A Simple Desk Hack

As a developer I spend most of my day at my desk, designing, coding, emailing and talking on the phone. I work from home on a huge 70’s “executive” desk I dragged home from a Freecycle posting and which, after lugging it up to the second floor of my house, I believe is lined with lead and so as a bonus my legs are shielded from cosmic rays It’s main feature, other than Supervision protection, is a 5′x3′ flat desktop that easily supports my four monitor/three machine setup.

Like any desk jockey not wanting to end up walking around when I’m 70 with T-Rex arms because of carpal tunnel I have my keyboard and mouse in a pull out drawer which frees up most of my desktop area. With all that open space I’ve added a simple feature to the desk that I use all day – a piece of shiny white Masonite that covers the top of the desk. Basically a horizontal whiteboard that always in arms reach.

To use my “deskboard” I keep a set of “Ultra Fine Tip” Expo markers on hand and use them to take notes, jot down quick to do lists, design UI or just doodle. The fine tip markers draw lines that are the same size as a felt tip pen so you can pack a lot of detail in a small area. If I ever needed to save or share a note I could use Snapter, but so far I haven’t found the need.

I should patent this…

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 10:11 am . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “A Simple Desk Hack”

1. Jennifer Says:
   December 8th, 2008 at 11:30 am

   How do you keep from getting Sharpie ink on your arms/sleeves?

2. Doug Says:
   December 8th, 2008 at 11:36 am

   Jennifer: that is taken care of with the keyboard/mouse drawer – my arms rest on my chair armrests. My desktop is empty except for my iPod and a mug of tea.

3. jamie Says:
   December 8th, 2008 at 12:48 pm

   I need the bird’s eye view…

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