Good morning and welcome to another edition of Workspaces!

Yesterday I asked the Twitter audience how many hours per day they spend in their workspace so now I’m going to ask the same to you 👉 how many hours do you spend in your workspace on a daily basis? [one-click poll]

Thank you!
Ryan (@rjgilbert)

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Aviva Pinchas is the Head of Growth at Parabol.

She has been working remotely for 8 years, and leading remote teams for most of that time. Her workspace has evolved from a desk in the corner of her bedroom to an actual office through literally years of iteration.

Inside Aviva’s Workspace

Practical Setup:

• Monitor: 10-year-old Apple Thunderbolt Display ⛈ on a bamboo monitor stand

• Keyboards: 

  • Custom mechanical keyboard, for sitting & standing side

  • Logitech POP keyboard, on the treadmill side of the desk 

• Camera: Logitech Brio, standing on a yoga brick for a better angle 

• Treadmill: Treadly (version 1) 

• Desk: BEKANT sit/stand desk 

• Laptop: Macbook on a lazy susan, so it can turn to face the treadmill

Joyful items:

• Screaming Goat

• Dumpster Fire

• Rainbow corgi rubber duckie

• Mood lighting: Philips Hue Play Light Bar & Philips Hue lightbulbs 

• Chair for writing: West Elm Cozy Swivel Chair 

Digital Tools:

• Wiki & task board: Notion

• Design: Figma

• Sharing with the team: Loom 

• Meetings: Parabol ;) 

Q/A ☕️

What is your favorite item in your workspace?

I really love my mechanical keyboard. I didn’t think that I would nerd out about something like this, but the clicking sound is somehow really soothing. It also has pastel keys, and drawings of sparkles for the escape key. And: it has a rainbow light. 

It’s just so unabashedly joyful and in stark contrast to traditional gray keyboards, and the distinction makes me happy. It’s also probably the object I interact with the most. 

How do you spark creativity?

I find it really valuable to switch environments - that will shift my energy and let me go into new mental spaces. That’s why I have so many different options for work in my office: 

I can sit or stand at my desk, with my monitor - great for most work and one-on-one meetings

I can turn my laptop around and hop on my treadmill - great for larger meetings where I don’t need to type anything

I can lay in my cozy chair, with a lap pad - great for writing 

How do you keep the work-life balance?

Honestly, more than ‘balance’, I think about ‘flow’. What I mean is: sometimes my life is wildly out-of-balance and strongly focused on work, like if we have something big we’re working on or I’m really excited to get something out the door. Other times, it’s the opposite: my life is wildly skewed towards home, like when I have big events in my personal life or my husband, dog or cat needs something. 

Working at home is important for me to keep that flow. I really value being able to transition from work to home and back at a moment's notice, depending on what I need or want to focus on in the moment. 

I also try to have firm boundaries - I’m either at work, or I’m at home. I don’t have chat notifications on my laptop or phone, I don’t have my work email on my phone, and I don’t use desktop apps (just browser apps, in a separate profile). That means when I leave work, I am gone, and I can’t be pulled back in unless I choose to step back in. 

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-Ryan (@rjgilbert)