Gadget Guru

Our tame tech expert lets us into his shed of knowledge.

Alex Archbold What can I do to my desk to make working easier?

Don’t be afraid to give your brain a break. Guru has been doing that for nigh-on 40 years and it hasn’t done him any harm. It was at this point in writing that I went off to hunt for studies that say procrastination is a good thing, and it turns out (after an hour’s searching, punctuated by a visit to YouTube and a sojourn away from the desk to find a cat to pet and eat some delicious Dairy Milk chocolate) that psychologists aren’t inclined to find evidence to support it.

They (and this is the nebulous ‘they’, rather than psychologists) do say a tidy desk means a tidy mind, but the opposite is also true; it’s imperative to get yourself into beneficial habits. Something as simple as a sticky note with that general morning routine on it – clean desk, properly position monitors, adjust nether regions – could be enough to remind you to do the right thing.

Proper posture can also help; a decent office chair will turn that lazy slouch into an upright and alert pose. Guru can’t help but recommend the stiff, posture-friendly yet remarkably comfortable Noble-chairs HERO ($549), which has positively adjusted his own floppy spine over the past year.

Many swear by standing desks, which do away with that potential for laziness entirely; Guru has a converter (a Yo-yo DESK Mini) although he found it made him more inclined to go and wander off to the kitchen. Your results may vary. Really, though, it’s about your own ability to focus. Do what works for you: put a picture of your kids on your desk, run the Pomodoro technique to give yourself adequate breaks, install some kind of procrastination-stopper on your computer.

Separate work from fun. You’ll get there.