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The Most PRODUCTIVE Desk Setups on YouTube

2021-01-27 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali, Pat Flynn, Oliur, Ruby Granger, Thomas Frank, Jacqueline, Nathaniel Drew, Matti Haapoja, Simon Clark, Unjaded Jade, Matt D'Avella · recording, 20:02 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Tools, apps and tech · mode: Demonstration and walkthrough

Ali and eleven YouTuber friends, among them Pat Flynn, Thomas Frank, Ruby Granger, Simon Clark and Matt D'Avella, show their desks as they look on a normal working day, mostly messy; Thomas Frank and Matti Haapoja say getting the work done matters more than a tidy desk.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Ali's desk on a normal day: what is on it and why

  • ★★ Ali shows the desk setups of himself and his YouTuber friends as they look on a normal day, not cleared up for a desk-setup video. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Ali has recently released a video about his productivity desk setup for 2021, which he thinks looks pretty aesthetic. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Ali's desk has a Herman Miller Sail chair, and he currently keeps the desk in standing mode. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Ali always keeps two pads on his desk: one only for the book he is writing, one for general thoughts. — 00:00:55
  • ★★ Ali's two favourite pens are the Uni-ball Air and the Uni-ball Air Micro; he prefers the Uni-ball Air on bigger pads because its ink feels smoother. — 00:00:55
  • ★ Ali always uses a deck of cards on his desk as a fidgeting device. — 00:00:55
  • ★★ Ali keeps Experiment Without Limits, the book by his productivity coach Chris Sparks, on his desk. — 00:01:25
  • ★★ Ali has read Austin Kleon's Show Your Work and Steal Like an Artist many times and keeps them on his desk because he has been referencing them a lot. — 00:01:25 · Austin Kleon, Show Your Work!
  • ★ Ali's M1 Mac mini is connected to a CalDigit TS3 dock. — 00:01:25 · Mac mini
  • ★★ Ali has been reading The Procrastination Equation. — 00:01:49
  • ★★ Ali types on his IQUnix F96 keyboard and uses the Logitech MX Master 3 mouse. — 00:01:49
  • ★★ James Hoffmann sent Ali the Clever Dripper as a productive way of making coffee: after three minutes you put it on your cup and it drips without a mess, so there is no waiting. — 00:02:19
  • ★★ Ali has recently been taping his mouth shut at night when he goes to bed, and bought surgical tape for it. — 00:02:55
  • ★★ Ali's analogue to-do list system is a set of index cards on a stand, so his to-do list is in front of him every day. — 00:02:55
  • ★ Ali sometimes puts a post-it note on his screen as a reminder; one says "YouTube story" to remind him to post more often on YouTube stories. — 00:03:32
  • ★★ Ali calls his normal desk a massive tip that he intends to clean up, joking that the mess helps him be more productive. (playful) — 00:03:32

00:04:01 — Pat Flynn's home office in its messiest state

  • ★★ Pat Flynn says it is hard to be productive with his desk so messy; he is likely to fix it now the world has seen it, but he still makes it work. (hedged) — 00:04:40

00:05:08 — Oliur's ultimate productivity station

  • ★★ Oliur says his Herman Miller chair is actually a really great chair. — 00:05:08
  • ★★ Oliur works on the M1 MacBook Pro connected to an LG UltraFine 5K display. — 00:05:30 · MacBook
  • ★★★ Ruby Granger: For Ruby Granger the main thing about her desk is that it is aesthetic, so that she enjoys sitting there to study. — 00:05:54

00:06:09 — Ruby Granger's aesthetic study desk

  • ★★ Ruby Granger's daily pens are Zebra Sarasa Vintage pens, which she says have very nice colours and write very well. — 00:06:23
  • ★★ Ruby Granger keeps a vision board next to her desk, filled with photos she likes that motivate her. — 00:07:47

00:08:42 — Thomas Frank's desk after moving into a new house

  • ★★★ Thomas Frank says that sometimes you have to get the work done and the state of the desk just does not matter. — 00:08:46 · Thomas Frank
  • ★★ Jacqueline of NothingButTech edits and writes scripts on her MacBook Pro, in a simple studio setup with a podcast microphone and a camera. — 00:09:15 · MacBook

00:09:23 — NothingButTech's simple studio setup

00:09:39 — Nathaniel Drew's productivity hack: the microfiber cloth

00:11:25 — Matti Haapoja's desk as it looks most of the time

  • ★★ Matti Haapoja works at an adjustable Fully standing desk with a Mac Pro, an XDR monitor and iLoud monitors he has thanks to Jonathan Morrison. — 00:11:33
  • ★★★ Matti Haapoja's philosophy: he likes keeping things tidy but will not clean all the time, because then he would not get anything done. — 00:12:02

00:12:25 — Simon Clark's editing and streaming desk

  • ★★ Simon Clark's desk is a standard hand-crank IKEA standing desk, not the motorised one, because he is not made of money. — 00:12:31
  • ★★ Simon Clark uses two BenQ 1440 photo-editing monitors: true colours matter to him for video editing, and two screens let him keep a script or Notion on one while editing on the other. — 00:12:31 · Notion
  • ★★ Simon Clark uses a Stream Deck to control his live streams, switching which screen viewers see and playing sound effects. — 00:13:00
  • ★★ Simon Clark keeps on his desk three origami animals given to him by a child at a talk he gave at Oxford. — 00:13:59

00:15:17 — Unjaded Jade's productive desk set up

00:16:47 — Matt D'Avella's desk in its messiest state ever

  • ★★ Matt D'Avella is currently using a flip phone for 30 days. — 00:17:19 · Matt D'Avella
  • ★★ Matt D'Avella keeps a handwritten notebook for his to-do list and for jotting notes, because he really likes its tactile feel. — 00:17:48 · Matt D'Avella

00:19:08 — Captain Sinbad's mock outrage at the productivity YouTubers' messy desks

Humor (significant)

  • Nathaniel Drew presents a microfiber cloth for wiping his screen as a paradigm-shifting productivity tool. — 00:09:52

    “This is just in every sense, it has multiplied my productivity by at least seven or eight times.”

  • Unjaded Jade shows her messy desk as the tidy workspace she always recommends online. — 00:15:01

    “You've got to have your bowl of finished food, you know?”

  • After her tour, Jade turns the camera on the even messier desk next to hers. — 00:16:34

    “This is my roommate's desk, so yeah, we're doing pretty well today.”

  • Matt D'Avella explains why his wife's old phone is on his desk. — 00:17:19

    “because I want to see what she was doing with her ex before.”

  • Oliur introduces his Herman Miller chair. — 00:05:08

    “I have a Herman Miller chair to show that I have more money than sense.”

  • Among the coffee cups on his desk, Ali shows a can of Diet Coke. — 00:02:55

    “Diet Coke, of course, caffeine free because caffeine is bad for you.”

  • A voice in the last segment rages at the productivity YouTubers' messy desks. — 00:19:07

    “if you don't have a clean desk and you don't have a clean room, you're filth. You're vermin.”

  • Told his own desk is a mess too, Nikhil defends himself. — 00:19:50

    “Well, I'm different, okay? I've got Indian parents.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

People: Austin Kleon · Chris Sparks · James Hoffmann · Jonathan Morrison

Works: Experiment Without Limits · Show Your Work! · Steal Like an Artist · The Procrastination Equation

Organizations: BenQ · Fully · Herman Miller · IKEA · Twitch · Ugmonk

Products: AirPods Max · Allure Homme · CalDigit Thunderbolt Dock · Clever Dripper · Gatherer · Herman Miller Sail · iPad Pro · IQUnix F96 · Logitech MX Master · Mac mini · Mac Pro · MacBook · Magic Keyboard · Notion · Pro Display XDR · Shure SM7B · Sony 24mm F1.4 G Master · Stream Deck · Uni-ball Air · Zoom

Taking part: Captain Sinbad · Jacqueline · Matt D'Avella · Matti Haapoja · Nathaniel Drew · Oliur · Pat Flynn · Ruby Granger · Simon Clark · Thomas Frank · Unjaded Jade

Only in the description or credits: Ugmonk Analog

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