to worry about getting this huge
13:56light dome set up.
13:57I can usually just use the Godox SL60, which is tied to the ceiling, connected to the Aputure
14:02space light, which gives me a nice soft light.
14:04And if I want to film an overhead rig, again, in the past, I used to have to set up a whole
14:07C-stand and counterbalance the camera and everything.
14:09But now I can just screw on a boom arm to the ceiling and then attach my Sony a7 III
14:13to it.
14:14And that gives me a perfect overhead setup for whatever overhead shots I want to film.
14:17And so all this stuff might seem a bit excessive, but it's all really in service of me trying
14:21to become more productive and just trying to boost my productivity in any ways that
14:24I can.
14:25But to be honest, the actual way to boost your productivity isn't really to go out and
14:27buy fancy desk accessories and a fancy standing desk.
14:30The actual way to boost your productivity is by going over to Skillshare and checking
14:33out my class.
14:34I've got two classes about how to improve your productivity.
14:36And because Skillshare are very kindly sponsoring this video, if you hit the link in the video
14:40description, then you will get a free trial to Skillshare.
14:42And then during your free trial, you can check out my whole two productivity classes.
14:45It's lots of hours of me talking, basically teaching you every single thing that I know
14:48about how to be more productive.
14:49And then once your trial is over, the annual premium subscription to Skillshare costs less
14:53than $10 a month.
14:54And for that, you get access to literally thousands of high quality classes covering
14:57all sorts of things from productivity and creativity, all the way through to cooking
15:00and interior design.
15:01So if you watch this far and you're seeing this message, you're definitely going to be
15:04interested in my productivity class.
15:06But also my friend Thomas Frank has got two of his own productivity classes as well.
15:09Recently, he's released one called Productivity for Creators, which is actually really good.
15:13And all of these are things that you can watch during a free trial.
15:15So if that sounds up your street and you want to check out my productivity materials, which
15:18is more than just get a fancy desk set up, click the link in the video description and
15:21sign up to your free trial.
15:22And I'll also put a link to all of my classes that I've got on Skillshare.
15:25If you like this video and you want to see more of a behind the scenes of my life, click
15:28the video over here, which is my productive apartment tour.
15:31And that shows you the rest of the things I've got in this flat to help me be more
15:33happy, healthy, and productive.
15:35So thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video.
15:37Bye bye.