If you’re going to hunker down in a corner of a room and work until you’ve earned an MBA, you might as well do it on an M1 MacBook Air and have a nice view of passing trains. Except both of those things might help you procrastinate.
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That’s Redditor sup3rnova’s situation with today’s featured Setup. They describe the simple-but-effective workstation in their post, “Grad School Procrastination Station.”
“My monitor arrived today, so I wanted to post my updated grad school setup,” they said. “Far more modest compared to my previous one I posted a couple of years back.”
With no link to the previous setup, we can’t tell where they came from. But where they are now seems to work well. It doesn’t hurt that big windows in front of the setup overlook train tracks and a nearby station. As sup3nova notes in the post, in the warmer months there’s also a lot of greenery out there.
M1 MacBook Air and Lenovo ThinkPad share time
While an M1 MacBook Air appears to be the setup’s main computer, this is yet another setup where a Mac and a PC — a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano — share duties.
“I alternate between the MacBook and X1 [Nano], depending on which one I’m using,” sup3rnova said. “Both are USB-C so it’s only one cable to (un)plug. I (unfortunately) use the Lenovo for school so it gets more screen time.”
While it sound like sup3nova prefers the Mac, they’re both solid laptops with great specs in compact packages. They’re both super-light. An M1 MacBook Air weights 2.8 pounds and a ThinkPad Nano weighs 2 pounds.
If sup3nova ever leaves their MBA-earning and train-spotting lair, they could easily carry both machines at once.
Clutter is a relative concept
The rest of the setup is quite straightforward — simplicity itself, really. Sup3nova uses the laptop keyboards, so there is no external keyboard. The other input device in use is a Logitech MX Anywhere 3 mouse, which has a solid scroll wheel and a fair degree of programmability.
Underlying items on the desk they have a Grovemade vinyl desk mat. And the furniture is pretty choice. The Herman Miller Setu chair is no slouch, nor is the conveniently mobile CB2 Go-Cart Black Rolling Desk.
But it was the so-called clutter another Redditor chose to focus on, recommending shelving.
“What clutter? lol,” replied sup3nova. “If you’re referring to the folder and couple of notebooks on top of the filing cabinet, those are things I use multiple times a day and prefer to have them at arm’s reach and visible — everything else is tucked away in the cabinet.
“I don’t like (open) shelves because I think they contribute to visual chaos and clutter,” they continued. “I was thinking about getting a closed sideboard because this room is virtually empty and I have enough space, but I feel that would just propagate keeping unnecessary stuff, so I decided against it.”
A personal connection for the wallpaper
As is often the case, commenter asked about the wallpaper on the display.
“Desktop wallpaper is by a dear friend and fantastic photographer Abe, sup3nova said. “I had his HK tetrapods as wallpaper on all my devices for years, just recently decided to switch things up a bit lol.”
Shop these items now:
- MacBook Air M1
- Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano
- 28-inch HP 4k monitor
- Logitech MX Anywhere 3 mouse
- Herman Miller Setu chair
- CB2 Go-Cart Black Rolling Desk
- Grovemade vinyl desk mat
If you would like to see your setup featured on Cult of Mac, send some high-res pictures to info+setups@cultofmac.com. Please provide a detailed list of your equipment. Tell us what you like or dislike about your setup, and fill us in on any special touches or challenges.
