desk

For the past decade, I've worked remote. I slowly moved from full-time software and infrastructure dev to YouTuber, and throughout that time, I kept tweaking my desk video recording/conferencing setup.

I wanted to document my setup today, as I've tweaked it a bit in my new studio space. Hopefully some of my tools and techniques can help you, or maybe you can find a way to make a simpler (hopefully cheaper) but higher quality setup!

I made a video going through everything in detail, but I'll mention the highlights in this post:

Here's an older shot from my previous setup at home (much has changed since then... but most things are the same—in principle! The core tenets of a Geerling computer workstation are:

1. Multiple Macs.
2. One of the Macs must have at least a 24" display.
3. Complexity (like messy cables) should be hidden as much as possible.
4. Screen real estate trumps everything else.

So, what computers, peripherals, and software do I use to manage all the websites I create, fix all your Macs, edit photos, and design graphics? I think this is an important question to answer, for two reasons: 1) You can see what I use, and see that I don't take any project lightly; and 2) You can hopefully learn something from my setup that can increase your own productivity!

(Click on the image above for a larger version, complete with detailed notes). You can see two basic themes from a general overview of the picture: First, there is a major lack of space at my workstation. Second, the space I do have is optimized to its fullest potential.