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Episode 038 - Mastering Productivity and Precision with a High-Tech Home Office in Frankfurt
Episode 038 - Thomas Ullmann
| Product List | Item |
|---|---|
| Desk |
Classic office furniture |
| Chair | Musso H80 Pro |
| PC | Own build: Case: Lian Li O11 Dynamic Evo Mainboard: ASUS ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming WIFI D4 CPU: Intel i7-12700k GPU: ASUS ROG Strix Geforce RTX 3080 V2 OC White (LHR) RAM: 32 GB G.Skill Trident Z Royal Elite silber DDR4-3600 Storage (M.2): Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1 TB, Adata Gammix S11 Pro 2 TB CPU Cooler (AIO): Lian Li Galahad 360 V2 White Fans: Corsair QL120 (10x) Lian Li Strimer Plus for GPU and Mainboard Power supply: Corsair RM Servies 2021 RM850 850W ATX 2.4 White |
| Desk Shelf | En.casa |
| Laptop | Lenovo Thinkpad T580p, HP Elitebook 830 G6 |
| Laptop Stand | Ivoler (noname) |
| Tablet | IPad Pro M2 11" |
| Docking Station | HP Thunderbolt™ 4 Notebook Dockingstation |
| External Storage | QNAP NAS 453 Be, 2x4 TB, mirrored to QNAP NAP 459Pro+, 2x 4 TB, 4 TB mobile harddrive for off-site backup storage |
| Monitor | Samsung Odyssey G9 |
| Monitor Mount | Ergotron HX HD |
| Speaker | Edifier S351DB |
| Headphone | Beyerdynamic Phonum (speakerphone), Corsair Virtuoso Wireless SE |
| Keyboard | Logitech G515 (workdays), Asus ROG Azoth (weekend), Logitech MX Mechanical Mini (iPad) |
| Keyboard Cable |
MagTame
|
| Mouse | Roccat Burst Pro Air (Desktop), Corsair Katar Elite Wireless (Laptop), Logitech MX Anywhere 3S (iPad) |
| Desk Mat/Mouse Pad | Corsair MM700 |
| Web Camera | Logitech Brio 4K |
| Microphone | HyperX Quadcast S, Fifine K688 |
| Printer | Brother MFC-L5750DW series |
| Desk Lamp | Paul Neuhaus Q-Vidal Smart Desk Lamp |
| Ambient Light |
Various LED strips (desk, monitor, desk shelf), some smart RGB spotlights |
| Smartphone | Iphone 14 Pro |
| Camera | Canon EOS 350D |
| Charger | Baseus PowerCombo Tower 10 in 1 Charging Station 35W, UGREEN 15W Qi2 Certified MagSafe Charger |
| Watch | Apple Watch S9 |
Tell us a bit about yourself.
54y old IT application manager, working for a major german bank. Degree in IT and economics. Long IT history, back to the days of modems, the C64 and Apple Macintosh SE. First own PC was powered by a 80286 CPU. I was using my home setup for remote work already since the late 90s as I had to provide nightly and weekend on-call support for bank trading systems.
Moved away from my desk as just a place to put PC, monitor and some stuff into giving it a cleaner and more organized look after 2010 after I moved to our first house and had more space available. I was one of the pilot users when Amazon Echo came to Germany in 2016. Shortly after the first echo device I got me the first smart RGB strip and it all started…
What’s your favorite item on your desk?
The 49” Samsung G9 OLED monitor. I love it and it improved my productivity so much. Most handy item is the Amazon Echo Show 5 - it shows my daily meeting schedule and reminds me verbally 2mins before the start.
What books, blogs, or podcasts recently caught your attention?
Too many, unfortunately. Currently I’m focusing on tech topics which I also need for work: AI, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure.
What's your desk setup aesthetics?
Functional during the day, colorful and clean at night.
When did you start to work on your desk setup?
2010 when we moved into our first house.
What does your typical day look like？
I’m working from home 4 out of 5 days a week. Booting the company laptop at around 8am in the morning, switching the monitor to dual screen mode. Morning IT systems check and status call. Spending the days with video calls (project work, alignment with the business) and application operations, system management and maintenance. Official workday ends approx at 5:30pm. Family time. Late evening productivity starts at 10pm, working on our social media accounts and the travel website I also run. Eventually doing some desktop photo shots, paperwork and email.
What niche interest are you up to recently?
Photography.
Your advice for beginners getting into Desk Setup.
Don’t go with interim solutions. Better wait and get the quality product you want. It doesn’t make sense to spend money on “better than nothing” stuff which you will replace much earlier than you think because in the end it doesn’t suit your needs (or you finally have the money to buy the item you REALLY wanted).
Any tips for other makers who want to improve their workspaces?
Improving the things which annoy you daily or cost you time every day (like having to pick up your mobile phone for 2FA thousand times a day because you have no good holder) before working on the aesthetics. Productivity first (at least for me as a home office worker).