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My iMac Productivity Desk Setup

2021-05-18 · Tech review, setup or bag tour · Ali · recording, 8:16 · watch on YouTube

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

Ali swaps his 49-inch ultrawide and Mac mini for the base 2021 M1 iMac, having decided that a bigger desk setup is not necessarily more productive, and tours the minimal desk: the CalDigit dock, Kanto speakers and audio gear, Austin Kleon's books, the Ugmonk Analog paper to-do list, the Fully Jarvis standing desk and the Herman Miller Sail, with an L-shaped desk for a gaming PC as his next plan.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Bigger is not necessarily better: tearing down the old desk and unboxing the iMac

  • ★★★ Ali used to think that the bigger his screen and the more he piled on his desk, the more productive he could be; recently he realised bigger is not necessarily better, and Apple's new iMacs gave him the excuse to simplify his desk setup. — 00:00:00 · Apple

    “bigger isn't necessarily better”

  • ★★ Ali spends half an hour dismantling his 49-inch ultrawide monitor, retires his Mac mini and sets up the new iMac with a single cable. — 00:00:46 · Mac mini

00:01:16 — The M1 iMac, the CalDigit dock and what plugs into it: keyboard and mouse, Kanto speakers, audio interface, Cam Link

  • ★★ Ali's 2021 M1 iMac is for now the base model, with only two Thunderbolt ports, 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB solid-state drive, which he calls absolutely tiny. — 00:01:16
  • ★★ A fully specced iMac that Ali upgraded to 16 GB of RAM and a 2 TB drive is on its way and should arrive in about six weeks. — 00:01:16
  • ★★ Ali connects the iMac by a single USB-C cable to the CalDigit TS3 Thunderbolt dock, which he calls absolutely amazing and used before with his M1 Mac mini. — 00:01:46 · Mac mini
  • ★★ Ali sees a real problem with Apple's recent round of products, such as the M1 Mac mini with its two ports: they do not have enough ports. — 00:01:46 · Apple, Mac mini
  • ★ Ali's main iMac accessories are the ones that came with it: the new sky-blue Apple keyboard and Magic Mouse. — 00:01:46 · Apple
  • ★★ Ali has a Magic Trackpad on the way, because he likes it to be a staple part of his desk setup. — 00:02:15
  • ★★ Ali still uses the white Kanto YU2 speakers, which he calls absolutely amazing: pretty, matching his blue-and-white desk, and great-sounding. — 00:02:15
  • ★★ For podcasts, video voice-overs and live sessions of his Part-Time YouTuber Academy, Ali records with his Shure SM7B through a Cloudlifter preamp into the Focusrite 2i4 audio interface. — 00:02:44 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy
  • ★★ With the Elgato Cam Link 4K, which connects his camera by HDMI, Ali can stream his camera's picture on Zoom calls and in Part-Time YouTuber Academy teaching sessions, to impress people. (playful) — 00:03:14 · Zoom, Part-Time YouTuber Academy
  • ★★ Because the new iMac has a decent webcam and reasonable built-in microphones, Ali thinks he will not need his external camera and mics for most Zoom calls, which makes him more of a minimalist. (hedged) — 00:03:14 · Zoom

00:03:43 — On the desk: Austin Kleon's books, decaf tea, a plant, cards, the Ugmonk Analog and a lamp with a Philips Hue bulb

  • ★★ Ali has kept Austin Kleon's trilogy, Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work and Keep Going, on his desk for months: in a slump he opens one at a random page and always learns something. — 00:03:43 · Austin Kleon, Show Your Work!
  • ★★ Ali drinks decaffeinated English breakfast tea in the evening because, he says, caffeine after 2 p.m. is bad for you. — 00:03:43
  • ★ Ali says blue is his favourite colour and his personal accent colour; by coincidence everything on his desk is some shade of blue. — 00:04:12
  • ★★ Ali calls the Ugmonk Analog, a walnut paper to-do list system with cards for today, next and someday, a bit overpriced for what it is but really nicely designed. — 00:04:41
  • ★★ Ali mostly uses the Ugmonk Analog's today cards, because he likes a to-do list on paper that feels nice and aesthetic, propped up in front of him to keep track of the day's tasks. — 00:05:07
  • ★ Ali's desk lamp holds a Philips Hue bulb, and Philips Hue bulbs are all around his living room and bedroom, so he can change the lights by asking Alexa. — 00:05:07 · Philips Hue

00:05:52 — The Jarvis desk, the Herman Miller Sail, the IKEA Alex, the gaming PC and the L-shaped desk dream, cable management

  • ★★ Ali's desk is the bamboo Fully Jarvis, about 180 cm wide by his estimate, which Fully sent him about two years ago; he absolutely loves the electric standing desk and often switches between sitting and standing. — 00:05:52
  • ★★ Ali calls his white-and-blue Herman Miller Sail the most comfortable desk chair he has ever used and recommends it. — 00:05:52
  • ★ The drawers of Ali's black IKEA Alex unit hold a mess he needs to organise, Marie Kondo style. — 00:06:21
  • ★★ Ali's Alienware gaming PC under the desk cannot currently be plugged into anything, because the iMac cannot be used as an external display. — 00:06:21
  • ★★ Ali is working towards an L-shaped standing desk with the iMac as his productivity setup on one side and a Windows gaming PC on the other, which he calls the absolute dream. — 00:06:50 · Microsoft Windows
  • ★★ Ali says the challenge of cable management with a standing desk is keeping the cables managed in both sitting and standing modes; he hides his with white wire mesh and a white box for the extension lead. — 00:07:21

00:07:50 — Sign-off and pointer to his iMac review

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: iMac

Also: People: Austin Kleon · Marie Kondo

Projects: Part-Time YouTuber Academy

Works: Keep Going · Show Your Work! · Steal Like an Artist

Organizations: Apple · Fully · Herman Miller · Ugmonk

Products: Alienware Aurora R10 · Amazon Alexa · Apple M1 · Apple Magic Keyboard · Apple Magic Trackpad · CalDigit Thunderbolt Dock · Cloudlifter · Elgato Cam Link 4K · Focusrite 2i4 · Herman Miller Sail · IKEA Alex · Jarvis · Kanto YU2 · LG 49WL95C · Mac mini · Magic Mouse · Microsoft Windows · Philips Hue · Shure SM7B · SwitchPod · Touch ID · Ugmonk Analog · Zoom

Also centred on iMac: GAME-CHANGER - NEW iMac Review (M1)

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