My Desk Setup for 2024 (updated)

The Desk Setup I Used to Gain Over 250K Followers on Instagram & TikTok

Over the years I, like many others have cycled the tech they use in their daily desk setup in and out as often as we can.

Almost like the changing seasons of a fashion trend I wanted to find the latest and greatest products.

In the front of my mind, thinking that this next tool or gadget will finally “unlock” that next level of productivity and efficiency.

But, in the back of my mind I knew that it’s not about getting the latest and greatest tech, it’s about finding what actually works for you within your specific work location.

For example my desk setup when I travel is FAR different than when I’m at home…

…and it always puts me on edge 😂.

That’s because I don’t have “my normal setup”.

But when it comes to my main, home workstation I have found in the last couple of years — especially after becoming a content creator, that my setup has not changed that much.

Sure, small additions or changes here or there, but for the majority of the last two to three years I have had this exact same setup…

The Desk (The foundation to it all)

For the longest time I did not use a standing desk.

And for a while, it showed via my lack of good posture.

Now, I try to start the day with the desk in standing mode or when I am attending a non-technical meeting.

I ended up getting the electric standing desk based from a company called TopSky and then added a wooden table on top that I got from Ikea.

On top of my desk I have a XXXL leather work mat that also acts as a mouse pad for my mouse/ keyboard.

The other advantage to having a standing desk for me (being 6'4") is I can adjust the sitting height of the desk as well.

Other items I have on my desk are the pad of paper and a pen because I tend to use hand written notes during meetings rather than typing.

The Computer

For my main desk setup I use the Mac M1 Mini.

This thing can handle everything I throw at it with ease.

Never have had a problem with it — and it’s dead silent.

Add in a couple of external hard drives and USB-Hub and you’re rocking and rolling with the best of ‘em.

I am deep into the Apple ecosystem with dozens of their devices coming into my life over the years and this is one of the most reliable ones yet.

Pro Tip: Upgrading the RAM on any Apple device is going to give you the best bang for your buck, so I highly recommend you upgrade that if/when you buy a new Apple computer.

The Monitors (not 4K and that’s okay!)

I have tried single ultra wide monitors.

I’ve tried dual side by side monitors.

I’ve tried 24-inch, 27-inch, 32-inch.

I also have a Macbook Pro which has a screen size of just 13-inches.

So what is the best monitor size for a Mac?

Well I went down the rabbit hole so you don’t have to.

Essentially any 4K monitor will not work at the native resolution that Mac’s provide.

You need to do a bit of scaling or use Apple’s underscan feature to help adjust the resolution of the display to the size of your desktop.

There are a lot of technical reasons why this is, but you can clearly see this reflected in Apple’s own lineup of monitors and how none of them are the “standard 4K monitor”, they are positioned as a “27-inch 5K retina monitor”, which retails $1,599.

So instead of spending $3,200 on monitors, I opted to do a bit of research and find what I think is by far the best deal in terms of performance and price.

It’s a 27-inch 2K (1440p) monitor for <$180 by ViewSonic.

So for 10x less money I can have a similar viewing experience as if I would have paid over $3.5k for.

The Third Monitor?!

One of the meh-things about the M1 Mac Mini is it can only power two displays by default.

But with a simply $50 USB to HDMI adapter you can add a third monitor.

My “third monitor” is actually just an old 1080p 32-inch Vizio TV, but it works perfectly as a place to keep Spotify, a YouTube video or a communication channel I need to actively monitor — but without it disrupting my primary view of the two monitors stacked on top of eachother.

The Keyboard

The keyboard that I use in my daily setup has changed more often than I would like to admit.

I used to be in the camp of using a massive, super loud clicky gaming keyboards with built in screens and macro keys, to now using a very simple and minimalist keyboard, the Logitech MX Keys Mini.

I like this one because it feels the most like the OG 2012–2016 Macbook Pros when they had the really nice scissor key switches.

It’s also wireless and has a backlight that illuminates when your hands touch the keys.

I also like that it has a dedicated emoji button ✅.

I don’t like how it doesn’t have the standard media buttons like skip forward or skip backward.

So, I ended up using their software to map the mute microphone key to be the skip forward button. (meh — works for now)

The Mouse

Arguably one of the most important items you can use and I am now on my 3rd or 4th Logitech MX Master Series Mouse, I believe they are currently on the MX 3s for Mac — or at least that’s the one I am currently using.

But, I have owned the MX Master 1 — the original. What’s cool about the updated one is they made it have a “ninja-mode” which basically means the clicks are like silent.

So instead of having super loud annoying clicks everywhere, the MX Master 3s using some sort of magnets so the click motion is super smooth barely audible.

This is one of those products that has been refined over the last several years in a way where the next iteration is actually better/ improves on the features of the previous model.

I use basically every feature of this mouse to help my workflow on my mac become more productive.

I map the middle scroll button to Mission Control so I can easily swipe and see all of my different desktops.

The side scroll wheel works perfectly and has the perfect amount of resistance.

I love this thing — can’t recommend this one enough.

The Microphone

Most everyone has the same Shure SM7B which costs a lot because you also need to buy a XLR interface/ pre-amp or a way to connect it to your computer. (They fixed this with the SM7dB but that one costs like $600+)

I knew that I needed to find a quality mic that would be simple for me to plugin to my computer and be able to monitor the audio.

I took a chance on the Samson G-Track Pro, at the time a pretty well-reviewed brand on Amazon which has now grown in size and reputation.

This mic will do everything I wanted, plus it has the ability to take another audio source as an additional input through its 1/4-inch adapter— essentially turning it into a mixer as well (because I could control the volume of each).

I think this mic is made for musicians who for example want to play their electric guitar and sing and capture the audio from both natively into a computer through the single device.

For me it works great as a high quality mic for Zoom meetings and recording content.

The Microphone Stand

This is one part of the whole “microphone situation” that I wasn’t expecting to be such a big hassle.

I’ve purchased several mic stands, arms and mounts and they have all been good to start but very quickly show their shortcomings when they start to squeak really badly or simply fall apart.

That is until I found the low profile mic arm from El Gato.

This was by far the most expensive mic arm that I had ever purchased but once I received it and felt it in my own hands — this would be a keeper.

Now I have my Samson G-Track Pro mounted to the Low Profile Wave Mic Arm from El Gato and it’s my favorite setup yet.

Headphones

I currently have two pairs of headphones in rotation.

The first are the Apple Airpods Pro 2nd gen, which are great for phone calls, zoom meetings, listening to music/ podcasts etc.

The other is the Sony XM4 Headphones that I typically will used as a wired connection to monitor my audio when recording or editing a video.

These are best used for content creation when I need to have a bit more precise sound.

I used to take both when traveling but I always ended up just using my Airpods Pro.

One trip I was curious though so I brought both.

Which had the better noise cancellation on the plane?

TL;DR — Airpods Pro had slightly better noise cancellation.

This was super surprising to me as I had always switched over to the Sony headphones right before boarding to get into my little world so no one could bother me lol.

But now I was using the Airpods a bit more for their noise cancellation because I could wear them for longer periods.

With the over-the-ear Sony headphones on my head would get sweaty or a bit sore after a few hours.

I now pretty much only travel with my Airpods Pro.

Keeping the pack light and simple as possible.

The Webcam

I used to have a dedicated webcam camera like ones from Logitech but then I realized that the camera in my old iPhone XR is far superior in terms of quality to that of my “dedicated webcam”.

Getting the video stream from your iPhone’s camera to reliably show up on your computer is a bit more difficult than you might think.

Sure the Airplay, wireless camera handoff feature works great when you have great WiFi, but how reliable is that?

So it has to be a wired connection.

There are bunch of 3rd-party apps but I found the best one to be the iOS app from OBS called Virtual Camera.

This then also requires the download and setup of the Mac desktop app OBS.

Once figuring out how to use the iPhone as a video source inside the desktop app for OBS you can use your iPhone as your webcam for any application on your computer.

For me this is super handy when creating content because I can film clips that get recorded natively to my computer automatically, which then makes it easier to edit them.

Mounting the iPhone Webcam

This is probably one of my favorite parts of the setup.

I got a magsafe compatible case for the iPhone XR that I was using as a webcam and was able to create a contraption that would allow me to magnetically stick the iPhone into the perfect place between my two monitors.

I got a U-Beezie Magsafe Mount with a 1/4-inch thread in the bottom allowing me to connect to a 3-point variable arm which is connected to the monitor arms at the back of the desk.

This is a fully articulated arm that can go full 360 degrees at every joint allowing you to manipulate it to be in the exact shape and location you want.

When you find the desired location you can lock it into place by twisting the red knobs tightly.

This setup allowed me to position the iPhone perfectly between my monitors and have full control over how the camera is angled.

Items I’ll Be Replacing This Year

Speakers — Right now I’m using a super old Logitech 5-speaker setup which does the job just fine, but, will most likely upgrade at some point this year.

Lighting — Right now I have a ring light, and a standing light bar than can change into any color which provides enough light for “darker” videos but looking to brighten things up this year.