Bright and Practical Desk Setup in Italy

Name: Niccolò “nothatminimal”

Location: Italy

Occupation: Senior Project Manager

Room size: 5 m² (54 ft²)

Cost of setup: ~$8K, if not more (considering all the gadgets, consoles, etc.)

Social media: Instagram

Hello! Tell us a bit about yourself

Hi! I’m Niccolò, a 36-year-old Italian with a vast passion for tech and games.

I’ve been working in gaming for the past 18 years.

I’ve covered multiple roles in marketing games and tech products, but the main ones have been in product or project management (depending on the company).

I mainly focused on working with companies outside of Italy, and I have a fair amount of experience with both startup environments as well as big corporations.

I always had a passion for content creation. Ten years ago, I created educational content about Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (one of my favourite games of all time).

I used to have quite a hefty following on YouTube and Twitch (justin.tv at the time), but I eventually left that world to focus more on the “behind the scenes” and the sausage-making of the gaming world (not the best choice, I know, eheheh).

At the end of 2022, I decided to create a new persona, “nothatminimal”, to showcase my passion for tech and share suggestions for whoever is working from home and wants to become a minimalist in the tech space.

I started with Instagram while also expanding to YouTube.

Take us through your setup

I’m trying to apply a tech minimalism concept to my setup. Instead of hoarding things, I aim to test as many items as possible and keep only those that are truly useful and of the best quality.

How many times have you bought something cheaper than what you actually wanted just because it was cheaper?

And how many times, after a month, did you end up spending even more money to get the thing you wanted in the first place?

It’s the same concept. If you research the best chair and find out it’s a Steelcase or a Herman Miller, just go ahead and get that one.

Don’t buy two Secretlabs, one Autonomous, and IKEA chair, etc. just for the sake of it (random brands, please don’t take this as a suggestion, hahaha).

My setup works the same way.

I didn’t want to spend money testing everything, so I thought about finding a way to get stuff for free to test and then decide on what’s best.

The majority of the things in my current setup, I fully paid for because most of them don’t even require influencer marketing to be discovered :)

The amount of time it takes to create a setup depends on your direction and budget.

For me, it’s a passion.

The evolution of my setup aligns with the evolution of the market, my channel, my audience, and sometimes even my work.

Nowadays, I’m editing videos much more than I did years ago, so I’m considering purchasing an ultrawide screen for better visualisation of editing timelines, etc.

What’s your favourite item on your desk?

My MacBook Pro M1 Pro laptop!

It might sound obvious and cheesy, but it’s honestly the best laptop I’ve ever used.

Of course, I don’t game on it, but for my work, it’s phenomenal.

Once you enter the Apple environment (iPad, iPhone, MacBook), you won’t want anything else.

I can take my MacBook anywhere — whether I’m travelling or just lounging on the couch. I can also connect it to my setup and use it as a powerhouse.

Despite being three generations old, it’s still incredibly powerful.

It’s truly amazing, and I find myself being more productive using macOS compared to Windows OS.

What apps or tools do you use to get things done?

Personally, I use Notion to organise my channel’s flow, but it feels a bit forced at the moment. It’s like I started using it because everyone suggested it, and now I’m stuck.

I don’t have time to export everything to another platform and make the switch, so for now, I’m sticking with it.

When it comes to quick to-do lists, notes, briefs, or scripts for videos, I use the Notes or Reminders app.

I know people often look for apps with tons of integrations and features, but 99% of you don’t need that. Basic to-do lists will do the trick; you just need good formatting.

My favourite app for work-related time logging is Toggl.

What books, blogs, or podcasts recently caught your attention?

I’m reading quite a few books on how to scale teams.

As a project manager, the more you grow in your role and career, the more you shift focus from “processes” to “managing teams.”

This brings challenges in fast-paced environments where you need to scale teams while being efficient.

So yeah, in my free time, I still study work-related topics, whether it’s content creation or my actual job.

I’m one of those… I know :)

Any tips for other makers who want to improve their workspaces?

Just look at reviews from different people.

My way of deciding what to get is to get a general sense of something first, then read reviews from various sources for quite a while (depending on the cost, to be honest).

The most recent reviews are usually better because you never know if different versions of the same product have been released under the same name.

Then, I scout Reddit (which is usually a great place for reviews) to ensure I actually need those parts for my setup.

What does your typical day look like?

• Wake up at 6 am.
• Have breakfast, sort emails, organise the to-do list, and review the day’s schedule.
• Gym from 10:30 to 11:30 (I know it’s quite late, but I have flexible times since my clients mainly work from the US, so they start at 3 pm, which gives me time to sort work and teams before they wake up. This also means that I work until 7:30-8 pm).
• Lunch at the PC while working (I know it’s bad. Sometimes I just watch something and not work for about 30 minutes, but not more).

• More work until 7:30 pm.
• Shower.
• A long one-hour walk to relax, vent, and think.
• Dinner.
• Chill on the sofa watching TV shows, browsing socials, and unwinding.
• Go to sleep around 11 pm.

Your tips for working from home?

Keep yourself sane, go out, walk!

If you don’t like to work out or cannot do it, just ensure that you go out and breathe. Take long walks to detach yourself from work, go for drinks with friends, and have a life outside of your house.

The biggest struggle with going fully remote is that you move from “office to home” to just “home.”

It can be exciting at first, but after months or years (depending on the person), it starts to detach you from other people.

Even the simple act of commuting to an office helps you interact with others, and the idea of “leaving work” still alleviates the hard days.

You don’t have that while working from home. Everything is in your safe space, which can be challenging for some.

I have personally been a gamer my whole life.

I’m used to staying in front of the PC for hours, interacting online.

Plus, I feel like I have a good balance between my life, friends, and outside activities.

However, I’ve seen some people struggle with the change and not being able to handle it.

It might sound dumb, but always take care of yourself and be conscious of your limits.

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