Uses

This article was published on Jan 01, 2023, and takes approximately 9 minutes to read.

Curious about my setup? The software I use daily? Here's a list where you can check that.

Hardware

Laptop

Macbook PRO M1
Macbook PRO M1
  • MacBook PRO 2021 14-inch
  • Apple M1 PRO Chip
  • 32GB memory

Peripherals

Dock station - CalDigit TS3+

Dock station CalDigit TS3+
Dock station CalDigit TS3+
Link

This dock station was one of my last purchases, and it's incredible.

Macbook owners know that we don't have a lot of ports available. For my luck, the 2021 version has 4 USB-C + 1 VGA, which helped a lot, but still, I missed some USB-A.

I used some dongles + adapters to solve that, but it was terrible.

With this dock station, I can plug everything in it and plug a single cable into my laptop, and everything will work out of the box.

This is good for me because I often alternate between a personal and professional laptop with a single cable (actually, it's two because I couldn't make my monitor work in the dock station [yet]).

Monitor - Dell UltraSharp U2415

Monitor
Monitor
Link

I used to be the three monitors person, but over time I noticed it distracted me more than gave me a productivity boost.

Now, I use a single monitor (which I borrow from my company) and the laptop screen aside.

I intend to buy a bigger and better monitor, but this one is doing a decent job.

Keyboard - Keychron K3 Slim Brown switch

Mechanic keyboard Keychron K3 slim
Mechanic keyboard Keychron K3 slim
Keyboard - Palm rest

I've been switching between keyboards for a while. This one is my favorite by far.

I always heard good things about Keychron, and when I bought this keyboard, I finally understood why. Everything is well made, the material is really good, and it works on every platform.

This is my first time with a brown switch (I've used blue, red, and black), and it's my favorite. It's perfect for writing, and it isn't noisy.

Needless to say, the palm rest is a must. You might think that a wooden palm rest would not be comfortable, but I have to say, it isn't, and it does the job really well about relieving my wrist pain.

Headset - Senheiser GSP 300

Headset Sennheiser GSP 300
Headset Sennheiser GSP 300
Link

I bought this headset mainly to play games but soon realized I could also work with it.

I also have a Sony WH-1000XM3 (an excellent headphone that I love), but it gets a bit uncomfortable after using it for hours straight.

The good thing about gaming headsets is that it's designed to not bother us after long hours of using them.

Finding a headset with a good microphone is tricky, and the GSP 300 one is surprisingly good.

Mouse - Logitech MX Ergo

Mouse Logitech MX Ergo
Mouse Logitech MX Ergo
Link

I bought this mouse a couple of years ago after feeling a strong wrist pain in my mouse's hand.

I heard about this mouse, and I decided to give it a chance, and gosh, it was one of the best things I've done.

It seems weird using a track-ball mouse in 2023, especially when you need to use the thumb to move it but trust me, the learning curve is a few minutes.

To move the cursor, you don't need to move your arm, only your thumb, which makes the experience of using a mouse much nicer.

When we need some precision, it has a physical button you can press, moving the cursor much slower than usual.

But I have to say it's terrible for gaming. I tried to play FPS or MMORPG with it, and it sucks. For those games, we need much more agility than for working.

Laptop Support - mStand360

Laptop support mStand360
Laptop support mStand360
Link

There's not much to say about it. I was looking for solid laptop support, and I saw this one is popular among people on the internet.

The material is excellent, and I think it has the perfect height.

I accidentally bought the 360 version, which you can spin in 360 degrees, which isn't too useful for me, except when I need to plug in a cable.

Webcam - Logitech C920

Webcam Logitech C920
Webcam Logitech C920
Link

I bought this webcam because I didn't always use the laptop open.

It's a 1080p webcam, and it has a decent focus system.

Printer

Printer Canon TS5150
Printer Canon TS5150
Link

I don't use a printer daily, but having one at home is handy, especially for dealing with government bureaucracy.

For its price, it provides a decent scan and printing. I don't ever buy original ink (I'm sorry, Canon) because I actually don't care about the ink quality.

The setup is easy. I can plug it into my ethernet and control it via mobile. Not a big deal, but I like to have one.

Furniture

Chair - Herman Miller Aeron

Chair Herman Miller Aeron
Chair Herman Miller Aeron
Link

This chair is the best part of my setup.

I always dreamt of having a Herman Miller, but I never had the money to buy one (it's f**king expensive) until I started working in a company that gave me a superb Working-from-Home (WFH) budget.

Herman Miller has a hype among tech, and I have to say: the hype is reasonable.

It's highly adjustable. You can define its arms position, its height in millimeters, which helps us find the best position for your body.

Despite the price, it has 10 years of warranty, which makes an excellent investment long-term, especially for myself, who mainly works from home and sits for at least 8-10 hours per day.

Table - FlexiSpot E7

Standing desk FlexiSpot E7
Standing desk FlexiSpot E7
Link

A standing desk is also an essential piece of my setup.

Sometimes I get tired of sitting, and having such a desk allows me to stand and keep working.

Before, I had an IKEA standing desk, and I didn't like it much. The tabletop wood wasn't too good, and it wasn't stable, so I couldn't move in a meeting, for example.

I found FlexiSpot to be a slighter expensive than IKEA's but of a much higher quality.

Also, we can buy the monitor which memoizes sit and stand positions. It's great because you can only press a single button and get in the same position that's perfect for you.

It was a good surprise. Everything is high quality, easy to assemble, and very stable, with many customized options.

Software

Now, let's talk about the software I use daily to make my life easier.

The ones I consider a must I'll prefix with a star emoji (⭐)
  • Arc - The best modern browser out there (Still macOS only);
  • (⭐) Velja - Velja is a macOS "gatekeeper" for browsers. In a nutshell, you set it up as your "default" browser, and when you click on a link, a pop-up with all browsers you have installed will appear so you can choose which browser you want to open.
  • (⭐) RayCast - A macOS replacement for Spotlight and Alfred. It's my favorite software by far. It has a built-in clipboard manager, window manager, chat GPT, file search (better than the native macOS search), and tons of community plugins;
  • Google Chrome - as a fallback browser
  • CleanMyMac - macOS problem fixer. I use it to do some HD clean-ups, update or uninstall software, etc.;
  • Cron - modern macOS calendar. Much better than Apple's native calendar;
  • Endel - soundscape app to help focus;
  • Warp - Modern, rust-based terminal;
  • zsh + "Oh My ZSH!" - terminal framework;
  • VSCode - text/code editor
  • Notion - to keep notes, write drafts, and overall personal's organization;
  • OBS Studio - To record product demos and interactive videos;
  • Kap - To fast record my screen;
  • Figma - to create designs, random flows, Instagram posts, etc.
  • (⭐) 1Password - password manager;
  • VLC - Opensource player to watch videos. It supports all possible extensions;
  • (⭐) Bartender4 - menu bar icons organizer;
  • RunCat - shows the CPU usage nicely;
  • BeFocused - timer to do Pomodoro technique;
  • PixelSnap - measures the distance between elements in the screen. Useful for pixel-perfect implementations;
  • Relax - an app that mutes your speakers when you disconnect a headset or sleep on the laptop. Helpful for cases you open your laptop and it starts to play something loud;

VSCode Setup

VSCode
VSCode

In this section, I want to show you how I have my VSCode set to boost my productivity.

Font

The editor font seems a minor detail, but personally, I think this has a huge impact on how I read code.

That's because I believe fonts with ligatures (symbols to represent combinations of characters) are easy to look at and quickly identify their meaning.

In every place where I need to read code (terminal, editor, etc.), I use Fira Code.

Because my highlight elements use Fira Code, here are some comparisons between regular font vs. Fira code:

  • => - =>
  • -> - ->
  • === - ===
  • == - ==
  • >= - >=
  • <= - <=
  • <!-- --> - <!-- -->
  • := - :=
  • ++ - ++
  • != - !=
  • !== - !==
  • || - ||
  • </ - </

Theme

Color - Monokay PRO

Monokai PRO is a paid theme (12.50 bucks) with different theme variants.

I like that the color combination is well thought out and seems pleasant to look at the whole day.

I usually use the "Filter Octagon" variant, but since they don't have a light variant when I need something brighter, I use either the VSCode default light theme or Night Owl Light.

Icons - Material Theme Icons

Icon theme is something I don't see people sharing much, but to me, it's maybe even more important than the color theme.

That's because I'm very visual, and the file icons give me a visual hint I need in the file tree to know the file type at a glance.

Monokai Pro also has icons, but I never get used to them. Instead, I found the Material Theme Icons, which I like more, especially because some files have their logo as the file icon.

Here's what it looks like without a theme:

No icons theme set
No icons theme set

... and here's the Material Icons Theme:

Material Icons Theme
Material Icons Theme

Plugins

Let's talk about the plugins that make my workflow more productive.

I'll bring the non-obvious one, which I consider a promising finding. Language extensions are required for you to have a good experience. So, I'll leave language plugins (for example) behind.

I'll prefix the ones I consider a must with a start emoji (⭐).