housethingsgoing
A frog and a duck living in a 4rm resale flat
Save this if you're also building a Work From Home space!
24
As someone who has been working from home 4-5 days a week for more than 5 years, I have tried, tested and amassed a large collection of items designed to make the WFH experience better. Some were trends that proved to be quite ineffective - portable memo boards that I never used, ergonomic backrests that made my back MORE painful than before and a wrist cushion thing that gave me hives on my wrist LOL. So after all that testing, here are some of my favourite WFH items that have withstood the rest of time! 
1. A clock/countdown timer The clock part isn’t really necessary for work because I can always check the time on my laptop/phone, but what I’ve really grown to appreciate is the countdown timer function! This clock allows you to set a timer for up to 60 mins, and the bars will slowly disappear as it counts down to the end. It’s sort of like a Pomodoro timer, but I’ve always felt the 25 mins to be too short, so having a 45min/1 hour timer for deep focus tasks has been really helpful. The clock also comes in helpful when I’m doing work that’s not on my computer - I work in creative so there’s always opportunities to brainstorm on paper or do quick drawings. 
2. Standing desk I’m one of those people who’s gone standing desk-mode and never looked back! I try to work standing for an hour or more each day - which makes me feel better about my health because WFH gives rise to the most sedentary lifestyle in the history of humankind. This squirrey standing desk has been a great buy - it comes with a drawer and is also entirely made of metal. This is important because I made the (foolish??) decision to not have any wood-themed items in our house so it aligns to the overall theme of our home, and I can also stick all sorts of notes and stuff to the side of the table using magnets whenever needed. It also comes with charging ports (one USB and one USB-C) so i can charge my devices without having to think too much about cable management. Best part of this is that the table is pretty affordable compared to the big brands out there! 
3. Table mat The thing about WFH is that there will be plenty of coffee drinking at my desk and sometimes even… eating at the desk in desperate situations. (We’ve all been there right? *laughs nervously*) Eating and drinking when you have a WHITE desk is a very dangerous activity, so I got this table mat from Taobao - was able to get a size that fits the table exactly! The mat is also made of PU Leather, which feels a lot more comfortable on the skin when I’m resting my arms on it. I tried one of those plastic mats before but it gave me a rash, probably because of the hot weather and how my arms were constantly pressed against it. 
4. Laptop/tablet holder I have a desktop as well as a tablet AND a work laptop but also a very small house so… there’s usually not enough space to have all my items on the desk at the same time. This holder thingy keeps them standing upright so they get ventilation (I heard from a friend that we shouldn’t stack our electronics on top of each other because it’s not good… for the laptop? No idea whether this is true though). There’s also a thicker section at the back where I keep the adaptor thingy for the standing desk hidden out of sight :) 
Bonus: What about the chair? Yes - having a great chair is super important and I’m thankful to be working from an Ergotune (which I got for free from some credit card promo a few years back!) The Ergotune is really comfortable (the ventilation mesh is such a lifesaver!) and has lasted me a long time but the reason why I’m not recommending it is because…. I’m too short for it. My Ergotune is one of the earlier models, way before they released the model for petite people. This means… my feet never really touch the ground when I’m sitting on the chair and the neck rest is more like a back-of-my-head rest instead of a proper neck rest. Maybe I will make Frog take over my chair and buy the smaller Ergotune :) But this is it for my current favourite WFH items - the whole set up is still a work under progress and I'm still discovering new items as I go! Will definitely share more new finds when I do - if I still get to keep this WFH job (who knows in this economic climate HAHA but #touchwood). Hit us up as well if you have any recommendations on how to improve my WFH life!
20 September
