design your bedroom b&q
- what's up guys? so, i know you've asked me how to create a study space in the past, and today i was going to show you my room, but i'm going to switch it up, because literally last night, my roommate martin, who is back there, - yo. - changed his room aroundand i think his idea
for a study space isactually better than mine, so i'm going to have him show it to you and walk you throughit in this quick video. (jazzy music) - [thomas] here, justlike, be in the frame, i'll just, i'll like do an interview - because, like i obviouslyneed to say more than, "it's basically two tables,with a shoji screen." - [thomas] yeah.
- what's up? that's it! - [thomas] actually, you couldliterally do that, alright. - well before, i had actuallytried to separate this out so there was a gaming table,and a work table also, but they were on opposing walls. the problem, then, wasthat i still, like, i knew that i was in the same room. it felt like one room,and i wanted it to feel like it was a completely separate space,
so there was a bit of mental separation in between work and play. - [thomas] so you've got one desk here, all the gaming stuff, whatelse is over on this side? - [martin] over on thisside we've got all my books, we've got a guitar and theclosets, some pokemon stuff, and i think, basically all sorts of non-focused, non-productive things. - [thomas] so this is like,
a completely separate room, almost, and it feels like a separateroom when you get in here. - [martin] the shoji screen in the middle really makes a big difference, i think. i legitimately feel like i'm entering a different roomin the house, even though i know i'm just a footaway from my other things. - [thomas] where'd you get that thing? - i didn't.
(thomas laughs) - [martin] i stole itfrom my friend clyde. (thanks clyde <3 <3 <3) - [thomas] yeah, you did. but you can buy it on amazon, as well, for 50 bucks i think. - aright, so this is the roost stand. it is meant to raise the screen because ergonomically, you wantthe top of your monitor to be at your eye level.
and what's cool about this, is that it's extremely portable. - [thomas] that's freakin' cool. - so you can bring it with you anywhere, to a cafe, to a library,to your friend's house if you need to do work, or a hotel, i've done work in a hotel. and then we've got thiskeyboard stand, which is basically just a keyboardstand, but it's got these
real rubber parts, so itwon't slide on your pants, and you can pull out a slidable mousepad, so that you can work with thescreen at the correct level, and your keyboard at the correct level for your arms as well. - [thomas] so basically,like, you're not even using the table to work on, at all. - no, you could take this off the table and put it on something,literally just a little square
in front of me and itwould work just the same, and because this has adjustable height, it's incredibly flexible, - [thomas] oh that's awesome. - i can work anywhere. so what else i have on the desk? i have my noise cancelingwireless headphones over there, this moleskine notebook,which i've just got a daily schedule, that iwrote out this morning,
so that i could pay attention. i used to do that on google calendar, but i found that checkingmy phone every three seconds just to check google calendarwas really distracting. which is why my phone's wayover there, not being touched. so i've got thiswhiteboard up on an easel, and i basically usethis, right now i've got some simple habits and things that are, sort of a template for my daily schedule
that i'm writing out, like,put somewhere to read, put somewhere to study spanish, and on this one here, i write down ideas if i think of, i need to do laundry, ineed to run this errand, but i haven't scheduled it in today. instead of letting it completely throw off today's work, i put it here, and then schedule it in tomorrow morning.
- [thomas] why whiteboards on whiteboards? - because-- - [thomas] like, areyou xzibit or something? - because i can take this off and go plan thingssomewhere else if i need to. occasionally i use this for, if i'm drawing in the other room, i'm planning out, like a web thing, and i don't want to be in here--
- [thomas] oh, that's cool. - so, it doesn't need to be on here, but it's a good place to store it. - [thomas] and you clearlyhave a message that doesn't, like, never leaves your whiteboard-- - oh, yeah - [thomas] so what is thestory behind this thing? - i have my girlfriendwrite "don't overthink it," on there, becauseoverthinking it is probably
my biggest weakness, because i will spend just hours and hourstrying to solve something, and i could have donesomething that worked within the first ten minutes. if i get caught up, sayi'm editing a podcast and i get caught up ona single vocal pause that i can't remove, like, a "uhh," i will just remember,"don't overthink it." nobody's even gonnanotice that vocal pause,
just leave it if you can't get rid of it. - [thomas] that's smart. so i get the markers, i get the eraser, what are the bead things? - the bead things havebeen useful several times. the most recent use ofthem was, i tore up a piece of printer paper into a bunch of pieces, wrote down ideas, attachedthem with magnets, so that i could slidethem around the board,
rearrange them any way i wanted. that way i could determinewhat order to do things in, you can connect them, drawing lines between them and writing things. it's just good for brainstorming. we've got a couple more things, i've got a zafu here for meditation, i've got a glass teapot and some tea cups because i'm super zen,but that's pretty much it.
i just did this because i've been craving that mental separationbetween work and play, and i don't have enoughto pay for an office, right now, outside of my house. - so guys, that aboutdoes it for this video, just wanted to give you aquick look at martin's room, which i think is set upin a pretty cool way, and additionally, if you don'tknow, martin is my co-host over on the college info geek podcast,
where every single monday wetake three of your questions and answer them in a halfan hour q&a style show, so if you wanna subscribe andyou haven't done so already, cigpodcast.com is the url you can go to, but i also have it linkeddown in the description below, and if you want tosubscribe to this channel and you haven't done so, youcan click right there to get new videos every single week,both on desk tour stuff, we're gonna do one on my room pretty soon,
and on productivity tips and other tips that can help you be amore effective student. you can also click right there to get a free copy of my book if you want, and you can smash yourface onto your phone screen right there, or click, either one works, to see another video. thanks for watching,i'll see you next week.