WFH Setup Tips

As someone with a disability (Ehlers Danlos), I unfortunately learned the hard way that paying attention to the ergonomics of your working setup really matters. With more of us working from home due to the COVID-19 crisis, I thought I’d share some advice and specific recommendations about making sure you are working as comfortably as you can.

[Note: Links tend to be affiliate links, money will be donated to charity]

First up, designate an area for working, or specific equipment for work if you only have one place you can sit. Make sure you put your work laptop away at the end of the day, so that work doesn’t blend/spill over into everything else. This is genuinely really important; check out this & further advice from Mental Health First Aid on looking after your mental health when working from home.

Having had a great many different working from home setups over the years, I have some specific suggestions depending on what options you have. Make sure you check out some general ergonomic working setup advice too.

Need to Work on a Sofa / Bed?

Able to Work at a Desk / Part of a Table?

  • Folding hypercompact laptop stands are great, like this Nexstand K2 laptop stand (and reusable for when you travel in future) or if you want one that folds flat then try Urbo Raket slim laptop stand.
  • If you don’t think you’d ever need to travel with it, then the Griffin laptop stand is a good solid & nice-looking option too.
  • Pay attention to your chair, it might not be possible to get a proper office chair but at least make sure you are sitting with decent posture. 
My wife has adopted my ergonomic travel kit for her no-notice quarantine work from home setup

Wherever You’re Working, You Might Also Benefit From…

My compact setup in my study at the start of quarantine

Want to Invest In Extra Comfort?

I hope some of these recommendations and tips are useful. What other practices or equipment have helped you work from home in a safer and more sustainable way? Please do share in the comments!

Lego Meditation for Self-Isolation

Dan in my team asked on Twitter for some recommendations for big build Lego under around £150 to stay occupied during COVID-19 self-isolation / quarantine.

Given his interests are space & Star Wars & buildings, and his preference was for something both fun to build and to display, I of course spiralled into a full evaluation of the stupidly large number of Lego sets I have built in recent years (having had a sudden realisation that I could now *afford* Lego!).

Here’s what I came up with…

TLDR

For if you just want my best pick at each price point (UK prices, but hopefully it’ll automagically take you to the right country store for you if you’re elsewhere):

The Fuller Story…

For recommendations from each category, and a few wildcards…

Star Wars

Space

aka the Lego in The Moon Meeting Room @MakingMonzo 😉

Cool Transport

Nice Buildings

  • Trafalgar Square £60 (25% off) detailed & complex like majority of the larger Lego Architecture sets
  • Marvel Sanctum Sanctorum. Really fun build, loads of little action scenes, but looks expensive because no longer produced I think :-/ This Avengers Compound Battle is almost as good (though I’m probably still fondest of the Thor Ragnarok arena, not least because my wife realised I was having a tough time stuck at home injured whilst she was on a 6 week biz trip to Hong Kong and had it delivered to cheer me up 😍)
  • Hogwarts Great Hall £85 (again Elly really enjoyed this one, and it fits together with others like the clocktower)

Wildcards

If you end up getting and building any of these, would love to know how you enjoy them, so let me know in a comment here or on Twitter yeah?

5 Things I Wish I’d Known Sooner About Scaling Teams & Culture – Turing Fest

Thanks for welcoming me to beautifully cool Edinburgh, Turing Fest! Below are the slides and links to the books, talks, etc mentioned. Please do shout if I have forgotten anything.

Books & Tools & Talks Mentioned in This Talk

Scaling Teams & Culture Keynote at Scale Summit

I was delighted to do the opening keynote at Scale Summit 2018 this morning — thanks for the warm welcome, folks. Below are the slides and links to the books, talks, etc mentioned. Please do shout if I have forgotten anything.

Books & Tools & Talks Mentioned in This Talk

Creating Space to Be Awesome at ScotlandPHP2017

I was pleased to deliver the closing keynote at ScotlandPHP 2017, thanks for having me to speak.

Slides and books and links below, also a few folks asked about my Be A Brilliant People Developer workshop and The Lead Developer conference — hope to see you there!

Books & Tools Mentioned in This Talk

If you’re new to coaching, you might also enjoy the talk I did on stealing coaching lessons from sports at Dare Conf Mini a couple of years back: video and slides.

Modern Management at #wintech17

Thank you for the stupendous reception at Women of Silicon Roundabout today — so sorry we ran out of space before we even started, I’m humbled by how many of you sat on the floor or stood at the back through the entire talk!

Slides and books and links below, also a few folks asked about my Be A Brilliant People Developer workshop and The Lead Developer conference — hope to see you there!

Books & Tools Mentioned in This Talk

If you’re new to coaching, you might also enjoy the talk I did on stealing coaching lessons from sports at Dare Conf Mini a couple of years back: video and slides.

Modern Leadership & Team Science: Creating Space to Be Awesome at QCon São Paulo

Friends, thank you for putting up with my poor microphone handling skills and laughing at my daft jokes. You were a lovely welcoming audience today at QCon São Paulo. Slides and links to books and tools mentioned are here.

Books & Tools Mentioned in This Talk

If you’re new to coaching, you might also enjoy the talk I did on stealing coaching lessons from sports at Dare Conf Mini a couple of years back: video and slides.

Modern Management: Creating Space to Be Awesome

Really enjoyed keynoting at Ground Control today. As promised, slides & links 🙂

Books & Tools Mentioned in This Talk

If you’re new to coaching, you might also enjoy the talk I did on stealing coaching lessons from sports at Dare Conf Mini a couple of years back: video and slides.