My new home office

Martin Rowe, Senior Technical Editor- July 19, 2012

A few weeks ago, I moved into a home office full time. Although I had been working at home two days a week for about six months prior, I knew that things were different working at home full time. The photos show how my office area changed yesterday.

The “messy” photo shows a round table where I kept my work laptop (not shown). The table was not only the wrong shape, but the wrong height--hence the pillow on the chair. By the end of the day, my wrists were sore—not the way you want to work all day. My arms had no support and my wrists were bent. It was time to redesign the space.


The former office space simply didn't work.

The “neat” photo shows my new desk, bit enough for two computers. The one on the left is my work computer and the one on the right is my personal one. While it’s only been two days, I can tell you that my right wrist feels fine. The left is a little sore because that’s the one I use for the trackball (computer on the left). A good wrist rest has certainly helped. So far, the new setup certainly beats the old one.


A new desk and some clearing out makes all the difference.

The office space was wired for a home network. The wall on the right has two double-duplex outlets and the left wall has a single duplex outlet. That’s ten in all. I needed 11 and thus the power strip. I also need to make some shorter network cables.

Why do I use one computer with a left-handed trackball and the other with a right-handed mouse? That’s a story for another day.