My Productivity Desk Setup (2021) | POTS & hEDS EDITION

 

Do you have a chronic illness and hate sitting at a desk to do your work because it's so draining? I have POTS and EDS, and in this video I'm going to show you my desk set up that keeps me productive without flaring my symptoms.

Watch the video below or read on for the full transcript.

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Hello! Welcome to my bedroom office. As you can see, we have my amazing motorized bed frame here. My cat Kayla here, because apparently I'm not allowed to sit down right now. And then over there is my whiteboard where I do my goal prioritizing, and my time-blocking that I talked about in this video a few weeks back.

All right, so as you can see, I am now reclining in my amazing bed. With this remote I can adjust how high the feet go up, which is pretty far, which is great. When I need to have my feet super elevated I can take the head back and I can also lie down with just my feet elevated, which is great for me to recover after a shower.

Now I want to show you my lap desk, which I have right here. I usually just store it on the floor over there in the corner, under my whiteboard. There are a lot of things I love about this lap desk. First of all, it's nice and wide. A lot of computer lap desks are awful for larger bodies because they like don't quite fit the hips. It's annoying. So this one's nice and wide, gives me a lot of surface area, and it can adjust to multiple lengths in between there. And this is where laptop can go and I'll get my laptop out in a second.

And then right here, you'll notice I have added some baby proofing rubber that has stickum on it, and that's to prevent my mouse from falling off the desk if my feet are at a higher angle. It's quite Macgyver-ish, but it works very well.

And then the last thing you'll notice are these bright orange feet, which my wonderful partner designed and 3D printed for me. They're just a friction fit onto the original desk. And if I remove these back ones, I can have my feet higher with it tilting less, and it's more level and it's magical. We've thought this out a lot.

So let me go ahead and get set up with my laptop real quick. As you can see, I am reaching into a set of rolling drawers over here. I keep everything over here, not only stuff for work, but also stuff for doin' my face.

As you can see, I also keep my makeup brushes up there.

Being able to do a lot of work from a seated or reclined position with my feet up (that's the key part), has been so so helpful for me.

Comment below and tell me if sitting with your feet on the floor is as hard for you as it is for me. How meaningful would it be to you to give yourself permission to work in an environment that accommodates your body instead of hurting it.

As you can see, I have a wireless mouse and it goes over on this side, it does not fall down because of the baby bumper. Yes!

This is how I do a lot of my work. And like I was talking about in my time-blocking video, I can see my whiteboard just past the right of my monitor here. And being able to work in this position, and then sometimes sit up and sit cross-legged, and just to change positions a lot throughout my workday, but without ever having to have my feet on the floor and struggle with blood pooling because of my Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome - it has been absolutely amazing for me.

And having this table over here with like everything I need, including my giant water bottle to stay hydrated, is just so helpful. It's amazing.

It's a fairly simple setup, not necessarily inexpensive cause really the pièce de résistance is the bed, and the bed frame was expensive, but my partner was kind enough to get this for me when my business started taking off, so I don't make myself sick working.

I'm going to link to the lap desk and also the rolling drawers here if you're curious about those two items in particular.

I'm not going to tell you what laptop I use, cause it's already getting old and I have to replace it and makes me really sad.

And this is just a standard Logitech wireless mouse, Nalgene water bottle, Ikea shelves. If you're wondering what mattress I use, it's the Purple and yes, I love it.

Other than that, this is my productive desk setup as someone with multiple chronic conditions and therefore invisible disability. These are the accommodations that allow me to work. I can't work full time, but I can work significantly more hours than if I was forced to sit at a desk.

I hope this gives you some ideas of how to better accommodate your conditions.

So that's my Productivity desk set up. I cannot tell you how revolutionary it has been for my productivity.

As for procrastination and resistance on the other hand, I have a different tool set for that. So if you struggle with procrastination and resistance to any degree, I highly recommend checking out my free Masterclass, where I teach you three mindset shifts and one simple three-step system to help you kick procrastination to the curb. All you have to do to get access is go to this link and sign up.

Check out this video next to learn about how I use my whiteboard for time-blocking and prioritizing.

If you liked this video, hit that like button and subscribe, and be sure to share it with your friends. I'll be back next week with another video. See you then. Bye.

 
Cassie Winter

I help procrastinating creatives by empowering them with the structure and support they need to get unstuck and live their best lives without overworking themselves.

https://www.accountabilitymuse.com
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