Office Hardware and Software Setup (2023 edition)
2023/02/27
With being a self-employed web developer. I’ve had to figure out what technology works best, software, hardware, etc. So I figured I’d share with you what my current office set up looks like.
Hardware
Apple Mac Studio – This is my day-to-day rig and upgrading to the M1 Max chipset from intel. The difference is night and day and it supports the three monitors I use.
Three LG 24″ 4K monitors – Two of the monitors are LG UltraFine Displays that support Thunderbolt 3 connectivity and the other is a LG 4K monitor that supports HDMI and DisplayPort.
Apple 13″ M1 Macbook Pro – This is primarily used for when I travel, am sitting on the couch, and go into clients offices.
Seagate 4TB External Hard Drive – I use this for a backup of files different from my dropbox account and timemachine to backup my Mac Studio. This is also replaced every three years as I have had external drives fail after that point.
Logitech MX Vertical Mouse – I’ve struggled with wrist pain over the years and this vertical mouse helps with relieving pressure on your wrist as it puts your wrist into a more natural position.
Bose Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphones – With working out of the house with one toddler and another on the way. These are a must. I’ve tried a couple others, but after a few weeks of use. They just seemed to degrade quickly and since I’ve had a good amount of luck with Bose. I went back to what works.
Logitech Bluetooth Keyboard – I chose this keyboard as you are able to easily switch between multiple machines with the tap of a button.
JLab Microphone – I’ve tried a few different microphones and this is by far my favorite.
APC 850VA Battery Back-up – I’ve had some moments where I’ve lost work because the power briefly cut out. This battery backup prevents that and gives you time to save your files if the power goes out.
Monitor Arm Desk Mounts – I have two desk mounted monitor arms to keep my monitor bases off my desk and at the right height. I have one two arm mount and one one arm mount.
Motorized Sit/Stand Desk – With being at my desk the majority of my work day. This helps keeps me from sitting all day long.
Herman Miller Aeron Chair – Spending a decent amount of time in my chair. I wanted something that was highly adjustable and built to last.
Software
Sketch, Figma and Adobe CC – These are the typical apps I receive designs in. I can work in other apps, but these are typical ones my clients use when they deliver files to work from.
Nova – When it comes to code editing. This is the updated app released from Panic, which replaced CODA 2 a while back.
Transmit -My FTP client is Transmit and again, created by Panic.
Dropbox – With being a soloprenuer. I don’t need to currently worry about others having access to my files directly. So I settled on dropbox a number of years ago as my file server. Granted it does have some pitfalls that are a little bit of a pain. That pain isn’t big enough to find a different solution.
Browserstack – Working on macs. Browserstack makes it easy to test my work on a PC when the needs arise.
Harvest – I use harvest for anything time related. It makes time tracking, project estimating and invoicing stupid easy.
One Password – With being a web developer. It comes with handling a ton of logins and sensitive information. One password makes it a breeze. Even if you don’t have a ton of logins you need to manage. It’s worth the yearly fee to offload that information in an ever increasing digital world.
MAMP Pro – This is used as my local server environment.
Trello – Trello allows you to use boards and tickets to track tasks that need to be done. You are also able to organize tickets into silos.
Airmail – This is the email app that I have landed on over the years. It’s easy to sync over multiple devices and keep things organized.