| Although I’m not an “endless optimization” guy, one area I do try to constantly and continually optimize is my work-from-home setup. Reason being: my work-from-home setup is an extremely central part of my life. Most of my work happens at home. Not just because of the pandemic. It’s always been like that. Even when I was running Primal Nutrition out of the Malibu office park back in the early days, I wasn’t writing, doing research, and coming up with content there. I’d be in and out of the office, of course, but the vast majority of my actual deep work took place at home. Carrie and I have always cultivated a beautiful home environment for the simple fact that we live there. Of course we’d want to love the place where we spend the most time. And, for me, I have trouble doing creative work in the wrong environment. A part of me believes that creativity doesn’t just emerge from within the creator. There’s an environmental aspect, too. Probably it’s a fusion of the two. The environment interacts with the individual and the individual interacts with the environment to create something beautiful and meaningful. At any rate, optimizing the home workspace is a non-negotiable. It’s only become more important the past couple years. I’ve got a post on that coming down the line pretty soon, but I thought I’d share the best purchase I made in the last five years for my work-from-home space: An electronic drum machine. I’ve spoken in the past about the need to take frequent breaks while working. I work in a sprint-walk-sprint-walk pattern (much like my fitness). If you want your sprints to be effective you have to rest. You have to recover. One way I recover from "work-sprint" sessions are with physical activity breaks. Five minutes on the slack line does the trick, jogs the creative juices. Microworkouts also work—stuff like a max set of pullups, pushups, or squats. Maybe some kettlebell swings or trap bar deadlifts. Five to ten minutes on the electronic drum machine really hits the spot, too. I can work for 45 solid minutes to an hour, sit down at the drums, bang away for a quick session, and get right back into work. Headphones mean I can go all out without disturbing my wife or anyone else in the house. It’s really revolutionized my days because I don’t always want to be taking a physical movement break from work. Sometimes it’s nice to mentally move away from work. Anyway, what’s the best purchase you’ve made to improve your work day? How have you been optimizing your set up? | 
