My Perfect Workspace

I often go on and on about how I wish I had this amazing dream office that was filled with all sorts of wonderful things like a massive desk, four computer monitors, picture windows, and huge bookcases, but if I am 100% honest with myself, I really need much less to be happy when I am working on anything from paying the bills to writing code for a website and everything in between.

Today is a slow day here at the office and I'm trying to keep up to speed with my blogging goals for this year, so I thought it might be fun to expound on my perfect "workspace" for a little while, using the constraints of the small apartment that I currently share with my wife, son, and soon to be second child. Obviously that means I don't have much space, perhaps barely a corner of a room to work with, so lets see what I can come up with that seems reasonable.

Computer: I currently own a nice 13" Macbook, which is more than capable of meeting my computing needs. If I need to upgrade my RAM or my hard drive capacity I can do so for a relatively small amount of money in the future without needing to replace the computer altogether.

Computer Monitor: The laptop I own has a very small screen which is fine for when I am on campus or working away from home, but when I need to really buckle down and be productive a bigger portion of real estate is much appreciated. For this last Christmas my parents gifted me a great 22" flat screen monitor which works like a charm and when connected to my laptop gives me plenty of space to work. Many days I will use just the external monitor, but sometime the dual screen is nice for whatever I'm working on at the time.

Printer: Doesn't need to be anything fancy. All I need is black and white printing mostly with the occasional color print, so the basic inkjet that we currently own works like a charm, no need to change anything in this category.

Desk Chair: I like a comfortable desk chair, especially since I spend a lot of time sitting in it. Right now I have a great chair that I received as a birthday present a couple of years ago, and it works like a charm, the only problem is that it is a bit on the big side and as more children keep arriving I'm a bit concerned it might be taking up too much space at the moment. Mostly my chair just needs to be good enough that I don't get sore sitting in it for long periods of time.

External Keyboard & Mouse: Already have both of these and don't plan on replacing them anytime soon. I like wireless for my mouse, and would prefer wireless for my keyboard, but the wireless keyboard available from Apple isn't full sized yet, so I'm current wired in that regard.

Filing Cabinet: I have enough papers and records that I need to keep on file that a filing cabinet would be a wonderful addition that I don't have at the moment. I don't need a large one by any means. One of those small two-drawer types would work just fine, or even one that has a small drawer for office supplies on top and a filing drawer below would work well.

Shelving: I am not sure that I need an entire bookshelf, especially not if I have a filing cabinet or a desk drawer of some type, but one or two medium sized shelves of some type would be nice. Just enough room to keep my reference books and perhaps some other random items that I use on a regular basis.

Desk: Right now I'm working with a $5 desk that I bought from the BYU auction when I first got married, but if I'm honest it is about twice as big as I need it to be and if I could find something smaller that had just enough room to hold my monitor and keyboard/mouse I would be alright. I don't do a lot of writing or "open desk" work so extra desktop space is not a necessity for me right now, if ever.

Office Supplies: There are a few things that I like having on hand so I don't have to go searching for them. They include: Pens, Scissors, Ruler, Three Hole Punch, Printer Paper, Rubber Bands, Paper Clips, Stapler, Lined Paper, Manila Folders, Highlighters, Mechanical Pencils, Labels, and a few other random things I can't think of off the top of my head.

So, I think that is a reasonable list of things, and the great thing is that I already own most of it, excluding the cabinet or a smaller desk. The only problem I'm facing at the moment is where to put my workspace because the apartment isn't all that conducive to me keeping it in the same room as the babies, especially not when the second one arrives, and I'm not a very big fan of having it out in the living room with everything else.

One idea I have been tossing around lately is to reorganize the oversized storage closet we have into a sort of makeshift office/workspace if I can find a table or desk small enough to fit. I think I could make it work for the time remaining that we have here in Provo, and it would allow me to shut myself off from the party crowd as well because of the small door it has. The only thing I'm worried about is whether it is too cramped, but when Holly is gone in June to visit her family in Redlands I think I may give it a test drive and see if I can find a way to make it work somehow.

Decluttering My Life, Step 1: Deactivate My Facebook Account

Yep, I did it. I deactivated my Facebook account a couple of days ago because the concept behind that site has officially becoming boring to me. There is never anything all that exciting going on with Facebook except for the poorly designed layout changes from time to time, and the site has grown far to big for its britches if you ask me.

It was one thing when Facebook was only available to university students. At that point it held a certain mysterious appeal for me, knowing that a bunch of hormone induced teenagers wouldn't be cluttering my wall space with their absurd speech patterns was quite comforting to say the least.

Then Facebook sold out. They opened the doors to everyone and their MySpace crew, and things went downhill fast. Then was the introduction of "applications" and I knew my time was growing short.

I hung on for a while longer, knowing that my wife enjoys seeing the activities of my friends almost more than I do from time to time, but in the end, it was a waste of my time, a waste of society's time, and overall a waste of time in general.

I've got so many things on my plate right now that I'm looking for ways to simplify, adjust, and come to grips with the most important things to occupy my attention. Watching constant "someone saw someone and it made that someone so happy the other someone wanted to smile at someone" statuses is the epitome of inane in my mind. Thanks, but no thanks.

Ask yourself this: If Facebook has grown to the point where you are now considered a rebel to not be on Facebook, don't you think that tells you something about the world nowadays?