[Note: Links tend to be affiliate links, money will be donated to charity]

First up, designate an area for working, or specific equipment for work if you only have one place you can sit. Make sure you put your work laptop away at the end of the day, so that work doesnâ€t blend/spill over into everything else. This is genuinely really important; check out this & further advice from Mental Health First Aid on looking after your mental health when working from home.

Having had a great many different working from home setups over the years, I have some specific suggestions depending on what options you have. Make sure you check out some general ergonomic working setup advice too.

Need to Work on a Sofa / Bed?

• Get some sort of laptop desk (large lap desk, fancy bamboo lap desk, medium lap desk, small cushdesk)
• Pay attention to lumbar support and consider wearing something to help you keep good posture.

Able to Work at a Desk / Part of a Table?

• Folding hypercompact laptop stands are great, like this Nexstand K2 laptop stand (and reusable for when you travel in future) or if you want one that folds flat then try Urbo Raket slim laptop stand.
• If you donâ€t think youâ€d ever need to travel with it, then the Griffin laptop stand is a good solid & nice-looking option too.
• Pay attention to your chair, it might not be possible to get a proper office chair but at least make sure you are sitting with decent posture. 

Wherever Youâ€re Working, You Might Also Benefit From…

• Separate keyboard — genuinely, makes a really big difference! There are loads of good options, depending on how lightweight you want and whether you prefer wired or wireless. I can personally vouch for this Microsoft ergonomic keyboard (wireless mini option) and this beautiful tiny folding ergonomic keyboard which is a delight to use (non-split option), but there are a lot of other options too. 
• Good mouse / trackball. Again I can personally recommend this wired trackball with scroll ring and this wireless trackball. Some folks swear by vertical mice so consider them too. 
• Decent headphones, maybe wireless buds or even the pro-tip from my friend & colleague @SallyLait that gaming headsets are often both cheaper & better! I tend to revert to using a wired connection when on video calls as it seems much much more reliable.

Want to Invest In Extra Comfort?

• Noise-cancelling over-the-ear headphones — I have QC35s but if I were buying again today I would buy WH-1000MX3s as I think they are more comfortable to wear for a long time, and have some cool features like gesture controls. I use a cable augmented with a microphone for extra clarity, and have this cute little headphone stand. 
• When I work from home my phone seems to be depleting so fast, I really benefit from this Anker wireless stand charger.
• In general I adore Anker stuff especially this 7-in-1 USB-C hub, USB multi-charger and this tiny speaker with seriously impressive sound.
• A good HD webcam is super useful — my ability to participate well in video calls has improved immensely since I invested in this Logitech HD Pro webcam (I have it plugged directly into this gorgeous curved screen that I splashed out on a while back so Iâ€d really enjoy my home office setup). 

I hope some of these recommendations and tips are useful. What other practices or equipment have helped you work from home in a safer and more sustainable way? Please do share in the comments!

Given his interests are space & Star Wars & buildings, and his preference was for something both fun to build and to display, I of course spiralled into a full evaluation of the stupidly large number of Lego sets I have built in recent years (having had a sudden realisation that I could now *afford* Lego!).

Here’s what I came up with…

TLDR

For if you just want my best pick at each price point (UK prices, but hopefully it’ll automagically take you to the right country store for you if you’re elsewhere):

• £65 new International Space Station
• £70 flappy shouty Porg
• £85 Passenger train £85 (30% off) super cool & radio controlled!
• £90 Harley Davidson Creator Expert
• £100 Slave I 20th anniversary edition £100 (10% off)
• £120 NASA Saturn V rocket is one of my favourite builds ever, repetitive but in that wonderfully meditative way [Amazon warehouse price]
• £150 stunningly pretty Kessell Run Millennium Falcon
  

The Fuller Story…

For recommendations from each category, and a few wildcards…

Star Wars

• Classic Millennium Falcon & Kessell Run Millennium Falcon is gorgeous too (these builds are pretty similar tho so I’d pick one rather than grab both); should be gettable for around £150 [sometimes cheaper from Lego direct]
• Slave I 20th anniversary edition £100 (10% off)
• The X-wings are all really good fun to build and clever in how the mechanisms work ~£90
• This Porg is really cool and when you push his tail he opens his mouth & flaps his wings ~£70
• The way BB-8’s little head bobbles in exactly the right way gave me a lot of joy, sadly quite pricey now I think because it’s no longer actively produced
• I haven’t built it yet, but I can only imagine this Yoda will be delightful too £78 (13% off)
• Darth Vader’s Castle set complete with a cute lil tie fighter ~£120

Space

aka the Lego in The Moon Meeting Room @MakingMonzo

• NASA Saturn V rocket is one of my favourite builds ever, repetitive but in that meditative way [I’d go for the Amazon Warehouse option, ~£120]
• NASA Apollo Lunar Lander another really enjoyable build, might be cheaper from Lego direct, ~£85
• New International Space Station is eagerly anticipated on my to-build pile
• Deep Space Rocket & Mars Expedition set [On-callers built this at a social IIRC]

Cool Transport

• Passenger train £85 (30% off) super cool & radio controlled!
• Creator Expert Harley Davidson (@ellywilliams got me this for my birthday and I am super stoked to build it!)
• And in general other Creator Expert vehicles are all lovely complex rewarding builds

Nice Buildings

• Trafalgar Square £60 (25% off) detailed & complex like majority of the larger Lego Architecture sets
• Marvel Sanctum Sanctorum. Really fun build, loads of little action scenes, but looks expensive because no longer produced I think :-/ This Avengers Compound Battle is almost as good (though I’m probably still fondest of the Thor Ragnarok arena, not least because my wife realised I was having a tough time stuck at home injured whilst she was on a 6 week biz trip to Hong Kong and had it delivered to cheer me up 😍)
• Hogwarts Great Hall £85 (again Elly really enjoyed this one, and it fits together with others like the clocktower)

Wildcards

• I love the Creator 3-in-1s and I’m excited to build this Pirate Rollercoaster soon
• Other cheaper 3-in-1s that are also great include the Space Shuttle ~£50 and this Fast Racer (£27)

If you end up getting and building any of these, would love to know how you enjoy them, so let me know in a comment here or on Twitter yeah?

Books & Tools & Talks Mentioned in This Talk

• • First Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham
  • Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
  • If you don’t have time to read Drive, watch this fab sketchnote video of one of Dan’s talks
  • Stumbling on Happiness by Dan Gilbert
  • Jessie Link’s excellent talk on retrospectives at The Lead Dev in New York last year
  • Spotify’s Health Check approach
  • Sam Barnes’ talk which includes some tips on how to help teams observe & measure how they think they are doing — so you can judge the impact of changes

Books & Tools & Talks Mentioned in This Talk

• • First Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham
  • Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
  • If you don’t have time to read Drive, watch this fab sketchnote video of one of Dan’s talks
  • Stumbling on Happiness
  • Jessie Link’s excellent talk on retrospectives at The Lead Dev in New York last year
  • Spotify’s Health Check approach
  • Sam Barnes’ talk which includes some tips on how to help teams observe & measure how they think they are doing — so you can judge the impact of changes

Slides and books and links below, also a few folks asked about my Be A Brilliant People Developer workshop and The Lead Developer conference — hope to see you there!

Books & Tools Mentioned in This Talk

• First Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
• If you don’t have time to read Drive, watch this fab sketchnote video of one of Dan’s talks
• Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World Class Performers from Everyone Else by Geoff Colvin
• Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
• Peggy McIntosh’s excellent Unpacking the White Privilege Knapsack < you need to read this. Now. Please.
• John Scalzi’s explanation of how privilege is about the “difficulty setting” of your life – and straight white male is the lowest difficulty setting

If you’re new to coaching, you might also enjoy the talk I did on stealing coaching lessons from sports at Dare Conf Mini a couple of years back: video and slides.

Slides and books and links below, also a few folks asked about my Be A Brilliant People Developer workshop and The Lead Developer conference — hope to see you there!

Books & Tools Mentioned in This Talk

• First Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
• If you don’t have time to read Drive, watch this fab sketchnote video of one of Dan’s talks
• Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World Class Performers from Everyone Else by Geoff Colvin
• Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
• Peggy McIntosh’s excellent Unpacking the White Privilege Knapsack < you need to read this. Now. Please.
• John Scalzi’s explanation of how privilege is about the “difficulty setting” of your life – and straight white male is the lowest difficulty setting

If you’re new to coaching, you might also enjoy the talk I did on stealing coaching lessons from sports at Dare Conf Mini a couple of years back: video and slides.

Books & Tools Mentioned in This Talk

• First Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
• If you don’t have time to read Drive, watch this fab sketchnote video of one of Dan’s talks
• Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World Class Performers from Everyone Else by Geoff Colvin
• Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
• Peggy McIntosh’s excellent Unpacking the White Privilege Knapsack < you need to read this. Now. Please.
• John Scalzi’s explanation of how privilege is about the “difficulty setting” of your life – and straight white male is the lowest difficulty setting

If you’re new to coaching, you might also enjoy the talk I did on stealing coaching lessons from sports at Dare Conf Mini a couple of years back: video and slides.

Books & Tools Mentioned in This Talk

• First Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
• If you don’t have time to read Drive, watch this fab sketchnote video of one of Dan’s talks
• Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World Class Performers from Everyone Else by Geoff Colvin
• Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
• Peggy McIntosh’s excellent Unpacking the White Privilege Knapsack < you need to read this. Now. Please.
• John Scalzi’s explanation of how privilege is about the “difficulty setting” of your life – and straight white male is the lowest difficulty setting

If you’re new to coaching, you might also enjoy the talk I did on stealing coaching lessons from sports at Dare Conf Mini a couple of years back: video and slides.

Books & Tools Mentioned in This Talk

• First Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
• If you don’t have time to read Drive, watch this fab sketchnote video of one of Dan’s talks
• Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World Class Performers from Everyone Else by Geoff Colvin
• Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

If you’re new to coaching, you might also enjoy the talk I did on stealing coaching lessons from sports at Dare Conf Mini a couple of years back: video and slides.

Books & Tools Mentioned in This Talk

• First Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink
• If you don’t have time to read Drive, watch this fab sketchnote video of one of Dan’s talks
• Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World Class Performers from Everyone Else by Geoff Colvin
• Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

If you’re new to coaching, you might also enjoy the talk I did on stealing coaching lessons from sports at Dare Conf Mini a couple of years back: video and slides.