2017 - my first ever standing desk
I was working out of a contractor’s office.
In exchange for a free desk, I helped him out for marketing.
May 2020 - the dawn of the pandemic
Took my mini standing desk from my office set up and moved back into my family home to be around people.
Was using the intel based mac from 2013 I had for years and it was incredibly slow as it frequently overheated.
September 2020 ~ 6 months into the global lock down with an indefinite extension, I decided to invest in a standing desk and chair.
I also bought an ergonomic keyboard and fell in love with the logi ergo k860. Used this keyboard for the next 3 years without change. Then switched back & forth between a mechanical over the next 5 years
The extra space was a much needed upgrade as I wanted to read & write on my desk as well.
October 2020, Dual Wielding a mac & windows.
Most of our customers at Expedock used software native to windows and our first set of products were automation products on top of these windows systems.
Found my 2015 windows PC I set up for VR development & gaming -> revived it by upgrading the RAM then we were good to go.
The logitech set up helped me switch between windows and mac "seamlessly" - windows was mostly used for demos & quality assuring the work of our engineers & mac was used for office work.
December 2021
Moved back into the city (BGC) after a year and a half living with my family. Accidentally moved into the old unit of my old boss.
Switched back to 1 screen as I was no longer doing product work at the time.
Switched to an ergonomic vertical mouse to improve my ergonomics
March 2022
I realized my ergonomics were off and I needed my keyboard tray to ensure an L shape position for both my arms while typing.
This set up was amazing. It lasted for a couple of years.
2022 - NYC , remote work
Moved to NYC for a couple of months to hire and train our US sales team alongside grow our US customer base.
I brought everything except the monitor & replicated the same ergo set up.
Used my company widows laptop as I was visiting customers on site to demo.
2023 - Moved back to the Philippines to get married
Used my wife's (engaged then) standing desk as we moved in together & she was no longer using it. I gave mine to my brothers back at home.
Experimented away from my ergo keyboard and into a mechanical keyboard. I regretted this change because the improved typing experience was not worth the deterioration in ergonomics.
I also experimented with using a track pad instead of a mouse. This was the better experiment and I found my productivity on the mac to increase significantly because of gestures and forcing myself to use more of the keyboard to navigate.
2024 - Moved again as we began to expect our first child, Damien.
Standing desk broke during the move but decided I didn't need to stand anymore. That was a bad decision. At the time, I was thinking to myself that I had just bought the Aeron chair & sitting on this nice chair for most of the day would be fine.
Started to get annoyed at my mechanical keyboard as some keys started to require multiple presses to execute. Started to miss my old ergo keyboard but I had given to my younger siblings already.
Introduced a mouse for more precise actions when needed.
Was also starting to miss my old keyboard tray but was too lazy to look for it inside old boxes
August 2024
Found my old keyboard tray and wanted to experiment with ergonomics further
Bought a split keyboard and had the track pad in the middle to simulate working on a mac laptop
Then had the mouse on the side for more precise actions
Feb 2025
After half a year of using the split keyboard, I gave up. The learning curve was too hard and it disrupted my flow. Logitech released a mini version of my favorite ergonomic keyboard - the logiwave and it is by far the best keyboard I’ve owned throughout the years. It’s effectively a smaller version of the logi ergo but it fits so well with my small asian fingers. I have a track pad right beside it for gestures and that’s it.
My standing desk for 3 years had been broken for a year now so I had not been standing at all.
I realized it was time to stand again and so I invested in a new standing desk with an oak wood finish.
I took the opportunity to introduce a wealth of table accessories from
- a laptop holder that doubles as 2 headphone stands ( 5 usd )
- 2 mug holders for water and coffee ( 5 usd )
- a mic stand to reduce desk clutter and having to move my mic back & forth for meetings.
- an old lamp I was able to buy from a design store at 50% off because it has a dent so I could read and write by hand better at night.
I also removed all the books on my desk to reduce dust build ups which I’ve been guilty of with all my previous set ups.
My cabling is finally on point after 5 years of moving.
—
Ergonomics to me was always about form following function. Over the years, I started to expand that definition to understand personal preferences as well.
It’s in the simple things like knowing I like to drink with my left hand