What Is Your Advice on the Ideal Desk Set-Up for Deep Work?

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00:00:02.580 | - All right, the next question we got,

00:00:06.640 | advice on setting up the ideal desk.

00:00:09.700 | - I'd like to get your advice on an ideal desk set up

00:00:15.900 | to do deep work.

00:00:17.100 | I have a standing desk that I vary at different heights

00:00:22.180 | as well as different chairs,

00:00:23.720 | but nothing seems to make me very comfortable.

00:00:26.920 | I have chronic back issues, but they're aggravated

00:00:30.360 | depending on how I'm sitting and standing.

00:00:32.840 | I can't seem to find something that works

00:00:34.720 | and I've toyed with getting a different desk or chair.

00:00:38.160 | It really is important that I'm somewhat comfortable

00:00:41.200 | for the deep work I'm trying to do.

00:00:43.400 | Is there anything that you suggest or that you've used

00:00:46.400 | so that you can sit and do deep work or stand?

00:00:49.520 | Thank you.

00:00:50.360 | - Well, okay, there's a couple of different issues here.

00:00:55.440 | There's the desk issue,

00:00:56.880 | and then there's the nature of deep work efforts themselves.

00:01:01.700 | Now, in your situation, what I might recommend

00:01:06.380 | is moving away from the model of here is my work location,

00:01:11.380 | this room, this desk, and this is where I am,

00:01:13.840 | and this is where I do my work.

00:01:16.080 | There was a period, I don't remember what year it was,

00:01:20.620 | but there was a period where I was doing a lot of posts

00:01:22.640 | on my newsletter and blog, so calnewport.com/blog

00:01:26.680 | about, I think I called it adventure work.

00:01:30.840 | And I had a photo documentation of this.

00:01:33.880 | And what I would do is identify a series of locations

00:01:38.880 | around the Georgetown campus.

00:01:42.320 | I would rotate between these different locations

00:01:44.360 | to do different types of work.

00:01:45.420 | And I had this whole theory about, it's nice,

00:01:47.800 | it changes the context.

00:01:49.000 | You go somewhere just to do one type of work.

00:01:50.920 | That's all you're focusing on,

00:01:52.520 | as opposed to being at the same desk

00:01:53.840 | where you also do emails, where you also do Zoom calls.

00:01:56.360 | And I documented, here is a picnic table in the woods.

00:02:00.780 | That was literally one of them.

00:02:02.640 | Here is a library, the bioethical library,

00:02:05.880 | that's another one.

00:02:07.080 | Here is a overlook of the Potomac

00:02:10.160 | where you can sit on a bench and get work done.

00:02:11.860 | I took photos of these.

00:02:12.880 | And if you Google study hacks adventure work,

00:02:16.840 | you'll probably find it.

00:02:18.680 | That might be more what you should be looking for here.

00:02:21.820 | A more peripatetic, so you're moving more,

00:02:26.320 | diverse location style work.

00:02:29.240 | I walk and think, then sit down in this location

00:02:31.880 | and do work.

00:02:32.700 | Then I get up and walk and think, go somewhere else.

00:02:34.760 | I'm in that location, I do work.

00:02:36.160 | I'm never in one place for a long period of time.

00:02:38.440 | I like that style of work.

00:02:39.640 | I do a lot of that.

00:02:41.440 | And if you have back issues,

00:02:43.280 | it could really be a good option.

00:02:46.500 | Now you also mentioned ideal desk.

00:02:49.500 | So that gives me an excuse to talk about something

00:02:51.860 | I'm really excited about.

00:02:53.220 | So it's a desk nerd geek out

00:02:57.820 | that I do wanna have briefly.

00:03:00.520 | So look, I'm not someone who spends a lot of money.

00:03:04.700 | I'm not, I don't drive fancy cars.

00:03:07.060 | I don't have multiple houses.

00:03:10.280 | But the one thing that we are investing some book money in,

00:03:15.460 | my wife and I, is we're taking my study,

00:03:19.540 | it's not my study, it's the study.

00:03:22.940 | We do schoolwork in there, we do reading time in there.

00:03:25.620 | And we're doing a really cool renovation of that study,

00:03:28.300 | which is built around these custom four wall

00:03:33.300 | built in bookcases that are gonna be full of books.

00:03:37.060 | And there's a fireplace with a leather Chesterfield couch

00:03:41.700 | and a game table.

00:03:43.420 | And like, it's cool, right?

00:03:45.020 | I mean, but the centerpiece of this,

00:03:48.020 | and it's the one indulgence I would say I've had

00:03:51.100 | with some of the success for my books

00:03:53.500 | is I'm having custom built a desk,

00:03:57.100 | being custom built by a company in Maine

00:04:01.060 | that hand builds primarily reading tables

00:04:05.860 | for university libraries.

00:04:07.380 | So they pick out the trees and the wood

00:04:11.340 | and they build these very durable, beautiful

00:04:13.300 | American made reading tables for university libraries.

00:04:16.140 | And they're custom building me a deep work desk

00:04:20.980 | that's gonna fit three sides around it, built in bookcases.

00:04:25.260 | And then the middle is gonna be this custom built desk

00:04:29.620 | where I gave all the specifications,

00:04:31.300 | chose the wood and all the features.

00:04:32.740 | It won't be done till July, right?

00:04:34.580 | I mean, this stuff takes time

00:04:36.420 | and it's a ridiculous thing in some sense, right?

00:04:39.700 | It's a ridiculous thing to spend money on.

00:04:41.980 | It's definitely not necessary, but it's my one indulgence

00:04:45.060 | is that my custom built a university style reading desk.

00:04:49.660 | And I'll tell you this about it.

00:04:51.700 | There's not gonna be a computer on that desk.

00:04:56.180 | There's gonna be a really nice reading lamp.

00:04:58.860 | I will be willing to bring a laptop to that desk

00:05:01.780 | if I want to write at it, but then that laptop goes away.

00:05:05.740 | So it's gonna be independent from any sort of

00:05:08.220 | permanent electronic productivity tool.

00:05:11.220 | I wanna sit there and work with my notebooks

00:05:13.860 | and I could write there if I wanna write,

00:05:15.580 | but then move that laptop when I don't wanna write,

00:05:17.380 | work longhand there when I wanna work longhand there.

00:05:20.500 | I'm really looking forward to that.

00:05:23.260 | So I'm a big believer in desk.

00:05:25.340 | My bigger point here being,

00:05:27.660 | and I've had a series of newsletter essays

00:05:30.180 | about this recently in November of 2021,

00:05:33.460 | I had a series of newsletter essays

00:05:35.020 | about interesting workspaces that people built.

00:05:38.100 | I talked about Ian Colfer, who wrote the Artemis Fowl series,

00:05:41.780 | super best-selling kids series,

00:05:44.700 | the writing shed he built in his backyard.

00:05:47.020 | And I wrote about George Lucas's writing tower,

00:05:50.020 | this tower he had built onto the first Victorian house

00:05:53.820 | he owned in Marin County.

00:05:55.780 | And he built this tower with a view of Mount Tam

00:05:59.740 | and he wrote the first Star Wars in there.

00:06:01.380 | On a desk, by the way, made out of three desks.

00:06:03.540 | So it just goes to show a desk doesn't have to be fancy.

00:06:05.940 | And my point in that whole series was,

00:06:08.860 | it's not a crazy thing to invest money in

00:06:10.660 | if you have money to invest,

00:06:12.180 | is over-the-top workspaces.

00:06:15.700 | Because it gives you a huge return

00:06:19.660 | if you're in a line of work

00:06:21.140 | where there is a huge variety

00:06:23.500 | in the quality of intellectual output that can be produced

00:06:25.900 | and better quality is gonna give you better returns.

00:06:27.780 | If you write books for a living,

00:06:28.940 | if you write movies for a living,

00:06:30.060 | if you solve proofs for a living,

00:06:31.420 | if you have to have huge insights for a living,

00:06:35.220 | it's not a frivolous investment

00:06:36.660 | if you have the money to get a very nice desk

00:06:38.420 | or to built in bookcases

00:06:40.220 | or convert a garden shed into a writing shed

00:06:43.220 | or in the rundown house you bought

00:06:45.180 | with your money from American graffiti

00:06:46.540 | to put a tower on it

00:06:47.820 | so you can go up there and concentrate more on Star Wars.

00:06:49.740 | These are bets that could really pay off.

00:06:52.140 | And we don't talk enough about them

00:06:53.220 | 'cause we don't care about the human brain enough

00:06:54.820 | when it comes to work.

00:06:55.660 | We just think about tools.

00:06:56.660 | Do you have the right computer and the right software,

00:06:59.380 | but environment matters.

00:07:01.260 | And so I geek out about desks.

00:07:05.660 | I don't know.

00:07:06.500 | Is that crazy, Jesse?

00:07:07.340 | What do you think to spend kind of stupid amounts of money

00:07:10.100 | on a piece of wood?

00:07:10.940 | - Not at all.

00:07:11.980 | I mean, a hundred percent.

00:07:13.540 | I think you said it best.

00:07:15.220 | You don't, I don't think you spend much money

00:07:16.860 | on other stuff.

00:07:17.700 | So like at some point you got to spend money on some things.

00:07:20.420 | Like I spend a lot of money on golf, but yeah.

00:07:23.660 | - And we have a pretty nice, our table here,

00:07:26.100 | I spent, it's not super nice, but we got a nice,

00:07:28.420 | you can't see it on camera,

00:07:29.460 | but Jesse and I are sitting at a,

00:07:31.260 | it's like a round, nice wood table

00:07:34.660 | with a sort of like metal pedestal,

00:07:37.100 | sort of like a, what's that guy's name?

00:07:39.900 | Charlie Rose style setup.

00:07:42.300 | - It's got a good feel to it too.

00:07:44.100 | Like it's nice.

00:07:45.940 | - Yeah, solid.

00:07:46.780 | It's not in the, after all that work,

00:07:48.140 | it's not in any of the camera shots,

00:07:49.260 | but you know, we know it.

00:07:50.620 | We know it.

00:07:51.460 | We're happy about it.

00:07:52.300 | (upbeat music)

00:07:54.880 | (upbeat music)

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What Is Your Advice on the Ideal Desk Set-Up for Deep Work?

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