Post 11 in the series: Recommended Productivity Tools
Chairs
Get a good chair. Depending on how desk-dependent your job is, you may be in your chair six, eight, or more hours a day. It does not make sense to merely get a chair that you can “get by” with. Get a chair that is ergonomically correct and which you enjoy using.
At the other extreme, I’m not recommending that anyone go out and buy an $800 Herman Miller chair. There are some decent middle-of-the road options that I think strike a good balance.
Here’s the chair I prefer:
It looks a bit like a Herman Miller chair, but it’s not. It’s available at Office Depot and is called the “Realspace PRO™ Quantum Recycled Mesh Mid-Back Task Chair.” That’s a mouthful. And the name actually continues: “40 1/2″H x 30 3/10″W x 26 1/5″D, Black Frame, Black Fabric.”
It costs way less than a Herman Miller, but still costs more than most of the other options at Office Depot. Here’s the way I look at it: This chair ought to last me at least eight years–probably much longer. Let’s assume eight years, though. Working 260 days per year, that’s 2,080 working days. That puts the cost at 12.5 cents per day.
Having a chair that works well, is fully adjustable, and that I like to be in is worth 12.5 cents per day.
Waste Baskets
Waste baskets don’t have to be ugly. Here’s the one I have in my office at home:
I like it because the color and wire mesh style fit the rest of the style of my office. The governing principles for productivity tools in general also apply here: if you are going to have a waste basket anyway, you may as well get one that contributes to the overall work environment rather than just getting whatever you find.
Posts in This Series
- Recommended Productivity Tools: An Introduction
- The Tools You Need to Have (And Where to Keep Them)
- Recommended In Boxes
- Recommended Capture Journals
- Recommended Pens
- Recommended Pencils and Paper Pads
- Recommended Staplers, Staple Removers, and Tape
- Recommended Scissors, Letter Openers, and Post-Its
- Recommended Paper Clips and Super Glue
- Not Recommended: Desktop Organizer Things
- Recommended Chairs and Waste Baskets
- Recommended Labelers and File Folders
- Recommended File Cabinets and Bookshelves