My setup: get to know what I use

In this article, I will tell you more about what I use during my daily work. Feel free to let me know what you are using or what you recommend.

Office

Desk setup

As you can see in the photo above, my setup consists of:

• 💻 Macbook Pro 16-inch — Used for my daily workload
• Mosiso Vertical Stand for my Macbook
• 🖥 Intel NUC Hades Canyon — Great small device which I use for Windows related workloads. This pc is hidden away behind my monitors.
• Two AOC U2777PQU monitors — Plugged into my dock
• iPad Pro: Normally, the device is used to take notes, but these days I use it as my third screen for attending meetings. Having it on top of my other screens and just above my webcam. It is more engaging to your audience, as I do not look away from the camera anymore. On a Mac, it is easy these days to use it as an external screen with Sidecar. When running Windows, you can use Duet Display.
• Caldigit TS3 Plus — A Thunderbold 3 dock with 15 ports. In the past, I was using an OWC dock, but this could not charge my Macbook. The dock itself has also hidden away behind my screens.
• Flexi Mount Monitor Holder — This is the mount I use for holding my monitors. On top of the mount arms, I put a shelve, on which I can hide all my devices so that my desk stays clean.

• Lamicall Gooseneck Tablet Stand — This is the stand/holder for the iPad.
• 🥧 Raspberry Pi Zero — I use this in combination with a Pimoroni PHAT to show the time, busy light status, the temperature in the office coming from Ruuvi sensors, Microsoft To Do tasks and my upcoming meeting.
• Anker 4-port USB hub — I attached this one at the bottom of my screen. In this hub is used for my Streamdeck, two USB dongles for my headsets, and YubiKey.
• Anker wireless charging pad
• 5TB WD HHD — We all need more space to store files. Everything is synchronized to Onedrive for Business, but just in case to have quick access, I have this one attached to my dock.
• Synology NAS — Using a pretty old one at the moment. This one will soon be updated to the Synology DS720+
• 🪑 NeueChair — Very nice and good looking work chair.
• ⌨️ Logitech MX Keys — Great keyboard, bought it in the US, as the US International (available in EU) is not the same as US English.
• 🐭 Logitech MX Master 3 — Before this mouse, I used a Logitech MX Anywhere 2S. That is also a great device and more comfortable when traveling.
• Ikea - Gerton — Desk tabletop - I used gray oil-based paint to give it a natural gray wooden look.
• Ikea - IDÅSEN — Standing desk table legs.
• Felt desk pad — The great thing about this desk pad is that you can define your own measurements. That way it will always fit to your desk. For the color I went for mustard mixed.
• Flic buttons & hub — In order to control light, music, and electric sockets in the office, I have two buttons mounted underneath my desk.

Meetings / Music / Sound / Microphone

Besides all the hardware-defined above, I use the following during meetings and listening to music:

• 🎶 Sonos Move — We all need some music to get into the “zone”.
• 📷 Logitech C920 webcam
• Elgato Stream Deck — Probably the most bought product during the Covid-19 crisis. I use this mainly during meetings, but also to control my music and Elgato Key Lights. Here is an article about how I use it: Stream Deck review for people who do not play games or stream and use macOS .
• 💡 Two Elgato Key Lights — As there are more and more events happening online, I needed to have a better light solution. They are expensive, but they are outstanding.
• 🎧 Jabra Evolve2 85 — Read my review of the device here: My review of the Jabra Evolve2 85 headset .
• 🎧 Plantronics Savi W445-M — Besides the Jabra, I also use a Plantronics. This headset is an amazing device for attending meetings and can be used when you do not need to filter out background noise.

Decoration

I am addicted to Lego (quoting my wife). So besides all the hardware, I have “some” Lego for decoration reasons in my office.

Software

Developing

• Visual Studio Code — My one and only editor.
• Hyper terminal — cross-platform terminal.
• Oh My Zsh — for a better shell experience, thinking about using Spaceship.
• JetBrains Mono — Free typeface for developers.

VSCode extensions

Here are a couple of the VSCode dependencies which I like to use:

• Blueprint — How many times do you have to create the same files and folders? Like for instance, when creating a React component, if you want to create a component, index, and interface file. Are you doing this manually every time? Blueprint can fully automate this for you.
• Front Matter — When I switched to Hugo, I needed to have an extension which allows me to keep my article front matter up to date. This extension helps you and can be used for other static site generators like Jekyll, Hexo, NextJs, Gatsby, and many more…
• GitHub dark theme — Recently switched to this theme.
• GitLens — Best extension for managing GIT controlled projects.
• Night Owl — An amazing dark theme.
• SPFx Essentials — Provides me the extensions I need to make working with SharePoint Framework in Visual Studio Code easier.
• TypeScript Export All Modules — VSCode extension which generates an index.ts file with all the module exports from the current directory.

Browser

• Microsoft Edge — The only one I am actively using.
• Firefox — My mail client 🤣. I do not use any desktop mail client, only use Outlook online. The greatest thing about Firefox is the containers that can be configured with different profiles.

Other useful apps

• Spotify Tray Player — Simple Spotify player that shows itself in the menu bar.
• Microsoft To Do — In January 2020, I started to work with Microsoft To Do, and I did not stop. I still miss some things which were available in Wunderlist, and I hope this will come soon.
• Paste — Keep a history of what you copy&paste.
• 1Password — IMO best password manager, and they provide excellent support.
• Grammarly — For writing my articles.
• Alfred — Spotlight on steroids.
• Divvy — Window manager.
• Bartender — Organize your menu bar icons.

Other

Travel

• 🎒 PeakDesign Everyday Backpack 30L — Love this backpack. You can organize it to your needs, which makes it, in my opinion, an awesome bag. The only downside is the price tag.

Feel free to share your favorite tool/hardware/applications/…