I spend a lot more on on-the-go gear than office stuff.

* Tile Trackers

* Vacuum insulated water bottles, food jars, and a coffee mug

* A decent phone

* A MOLLE backpack(SOG Ninja) and accessories.

* A headlamp (Sofirn HS10, it's tiny and USB-C rechargeable)

* Zero drop barefoot shoes

* An ultra slim neck wallet

* An A5 6-ring planner for the rare occasions I'm using real paper

* Duplicate home and backpack copies of things like USB chargers

My latest purchase is some 1.8mm reflective cord.

Tied around a carabiner at both ends, so I can quickly clip my keys to my belt with one of those tactical belt hangar things, and ensure they don't fall out of my pocket.

RealForce R3S TKL, 30g. I returned a Kinesis 360 and got this instead. None of the reviews helped, and tbf, it's not easy to explain the difference or value of optical programmable switches until you use them. Note: I broke my hand a lifetime ago, and it just wasn't mechanically able to fit the 360's ergonomics. You have to be well to stay well, I guess.

Air purifiers. Breathe well.

High CRI lighting. Your lights can be for more than helping you not bump into things. I feel like I'm seeing our home for the first time, and I need less light to prevent strain or fatigue while reading, etc.

My laptop is docked and closed so using the built in mic and speaker isn't a great experience on remote calls. I don't like the experience of using headphones for a call because of the effect they have on how I perceive my own voice.

With the Polycom on my desk I just join a call, have everything set up automatically and get a great speaking/listening experience. Connectivity issues have been extremely rare and I can't remember the last time I needed to mess with settings unlike my Airpods which feel 50/50.

I personally have the Plantronics P7200 but there's many good options out there. Plus points for being able to expense it to my employers work from home allowance.

- A very large desk with a ton of space to tinker with things. I got an corner desk, with one wing holding an electronics workbench, and the other kept clean for working on my 3d printer or camera or taxes, etc. PC is in the center

- Monitor arms, they are just night and day better than stands

- More monitors, I went up to 3, but I've been thinking of adding more or swapping one with a lg dual up

- Stream Deck, really nice to add macros to your workflow. It's also got nice integrations with Teams and Discord for helping with calls

- Wireless headset, I use a steel series one. Very nice to be able to get up and get water or a snack during a meeting and not miss anything

- EInk notebook, I hate typing notes, and this replaced my pile of scratch pads

- Nvidia Broadcast, noise cancellation you can apply to both yourself and the shit audio your boss's laptop mic makes

Not a purchase, but I've taken the time to make some simple scripts to improve my workflow lately and it's been great. I have one that I use multiple times a day that just turns on my webcam and light, then opens OBS in virtual cam mode. When I close OBS it turns off the cam and light. It may just change 4 clicks to 1 click but it's quite nice in practice.

It is windows only, but it is fast, allows quickly setting manual anchor points (I miss this horribly when doing git diffs via vimdiff), and has converters for common file formats like doc and pdf (extracts the text and then does the diff).

I use it for both work and home. In addition to code diff, it's great for comparing things like PDFs of insurance renewals, to see what has changed.

It's the best $30 I've ever spent on software.

[1] https://www.grigsoft.com/wincmp3.htm

I used to bike to work but as soon as I sat down at my desk I felt like I was cutting my body at the waist. My lower body/legs were some kind of passive appendage stuck to my chair.

The first week of working while standing I kept looking for a chair to sit on, it was really distracting and I felt tired.

I bought a saddle stool with enough height so that I can transfer back and forth between standing and sitting. The stool has no back support and my legs are still fairly straight (like sitting on a bar stool) so my body is still much more active than just sitting in a chair.

Definitely life-changing. I have suffered from lower back pain all my life. If I have to go back to sitting in a chair for more than a few days I feel my back starting to lock up. In the standing/saddle configuration this doesn't happen.

Here is a random example: https://shop.lfhair.com.au/product/saddle-stool-ch-841/

-48” 4k OLED screen. A single large screen, combined with a tiling window manager, is just so much better than multiple smaller monitors. I typically have my IDE taking up 2/3 of the screen and my browser covering the other 1/3 - but I can easily adjust this depending on my needs. Plus it’s got HDR and a decent refresh rate (120hz) so it’s great for playing games too. It’s technically a tv, not a monitor, but it has a “PC mode” that fixes text rendering and enables vsync.

I tried lots of USB-C docks/dongles and finally gave in and got a decent lower-end Thunderbolt dock from Anker. No more juggling multiple cables to get 4K60. Single cable solution to dock my MacBook Pro and run pretty much anything.

It isn't currently in my office, but a cheap recumbent stationary bike has been a good help to knock out some cardio when I have a break.

Well top is really the M1 Pro MacBook Pro. Fast, silent and 95% of the time I don't even think about battery life. A big improvement over my 2019 i9 MBP.

Related, also maybe my 12.9" iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard cover. It's a 2018 with a dying battery but it makes a great book reader, video viewer, spare monitor, etc. With the keyboard case it's decent for writing or remote terminal work. It's become my "couch laptop" and what I throw in the car in case I get stuck waiting for something or someone.

I've got a cheap standing desk but meh - mostly sit at it but being able to change height even for sitting is nice. Cheap-ish Tempur-Pedic office chair works pretty well for me. Creative Pebble Pro speakers were a big improvement over my previous ones with analog input and a subwoofer I kept kicking. Anker C200 webcam and Audio-Technica ATR2100x-USB microphone were cheap upgrades for calls. A clamp-on cupholder that keeps my drink stable and away from possible spills onto my MacBook is a win. A few external SSDs for Time Machine etc.

- A decent backpack with space for a) a whole set of USB cords b) a small hand tools kit and c) a small cutlery set. Having dedicated cords and tools for just my backpack is nice, and a nice cutlery set is good for meetings and out in the field when I don't want to waste single-use plastic.

It's a wonderfully designed piece of kit and I highly recommend it to anyone who works on a computer or is a PC gamer (edit: now that I think about it, it should also work on most modern consoles, but I can't vouch for that).

Really!

I never used them and after receiving them as a "gift" I started loving using em.

They really help me manage both: job and private stuff!

Another would be a standing desk with an Ergodriven Topo Mat. I stand 99% of the time. I don't even own an office chair anymore. My back feels much better (I really feel better overall). My feet hurt pretty bad in the morning, right after I wake up, though. But a worthy tradeoff.

Another would a Audient EVO 4 audio interface. It lets me mix ambient sound from my mic with my music (sometimes I like to hear my wife and kids or my mechanical keyboard, other times I do not).

Lastly would be an AirDoctor.

Dragon medical dictation and now dragon one dictation. I don't agree with their frankly predatory end of life discontinuation to not activate any more licenses for the former, but man is it convenient. Just gives my hands and mind a break.

If you have suggestions for another ergonomic keyboard I'm all ears! My work one stopped working with my corporate laptop this week and I can't figure it out. Most of what I've seen doesn't have F-keys which are essential for me.

I also like a good mic and good webcam (currently using a dslr).

Also having a large thermos of water at arms length.

second best purchase was a quality all-mesh office chair (locally purchased Ioo in my case, similar to aeron). My primary motivation was coping with heatwaves in the southern/top floor apartment (it worked great). Generally high quality and comfort warranted a second purchase for my wife after ~6 years. I was sceptical about ageing of the mesh material over the years, but after ~8 years of use you can hardly tell it apart from a freshly unboxed chair.

2. I registered for a free Canvas account on Instructute.com and now build courses to teach everything I learn.

3. Deciding that upgrading my PC's system unit would wait as I bought new peripherals, like 43" 4k TV as monitors, a better keyboard, a DSLR, etc.

4. Used Xeon-powered workstations, then learning to upgrade them.

5. Learning that the best things in life are free, like large-format color copiers on CraigsList that have a small and fixable issue, but are too heavy yo move without renting a commercial truck with a lift gate.

6. A VPN so I could pirate books and audio books.

Another great buy was the Cal-Digit TS4. It's hooked up to two monitors, a WD SSD for Time Machine backups, and Ethernet.

I had the same issue of tight hips/pain when sitting up straight and I found doing hamstring stretches and some core work a couple times per week fixed the issue for me

Something I learned was that a lot of time tight hips or lower back pain is actually due to tight hamstrings

- Kinesis Advantage 2 keyboard (with QMK Stapleberg mod via Teensy microcontroller). This way I get the advantage of the extremely ergonomic keyboard + plus the benefit of it being highly configurable/programmable via C (QMK)

- adjustable desk

- ergonomic chair (got it second hand from a furniture store that buys from businesses that are closing down offices; essentially an 1.5k chair for $200 in good condition)

Software-wise

- learning vim/nvim (long term commitment but after a few years it starts bearing fruit and I’m more productive on it than any other tools I’ve used

- raycast (powerful, highly configurable Mac OS launcher)

- using a clipboard (I use the Raycast built in one; have a dedicated key for it)

- vimium (vim motions in browser)

- benefits of vim and vimium is that I don’t use mouse much and so my shoulder doesn’t hurt (from moving back and from from keyboard and mouse) and I don’t use the mouse scroller (biggest killer for hand pain for me)

https://evoluent.com/products/vm4rw/

My wrist would ached so much when working at a computer until I started using it. Then got a PERIBOARD-409 keyboard (https://www.amazon.com/Perixx-PERIBOARD-409U-Mini-Keyboard-1...) that would allow me to keep the mouse closer to the keyboard.

I am physically disabled from severing my spine. This changed my experience of being at the desk.

It's the first chair to make me sit comfortably & correctly [1].

Also transformational were:

* Corne split keyboard

* Benq e-reading lamp

* Galaxy Tab S8+

* Sit/stand desk

* Cheap foldable laptop stand from AliExpress (laptops by default seem terrible for posture).

[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/08/13/6360250...

I also bought a split ergonomic keyboard (Dygma Raise), and now I hate typing on every other keyboard.

- Humanscale Freedom chair with headrest, gel seat and gel arm rests

- Accell Thunderbolt 4 Docking station, 96W USB-C w/ 2x Dell 2715q

- Logitech MX Master mouse & MX Keys keyboard

- Fry's mousepad

- Xiaomi Mi Monitor Light Bar w/ remote

- STM Myth 18L Laptop Backpack

- Jabra Speak 510

In my case this was done by moving to a larger house with a seperate office, but this could easily be a shed, a wework, or a rented commercial suite, but the separation really helped.

After years of compromising and not wanting to spend what looks on the surface like silly money on a chair, I splashed out on a Herman Miller Mirra 2.

It's so comfortable that I'm pretty sure I could sit on it for the rest of my life and I'd never be in any pain, and it's in its 10th year of service without anything breaking, degrading or wobbling.

Best investment I've ever made!

I keep them on a wooden stand on my desk, plugged into an Apogee Duet 3 interface.

Having an external monitor behind my laptop screen allows me to change the focal distance of my eyes back and forth, so that's probably good for the eyes.

These have made Teams calls so much easier to deal with.

- OK, except the MacBook Pro. That transformed my life. Portable, powerful, long battery life, super-usable.

- OK, and Raycast (https://www.raycast.com/), too. Raycast has transformed my life. I resisted Raycast for a long time, because I already owned Alfred and I thought that Raycast was hipster junk for people unaware of Alfred. I was so wrong.

All my common statements and actions are now down to quick launch and hotkeys with a lot of GPT integration thrown in (eg. "Check spelling and grammar", "Improve writing", "Summarize text", etc).

I've been trying to stick with cross-platform apps as much as possible so that I can eventually move back to Linux, but Raycast is that exception. I pay for the Pro license. And yes, I've played with Albert and (I think) KRunner on Linux.

I could do most of this with Alfred, Albert, or KRunner, but Raycast is so much more polished and has so much less friction when extending it.

- Standing desk: https://www.amazon.com/Flexispot-Standing-Adjustable-Electri...

- Electric Kettle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DEQDEZA/

- Light therapy lamp: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075H39NDL/

- AA battery flashlight: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01G75P1SC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b... I use this thing all the time.

I was nervous going from a USB-charging, albeit larger flashlight to something that takes AA batteries, but this is way easier. When the thing is dead, it's not useless for 2 hours until it's charged up enough. I go to the office battery drawer, retrieve another AA, pop it in and I'm good immediately. In actuality, I keep a spare AA battery in my daily backpack and rotate it out.

- TNF Surge 2023 backpack: https://www.amazon.com/NORTH-FACE-Commuter-Laptop-Backpack/ I moved to this from a Goruck GR1 (which I still use outside of work). The Surge backpacks change all the time. I have a couple from past years -- they aren't that great.

It has a lot of pockets to stash things, the bottle holders aren't stupid. It's ergonomic. The chest strap has a whistle which I use all the time to get people's attention. It holds a 16" MBP and an iPad easily. It's light. The fabric on this particular color is quite rain resistant. Don't watch the YouTube reviews for the 2023, most of them are reviewing a substantially inferior 2023 prototype model before they improved a bunch of things.

- Foam rollers. Doesn't matter which, just buy one with decent ratings.

- Balance board. Nice little core workout and kinda fun when you're noodling on a problem. I bought the crappy plastic one that was on Shark Tank. Don't buy that one. Instead, buy one of these from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=balance+board