Welcome to NoOffice, a podcast about work, technology and life from a remote company perspective.

In Nozbe, we believe that work is not a place to go, it is a thing that you do. That is why,

since 2007, we run our company 100% remotely. In Nozbe, there is NoOffice.

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Go to Nozbe.com to learn more.

Don't cram a bunch of people on Zoom.

We're a simulated office all day long. You know, you probably are going to work from home.

Hello and welcome to NoOffice, a podcast about work technology and life from a remote company

perspective and this remote company is Nozbe and CEO of Nozbe is Michael

Sliwinski who is also my good friend and I'm joined by him as always.

Hello Michael, how are you? Hey, hey and the host of the podcast is our VP of

product Rafal Sobolewski. Hey Rafal. Hey, hey, happy new year Michael. So that's

the first episode of 2022. How was your Christmas break? Yeah, it was different

because we just because of the you know so every like I would like to wish all

the health you can have for the next for this next year because I think health

should be the most important like should be the the priority for all of us for

2022 and because of that we decided not to visit our parents not to like visit

our family in our hometown and stay where we live with my family because of

of the COVID cases, because of the whole situation, and because we were about to be vaccinated,

and about to vaccinate our kids. And because of all that, we decided to stay. So it was

a staycation. But we did take time off for three weeks, which was glorious. And I must

say it was a very nice staycation. So we played with the girls, we went biking, or cycling,

however you want to call it, or we went walking, just enjoying our family, playing board games.

And I think, you know, I always have this pressure to travel somewhere, and now because

of the situation, traveling is not that much recommended. I believe I kind of realized

how cool it is also to chill and just have a staycation and just, you know, spend a few

hours of the day just completely chilling. Everybody's just doing their thing and just

chilling. But then do something together and mix both. So I liked it. It was fun.

That's very important to have this kind of let ourselves to really chill out, do nothing,

not to focus on what do I have to do now or any homework or etc. Not only work-related stuff,

But just to chill, let your brain rest for thinking, analyzing stuff.

And yeah, I also did that and it was very, very cool.

And I have many thoughts to this.

Chilling mode let my brain to have many thoughts about how my previous year was

and what I want to do in the next year.

So this Saturday and probably the next Saturday also,

I will focus on writing it down to do a proper yearly review.

What do you plan to do about your yearly review?

Because I remember you're always going with your wife

somewhere into Undine's hotel, et cetera.

- Yes, so we are doing that definitely.

So one of the things that, Christmas.

Christmas also means presents, right?

Gifts and stuff.

And we also managed to dial down on the gifts.

So we didn't give lots of gifts to many people.

I mean, also didn't give too many gifts to the children.

So they're not overwhelmed with the gifts.

Also, we agreed in our family, this is the first,

no more gifts for adults.

So adults don't give gifts to other adults.

That's it.

Like that's the policy right now.

It means like the whole stress of buying gifts for my mom,

for my mother-in-law, like for everyone,

or just getting another sports t-shirt from my mother-in-law again.

None of that. So this is very good.

But one of the things that our nanny gave us and gives us every year,

and we love this gift every year and we like to repeat this gift,

is that she says

"I will not buy you anything.

Just plan your weekend with your wife, I'm staying with your kids

for free."

So, I mean, this is the best gift ever.

Because having a nanny for a weekend costs lots of money.

And if our nanny says she's going to do it for free for us as a gift, it's fantastic.

So she already said that and we are already planning.

We usually plan, we're going to do it very similarly this year,

in the beginning of February or sometime in February to have a longer weekend.

And this time she even upgraded the gift.

She said, "You can leave on Thursday to have a longer weekend."

So, man, this is gonna be glorious,

like to have a longer weekend with my wife

without the three kids.

And by the way, today, my eldest turns 13.

So I have a 13-year-old, I have a teenager in my house.

(sighs)

Crazy stuff.

And I recommend this to people, like gift experiences.

And for us, the Nellie's gift is one of the best gifts ever

that we can have.

And that's why, yes, we are planning this.

But before this weekend with my wife,

I always do my personal planning,

so just as a preparation for the weekend

that I wanna just discuss with my wife.

So I managed to almost entirely plan my year,

so do my annual planning.

Like in the meantime, again, in the meantime,

I was just one hour here, one hour there.

Like again, it wasn't a goal for this vacation.

It was just, you know, I wanted to take time to do it.

So we'll discuss it maybe if we have the time to

at the end of the show about my plans for next year,

but yes, I managed to do it.

And I also managed to almost finish importing

my old blog, stiwinski.com to Michael.team.

So to my new blog, updating the posts,

reviewing the posts and being surprised at myself

from 2011, 2012 was pretty smart.

I was writing pretty smart things back then, back in the day.

And also, I posted on my blog the best posts of 2012.

So best posts from a decade ago.

And it's surprising how many of these posts

still hold true or have impacted me 10 years ago.

Like for example, in 2012, I started working standing,

just like I am now.

In 2012, I started going iPad only, which I'm doing now.

So many things started 10 years ago and are still going strong, which is surprising and cool.

Oh yeah, 2012 was an awesome year for me as well.

We have Euro 2012 in Poland. It was a huge deal.

Yeah, wow. It's been 10 years. I don't know when it's passed.

It feels like it was four or five years ago.

And the following year you started working with me.

- Yes, yes, that is true.

Yeah, I was using KnowsBean 10 years ago.

(laughing)

- There you go.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember that.

Okay, speaking of using KnowsBean,

I think, yeah, you mentioned this to us on Monday,

but coming back from vacation to work

can be really tricky because like on the first day

after your vacation, you will have many things to catch up.

Yeah, and the way we do it now in Nozbe teams is glorious.

These are the small features that normally people don't care about that much, but

after like three weeks of completely not looking at Nozbe tasks, going back to Nozbe teams was

fantastic because I had, for example, 100 or 200 items in activity, right? And like 15 or 20

incoming tasks. So you think overwhelming, lots of stuff to catch up. But actually no, because all

I had to do was review the incoming first. So the tasks that really concerned me, where

people mentioned me or delegate stuff to me, like this kind of stuff. And it was like 15, 20 tasks.

Okay. But then when I go to activity, we have this first part is like tasks you're responsible for.

and then second section "tasks you have participated in"

and it was perfect because I just cleared these tasks first

so I went through tasks I was responsible for, like there were additional comments or something

and then tasks where I participated in to see what's up, what's going on in the tasks that I cared about before going for holidays

and I did that and I haven't cleared everything but I was kind of caught up already

I knew what's going on.

So it was surprising that it didn't take me

like the whole day to catch up,

to know what's going on in the company.

It took me an hour.

- Yeah, this is really nice when Nozbe tells you

actually puts in incoming and on top of activity

so exactly into your face, the most important stuff,

the stuff you are waiting for your feedback

and the stuff you probably, the most probably interested in

to read what happened.

So that's really nice.

These two things like incoming and the sections

in the activity are my favorite features

of Nozbe actually.

- Yeah, I mean, so just today, I mean, sorry,

yesterday and the day before yesterday,

I already had lots of customer interviews scheduled,

of course, because like I was away for three weeks.

So everybody, everything piled up that people wanted

to meet with me on Tuesday and on Wednesday.

And some of the customers are business customers who have bigger teams, and they are still

using Nozbe Personal, but are right now contemplating migrating to Nozbe Teams because Nozbe Teams

is already very feature powerful.

And they asked me, and it was a very nice meeting with customer.

So meetings with customer, I explain them in my book, I schedule them every week.

And usually there is...

- Yeah, we also have a dedicated episode

how to talk to customers. - Exactly.

- I think I will link it in the show notes.

- Yes, so sometimes just one customer shows up,

but sometimes, for example,

the whole management board shows up.

Like, you know, two, three people

from the management of the company,

they wanna talk to me.

They wanna just meet me and talk to me.

And this was the case.

There was like three people from the management

of the company showed up for this meeting.

And they said that they were exploring Nozbe teams,

and then they were asking about future features.

And of course I was promising them everything,

so you're going to kill me.

(laughing)

- You muggle.

- No, but I was just talking about what we're doing

and then I wanted to know exactly our thought process,

why we built Nozbe teams, what's different

between Nozbe teams and Nozbe personal.

And one of them asked me, so Michael, so one feature,

what's your favorite one feature

that's differentiating Nozbe personal from Nozbe teams?

What's your one favorite one?

And before I answered the other management,

you know, manager answered,

"I can tell you it's incoming."

And I was like, "Damn straight, you're right."

And he explained to the other guy,

like why incoming is so great.

And then I told, I just basically reiterated this.

I just basically confirmed that he's right.

Like incoming is the best feature.

It's like single best feature of Nozbe teams

if we have to just put one.

If a user customer can explain why our thought process actually,

that means that we did something great.

Yes. So it was a very surprising and very nice moment for me.

I really enjoyed it. And so, yeah, Rafal, they agree with you. Customers agree with you.

After testing Nozbe teams and seeing the difference, they see the light at the end of the tunnel.

But again, this is something that we will be doubling down maybe more

in the future, this fact that Nozbe can somehow, thanks to how you work in Nozbe,

filter out what's really important for you right now. Because this is the key.

And this is why also one of the things I did start during this staycation is the fact that I

always read again "Essentialism" by Greg McKeown, my favorite book. And I read it every year. This is

my New Year's tradition. Every year before the New Year, when I start my annual planning,

I put in our autobill again Greg McKeown, and I'm listening to him explaining to me

that I should focus on the essentials because I just need this. I'm a yes man, so I need

this information again, how to focus on what's essential, how to say no to great opportunities,

to focus on the best opportunities, all that stuff.

Alright, so let's jump into geeky stuff. You talked about Christmas gifts. I got one really great...

From Apple.

No, because it wasn't a gift, it was just what I ordered. It happened to come just after the Christmas, Monday of 27th of December.

So yeah, it's the new 14-inch MacBook Pro.

Man, I love this computer.

I don't know how to describe it, but I'm

so happy about having this computer.

And when I opened it for the first time, I thought, whoa,

this screen is huge.

Is it really 14-inch or 16-inch?

Because for the past three years,

I was accustomed to this laptop form factor

to use 11-inch iPad Pro.

So comparing to this, the difference is really huge.

And I noted out some neat picks, my observations about using it for two weeks now.

So first of all, I forgot how good Trackpad is on MacBook, because I had Trackpad in Magic Keyboard for iPad.

but it's not the same.

Trackpad on Magic Keyboard for iPad is very loud, comparing to this one on MacBook.

So it was that loud that when I was working on iPad early morning,

when my fiancé was sleeping, I didn't use the Trackpad.

I was just touching the screen.

Yeah, but you can change that. You can change that in settings on iOS.

on iOS and I did it that you can tap now you don't have to click yeah but I don't

like tapping okay so but I I'm not like it's because when I said it to tapping

like there was like some accidental taps but I didn't want it so and on MacBook I

can I can I can press the trackpad and it's really really quiet so it's it's

not a problem so that's one that that was just one of the first thing I

noticed. Yeah and still opening screen feels amazing like the whole

construction, the whole mechanism of the clamp it just opens and when I stop

opening it, stop putting the pressure it just stays exactly in that place. It

doesn't wobble. I know like Macbooks was like this for

for many years now, but that's something I rediscovered.

Display is awesome, animations are so smooth.

I noticed that it's, in some places, that it's 120 hertz.

The black is really black and it's just joy to look on.

And I actually, I put it in the center of my desk

to use it as a main screen, but we will get to it later.

Yeah, and speaking more about the design,

like the whole design, the form factor,

I think I have, I used to have MacBook Air,

a MacBook 12-inch and MacBook Pro 15-inch.

So this one is actually one I have never had before.

And yeah, I think this is the perfect,

like the perfect size.

It's not too heavy to use it on my laps,

to just take it and use it on kitchen table and so on.

And design, it's so beautiful.

It's both smooth, thin enough,

but not that thin as Macbook L with this...

- Yeah, with this wedge.

- With this shape.

With the shape, but somehow it tells you

it has a power, it has a horsepower to do some serious stuff. The design itself.

And yeah, I really like it. I love the notch and I will not talk about notch

anymore because all the notch discussions are pointless. Battery is

amazing. It's just something I haven't been able to test it very

hard because I don't travel much right now because of COVID, but still, battery is something

I don't look at.

I just don't care about battery because when I'm at desk, I connect it to external display

with USB-C and it's charging.

When I take it to kitchen table, it's always far.

I think I never had the battery below 50% for now.

Camera, finally, the webcam is, as you can see,

because I'm recording it,

I deliberately choose to record this episode of podcast

with this built-in MacBook's camera

to show you the difference.

So if you are a listener and want to see how it looks like,

you can go to our YouTube channel to see the recording.

And as you can see, I applied on the macOS level portrait mode effect.

It's quite nice, but if you're wearing headphones like us right now,

it just doesn't blur the space between my head and headphones, which looks kind of creepy.

But still, my face is pretty well light.

and background is not overexposed. That's the magic of image signal processing on this computer.

The quality of this picture is good enough for recording the podcast while traveling.

I don't have to think about carrying another camera.

Yeah, I mean the quality of the video that I see right now is very similar to my Logitech Brio camera.

camera and

Logic Brio is 4k and all that stuff, but the quality is very similar. So it's

Yeah, like the resolution is not the most important part. Like if it's 1080p that's good enough and others like the light

Light is the most important

NoOffice.fm/live and you will see this episode, you will see the

video feed and you will see Rafal in his glory with the new webcam.

And I already, when we met after I came back from holidays, I

have wanted that you, I like your new setup in the sense that I

like the light that you have in the office.

That you're right now really finally taking advantage of the

light that you have.

Yeah, yeah.

And actually I have another piece of light in my office.

That was another Christmas gift, but we will get to it.

And going back to the MacBook, again, it's something that shouldn't give me so much joy,

but the ports, ports are amazing.

I've already used the HDMI port and SD card reader, and comparing to couple of years experience

of using dongles, it just feels great to just connect directly the cable to the machine

without any dongle.

For example, importing photos from my camera has lower barrier of entry because I just

take off an SD card and put it into MacBook and that's it.

It felt great.

And actually during Christmas break,

we watched some TV shows and we connected via HDMI

to 4K Samsung TV to watch TV shows, this MacBook.

Yeah, and now it was,

previously we always used iPad.

- Yeah.

- But now it was like no-brainer

because MacBook has HDMI port,

so we don't have to use any dongle.

Yeah, and what's interesting,

We connected it to this huge 4K Samsung TV,

okay, which is not the newest.

It's the TV from like 2017, I think.

But still, the sound of the speakers of MacBook

was nicer for us than the sound of speakers of the huge TV.

(laughing)

So yeah, that's how we watch the shows,

Like video on the TV, huge TV,

but the speakers from MacBook.

(both laughing)

- Yes.

So you've been basically exiled from the dongle town.

- Yes, yes.

Like finally, like I have this one dongle

that I used always for first for my MacBook Adora board

and for MacBook 16 inch and after that for iPad,

maybe I will use it some day.

So I have it just in case

because there was still some USB stuff to be connected.

But man, it's very nice to not to have thing about battery,

about dongles, about RAM or CPU usage.

Right now we are streaming it live

and I don't care if I have many apps opened,

if I have many browsers open, et cetera.

But previously on iMac, before streaming,

I had to close everything that wasn't necessary

for the recording to make sure that CPU will be fine.

Actually, let me check activity monitor.

We will see how it's used right now.

So CPU load right now is about 10, 15%.

memory use it's 22 gigabytes out of 32.

Yeah, so it's all green actually.

- Yeah, it's all nice.

- Yeah, yeah.

And one bad thing I noticed because I was wondering

if I can use this MacBook Pro as kind of charging hub

for my devices when traveling.

And I test this and when I, for example, during the night

connected the MacBook to the charger, this MagSafe charger and used the

Thunderbolt ports on the MacBook to connect my Apple Watch, iPad and iPhone.

Yeah. Yeah and Apple Watch and iPhone were charged but iPad no.

Huh. iPad cannot be charged from MacBook when MacBook is sleeping. Huh.

Apparently there's not enough power so yeah it's a pity.

Okay, so I'm very happy that your MacBook Pro arrived safely and you love it. That's great.

This is so funny that because I'm using my iPad 13", I'm not craving for the new MacBook Pro.

So I did test the MacBook Pro in Apple Store, but I don't need it, so I didn't buy it.

So great, so let's maybe take a break and introduce our sponsor and then after the sponsor break we could show the room where it happens, the pictures of your room and we could discuss your home setup.

Yeah, the impact that MacBook Pro had on my desk setup.

my desk set up. I mean this is the best thing ever you get a new device and as a

geek you have this problem that you love this problem you do to

rearrange your whole home office this is such a big problem it's so

such a good problem to have and this is such a problem a good problem to enjoy

just yeah like I was okay I will go to my office for one hour to run stuff and

then I spent the whole day then took a picture took a quick picture post it on

Twitter and it was my best tweet ever because there was so much discussion.

Okay, okay, let's talk about it on the podcast. So let's take a break now and we

will get back to it right away. So No Office Podcast is sponsored by Nozbe

Teams, a to-do app that helps small teams do great things. Let's hear what Nozbe

customers say about the product.

When we've been around for about 10 years, our business has, and we've been using

Nozbe for about eight of those years. And as we grew, we kind of got to the point

where I just couldn't remember everything anymore. I'm pretty organized.

I would just kind of keep everything in my head and with post-it notes and things

like that. And it just got to be too much. And so I started looking around for some

sort of project management software that could help me have a set up really trusted

system. But really I just wanted a system where I could know that I had everything in there.

I wasn't going to forget anything. I wasn't going to drop any balls for clients or miss deadlines.

All right. And we are back. Okay.

Yeah. Let's talk about my desk setup. Wow.

Yeah. This is updated photo. It's not that I posted on Twitter last week.

And for those of you who are listening audio version, there's the podcast chapter artwork

with this and all the photos will be also in the show notes.

So yes, as I said, 14-inch display is so awesome that I made a decision to make it my main display,

at least for now, because my external monitor is only full HD. So it's not good for my eyes to

to read and write texts using it.

It's fine as a second additional monitor

to just display some reference material,

but to work, to create right stuff,

you always want to have the best screen possible.

When you are focusing on something,

it really needs to be a good quality tool

just for your health.

We are not getting younger.

- No. (laughs)

- This is how it looks like.

It's the MacBook Pro on a tray on this Viozon arm,

but I already talked about it in previous episodes.

And on the right side,

there is this full HD 24 inch monitor.

And I have iPad on the left side of the MacBook

as like additional space if I need it.

Currently, when we are recording this episode,

I don't have iPad attached there

because I'm fine with the windows I need.

I can have it only on those two monitors.

So it's fine.

But for example, we will be doing Nozbe product work.

- Yes.

- That would be helpful to have, for example,

Slack opened on the iPad,

connected via Sidecar to see

if there are some messages from the team

but maybe I said something bad or et cetera.

Yeah, and MacBook is elevated to the high level

and that's really good for ergonomics.

Still, my goal is to buy a 27-inch display

because yeah, like I miss this display from my iMac

which I put it on salt.

It's not salt yet, but hopefully will be salt.

Actually, I visited during Christmas break, I visited Leon, our Android developer.

Yeah, and he has the setup with a 15-inch MacBook Pro.

And next to it, he has 4K 27-inch display.

And next to it, he has an ultra-wide 1440 display.

Ah, yeah, the gaming display.

- Yes, like, yeah, he has like a huge base.

I tested my MacBook Pro with his 4K, 27 inch display

and it was good enough.

Like, of course it's not that great as 5K iMac,

but I tested it, tried to read some text,

tried to write something and it's like, it's good enough.

So I think I will be buying some 27 inch 4K display

and not to wait for Apple's fancy monitors

because I will probably save some money

and it will be good enough.

There is that, but for now it is what it is.

And it looks awesome because apparently people on Twitter

love the setup, how it looks.

And yeah, so this is display situations.

Yeah, I still using magic keyboard

that was from my iMac.

So I will have to switch it when I sell it.

Like one year ago, I have this Keychron Key1

mechanical keyboard.

- Yeah, that's right.

- Yeah, and I find out that I type faster

on the Magic Keyboard.

- Oh yeah, really?

- I don't know why, but this is what it is.

And yeah, so I will be probably buying

the new Magic Keyboard or maybe some Logitech Keyboard

like this, I don't know yet.

but for now I'm using this as long as I have it.

Of course, MX Master 3,

we already talked about this mouse.

I think the most interesting part of my setup is that

how I attached this iPad next to the MacBook.

Because it is attached on the actually monitor

microphone arm.

- Oh really?

- Yeah, it can moves.

So I can just put it in the position I need it.

For example, when I have my personal training via FaceTime with my trainer, I use actually

iPad on this arm and I put it closer to me on this arm and yeah, use it as a FaceTime

to do some training and it's really nice with this...

How is this feature called when the camera follows you?

- Yeah, and the...

- Center stage.

- Yeah, center stage, exactly.

- Yeah, so center stage for this kind of use is quite cool

because like it just, the camera is very wide

and it follows me, so it's nice for exercising

and my trainer can see me for the whole time.

But sometimes it's tricky because it optimize

for tracking your face, not the whole body.

And sometimes my trainer needs to see my legs

and not the face.

So I have to be clever about it and be far away

from the iPad, from the camera,

but the maximal zoom is the way

that my whole body is still in the frame.

- Yeah.

- How it's connected?

Because I've also received after new year,

finally my Peak Design mobile pack of accessories.

So the iPhone case and all the magnetic accessories.

And one of these accessories is magnetic mount

from Peak Design, but it's like wall mount.

You just put it on the wall or something

and you can snap your iPhone there.

So I had this microphone arm, so I attached to it some smartphone holder, like generic smartphone holder from Joby, and put it there, the old smartphone Nexus 5.

With the back front to me that shows the photo, it will be of course as a chapter as well for audio version.

So here it is. And the wall mount is glued to the back of the Nexus 5.

Yeah. And that way I can connect my iPhone. And also iPad because I bought this morphed invisible tablet stand that has magnets inside.

So I can just snap it, snap the iPad in the portrait or landscape orientation there and it just stays there.

there. And it's super cool. I was planning to do it for months right now, but still waiting for this

peak design Kickstarter campaign to finally ship. And it was like, I think the original date was May

2021. And I got it on January 2022. Yeah, this is what happens with Kickstarters now.

Yeah, but it was worth waiting because the gadgets are awesome.

Okay, so just as a break, I would like to share my,

because in the last episode,

you asked me about my monitor, Thunderbolt display.

So speaking of displays, I wrote a blog post,

if you go to michael.team/display,

and we'll add it in the show notes,

then where I explain the many lives of this display

and this display, and you asked me,

what is it doing on my wall?

And I said, I had no clue.

And I just put it there because it's nice.

and I think I'm gonna find a use. So I did find a use. I just had to buy... I'm

explaining the 10 lives of this display. I mean 7 lives of this display. And what I

did was I connected it via Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 dongle,

speaking of dongles. And this way I can connect it to my iPad 13 inch. So as you

can see it's connected to my iPad 13 inch and it can serve as an

external display for my iPad 13 inch but also as a very big display and nice

display for YouTube or Netflix or anything I want to watch.

And very often I do need to watch some YouTube videos for my work.

And this makes it really, really nice.

So this way I'm really…

Yeah, yeah, this is like…

Are you watching YouTube again?

I'm working, honey.

Exactly, I'm working.

This is very important work, especially here.

I'm watching Trevor Noah's news.

So it's very important for work.

Yeah.

So this is a really cool thing that I can still use this 10 year old display

and use it here with my new iPad Pro using this dongle and then a thunderbolt dongle

and it works beautifully and this display is not retina but from that far away I don't really care

it's good enough and especially for videos it's really very well done

so I was afraid that I would have to throw this away but I didn't have to

have to. So that was good. So there's my update from my home office.

Actually, I took an inspo from you. And you liked it. My Nexus 5 to be a holder for

the whole month.

Yeah. And speaking of MOFT, the company as you mentioned, I am right now using this

MOFT wallet for the iPhone, right? So it works just like the Apple wallet snaps using

the, you know, to the max safe rings. And the cool thing about this wallet is that

it's not thicker than the Apple wallet. But what it does have, it has a stand,

just like the stand that you mentioned on your MacBook and iPad. So this way,

I can put the iPhone like this, so support it like this, or even,

again watching YouTube for work I can put it like this and watch something

yeah so both it works both on portrait and landscape because the MagSafe

magnets are strong enough and so very cool very cool what from MOFT something

that I'm using right now all right actually MOFT and Peak Design are my two

best companies for accessories right now but yeah that's the that's the

- Or another story because I have plenty of them

and haven't tested everything yet.

- Yes, of course.

- Because of the weather,

because some of them is for the bike and so on.

So, but don't worry, we will talk about it in the future.

Okay, let's go back to the desk

because many people asked about other stuff

on the desk as well.

So, yeah, there is Olympus OM-D camera,

but that's already something we talked about.

There's this link light,

There is a Shure M4 7 microphone on the Rode PSA1 arm.

It's awesome.

And what else is interesting.

I have this MacBook Pro connected to this display

with the USB-C and the display itself has two USB-A ports.

So I have there connected my microphone

and my camera via coming.

Of course. And I don't have more USB ports.

Okay, so it works reliably using this screen as a hub.

Yeah, however, today morning I had, because I just installed this Shure+ Motive app to...

To manage the microphone?

Yeah, to manage settings of the microphone before the recording.

Yeah, and I didn't see it. I had to reconnect the monitor.

And then it worked. But apparently we will see with the recording if it works.

But you can still hear me so it means it works. I don't have an Ethernet connection so I'm on the Wi-Fi right now.

So you will need to get a download for Thunderbolts to...

Yeah, like it depends which monitor, 27-inch monitor I will choose.

Yeah, so I don't want to buy a donger right now.

Because on V3 it's not perfect, but it's good enough for now.

Yeah, like I measured that the ping is 7 milliseconds, so it's not that bad.

And I think the monitor that Leon has, the 27-inch 4K, has Ethernet port.

I don't think so.

Or maybe not.

I think, yeah, no, I asked Leon.

Leon uses Ethernet via USB 3.0.

- Okay.

- Connected to the monitor, yeah.

So on my desk, there is airport time capsule

that I use for backups and to have Ethernet connection.

I used to use it for Ethernet connection to my iMac

and to my Sony PlayStation 5, which is also on the,

now it's on the desk.

- Yes, it's there. - And it looks gorgeous.

- Yeah, it's very nice.

Yeah, and between them are some IKEA gateway for smart lighting and my new lamp that I

recite from Christmas from my fiancé.

And it is a salt lamp.

It is a salt lamp made from high malayan salt.

It's just a big piece of salt.

So you're basically licking it every day.

And I checked it.

I licked it.

Yes, I licked it.

It's true.

It's salt.

Yeah, it looks awesome. It gives really nice warm light.

Apparently, I haven't verified it, so it may be some BS, but it seems logical,

because the bulb, when it's on, it produces heat.

Ah, of course.

Yeah, so the salt is warm and it results with air being ionized.

- Ah, that's true.

Ah, that's tricky.

- And that helps for, that's the more healthy air,

plus apparently it keeps the dust

out of your electronic devices.

- Okay.

- So again, it may be some BS, marketing BS,

but if it doesn't, it still looks pretty cool.

And I really love that gift.

It was very hard to open because it is very heavy.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, like I found it under the Christmas tree

and whoa, that's heavy.

(both laughing)

What the hell is that?

So you can use it also as a weight for your training.

Oh yeah, actually I didn't think about it.

Here is how it looks like with the IKEA gateway and time capsule.

Yeah, and I have also built some LEGO.

OK, yes.

Another inspiration for me, because you did it first.

On the last Nozbe reunion, we received from them this small Q&key keyboard, mechanical keyboard that is programmable.

Yeah, and you build from the Lego set a case for it.

So yeah, and I did the same. I used the Lego you can buy in IKEA.

like it cost like 15 bucks or something like this.

So from the set, I can, I was able to put it pretty nice,

nice colorful case for this.

Yeah, you have this similar case.

- That's my case of Legos.

Very nicely done.

And the keys are in place and there is the connector.

So yeah.

- Yeah, but I don't have a spare USB port on this monitor.

so I haven't connected it yet.

- Oh, okay.

- Yeah, but I'm planning to use it

and it could be very useful during recording

to have the dedicated key, for example,

to run some shortcut that will save me a timestamp

of recording and for example, some note

that this is the new chapter or here the mic is sneezed

or here I need to put something, et cetera, I am.

So that's the idea, how to use it.

And other keys I can use too,

because StreamYard has now some keyboard shortcuts,

so I will be able to switch camera with one key.

One more thing I want to share, but it's really crucial.

I've already shared it like a year ago,

but this is a shelf I have under my desk

and I put iPhone there.

This is custom made by Radek and I put iPhone there

and that way I don't see an iPhone.

And as a result, for example,

when I'm taking a short break from working at a desk

and I go down to the bathroom or to the kitchen

to prepare coffee or something,

I don't see an iPhone, so I don't take it with me.

- Yeah.

- So that way, when I have a short break,

I don't look at iPhone or any other display.

Because, and I found that that's very good

for keeping me in focus and do some chill for my brain.

- Yeah.

to rest from all the internet and displays. So that's the pro tip. Create a shelf like this or

buy one and put iPhone there when you are working. That's really great. So yeah, and I think that's

all from my setup. Of course, all the things I will be listed in the show notes, I will prepare

Nozbehow template with all of this. Yeah, let's do that. Nozbehow template for that would be

awesome. And more cool photos will be there also. Yeah, cool. I'm really happy for you. I'm

really happy that you got the new MacBook Pro that you finally deserved. It was a long wait

because we ordered it mid-November, so it was like one and a half months or something. So it's good

It's good that it arrived and it's there.

And actually Leon, who we mentioned

on this episode several times,

he also ordered a new MacBook Pro.

So he's gonna be also upgrading his home office, I'm sure.

- Yeah, he's gonna be so happy.

- Yeah, yes.

And also one of the things you mentioned,

the big screen, the big ultra-wide screen that Leon has,

my brother has a screen like this

and my brother has a MacBook Air, the M1 MacBook Air.

And he's very happy with this setup,

to have the M1 MacBook Air below the screen

and just use the big screen,

this big ultra-wide screen as his main screen

to manipulate windows,

and then having the MacBook Air below it

with Mail or Nozbe or something opened.

So he is using his MacBook Air like this at his desk,

and he's really happy with this.

- Yeah, actually that's something I have never tried,

but now when I think about it,

it might be even, you can call it ergonomic setup

because the problem with the ergonomics

is that you put your body into one fixed position

for the long time.

- Yeah.

- That's the problem always.

Even if you were standing,

even if the monitor is on the height of your eyes.

- Yeah.

- And that way, if you have one monitor on the high level

one lower, you're constantly moving. Not constantly, but once a couple of minutes you're moving.

And that's better than looking straight for the longer period of time or looking only down.

Yes. So that's his setup. It's very simple, but I think also very cool pro tip for everyone who's

who's listening and who wants to improve their setup.

- Yeah, but when I was in Leon's place,

Leon's home office, I compared it.

I displayed some website or some text editor

on this 4K 27 inch display, and it was all sharp, et cetera,

and not hurting my eyes, but on this ultra wide,

it's 1440p height, so it's better than 1080p.

1080p but it's not 4k. 4k level pixels per inch. The font wasn't sharp.

I mean for a long time after you have used iMac 5k you shouldn't downgrade to a non-retina display.

This is a non-starter. I mean that's why you should get the the the 2070 4k or the display that hopefully at some point Apple will be shipping.

which will not be because everybody's complaining that Apple has in their

offering has no 5k display no alternative to the other either offer

you I mean they offer you this glorious MacBook Pros but then they ask you to

pay 6k for a 6k display which is just you know ridiculous it's bananas yes so

so we are hoping I mean the whole community of Apple enthusiasts are

hoping for an Apple branded, you know, 2K as in price of $2,000 display that, you

know, or $1,500 or $2,000 display which would be

glorious, beautiful, but not super HDR like the 6K display. So we'll see

we'll see if Apple gives us this, but if not then the 27 4K display is a good

option. Yeah, I will probably go with it and we will see later what happens but

good 4k 27 inches max 1k 1000 bucks. So anyway we are running long so I think we

should cut this one short. Yeah. We never have time for your iPad mini review. Yeah,

like I have two topics still pending for like for two months now. Yes, but we'll get there.

I think it's a good conclusion and it's a good inspiration that you gave us today that

one of the things you should do when planning your year and setting up for a year is to

shake things up, change your home office, and get inspired from my blog posts, from

my review of my home office, from your review from your home office, from your photos, and

optimize your home office.

Change it a little bit.

You don't have to buy new gadgets.

You don't have to buy new MacBook Pros to do that.

But just the fact that, you know, rethink how it's set up, see what you can change,

or like in my case, see what you can reuse.

Like I can reuse my 10-year-old's display and it's useful now.

All that stuff.

It's a good idea for the new year to make the home office a little bit different because

this will also like shake things up in your head and maybe inspire you for new ideas,

new thoughts, and better solutions for whatever you're working on.

Let's wrap up this episode.

Michael, what day is tomorrow?

- It's Friday and make it a mighty Friday, please.

- Yes, do your weekly review,

plan priorities for next week,

maybe rerun some stuff on your desk to refresh it,

to be more ergonomic, more productive,

and learn something new to have a great weekend.

And if you enjoyed this episode,

please feel free to help support this show

either by sharing it with a friend

leaving us a nice review in Apple Podcast. Or the best thing you can do is to check out

our great app Nozbe Teams. So thanks for listening. And that's it for today. Say goodbye, Michael.

Okay. Goodbye. Have a great mighty Friday and maybe use this Friday for the home office

renovation that you've been thinking about. And have a great year and stay healthy. Stay

fresh.

[Music]

This episode has not been created in the office.

Because in Nozbe, there is no office.

Your hosts were Michael Sliwinski and Rafał Sobolewski.

all the links and show notes you can find on nooffice.fm/33.

The whole production process has been coordinated in a project in a Nozbe Teams app.

Work is not a place to go, it is a thing that you do.

Thank you and see you in two weeks. Remember to have a mighty Friday!

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

[Music]