The Desk -- WIP
My life has largely revolved around a desk. From my school years through college, and now in my professional life, this piece of furniture has been my constant companion. Recently, this realization hit home when I took on a project in my attic. What I thought would be a quick few hours turned into multiple weekends of contorting myself like a monkey, carefully avoiding the insulation. That first day had me thinking, “Maybe I should switch careers - this is incredible!” But as time wore on, reality set in.Perhaps I can’t wax poetic about desk work, but I’ve come to appreciate that the grass isn’t always greener elsewhere.
My development journey started in 2013 as a student, before turning professional in 2017. Back then, I dreamed of having an elaborate setup: dual workstations connected through a KVM switch, with monitors everywhere - the works. When I finally landed a contractor position at a Fortune 400 company, I got exactly that setup. Ironically, it wasn’t what I’d imagined it would be.
The Evolution of my Workspace
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Messy Desks
As a student I always had a messy desk. Picture a desk with a bunch of papers, books, and other things that I didn’t need. Some energy drink cans and maybe a McDonalds wrapper or two. I didn’t think this would affect my work in any way. Maybe I even thought it showed that I was a hard worker eating, playing, and living at my desk. As I worked remote professionally I found this wasn’t the case. I was constantly distracted by all the stuff around me.
The Problem
The Solution
I started to remove things from my desk that I didn’t need. I rarely used my printer so that was removed. I removed some of the speakers, microphones, and other things that I didn’t use. I was tempted to even remove the monitors and rember each keystrock and picture what the monitor would be displaying.