Who are you and what do you do for a living?
My name is Feyyaz and I’m an entrepreneur. Through my website and blog bitehype.com I help people increase their productivity and energy levels by improving their health. I use mainly food and movement to do that. The end goal that I always tell my readers and customers is to reach the good life, which is having more energy and time to do the things you love.
Can you tell me something about your desk setup?
It’s very simple and not fancy at all. I thought a long time about getting a fancy office chair, because you know, I work from home, so I’m supposed to sit on a 1000 dollar chair. But I realized for my rotation throughout the day it works perfectly fine. And this is actually our dining table, it’s big has the perfect height. I like having less things and multi-purpose things around me so it was the logical consequence to go with that table. Another thing which is really important to me is the lamp next to me. It’s a fancy office lamp which I bought from my last employer. It reflects the light perfectly across the entire workspace. I realized that I quickly get a headache when I work in dark environments. But with this my productivity is up and my eyes feel well rested even working long hours.
Is there anything you would like to improve on this setup?
Although I don’t need a fancy desk chair I’m thinking about getting a Markus from IKEA, which should be the best price/value wise for an office chair.
Do you switch workspaces during your day? If yes, what’s the reason behind it?
Yes, very often. I start on the couch cross-legged when I write. I then switch to the desk and work for a few hours. After a lunch break or something similar I sit on the relax chair and work a bit while lying down. Then to finish off the work day I squat and handle emails. If I feel like it I stand and handle a few more admin tasks. The reason for this is simple: As humans, our bodies are made to move and not sit in one place for 8 hours. Also if you work from home, you tend to forget about breaks and getting up and just work through it, which is good and bad at the same time. With this rotation setup I work in one position for 1-2 hours the most and then get up, drink water, move a bit and then attack the next part of work. It also helps with creativity and productivity.
Do you have a favourite item on your desk?
I’d say my Macbook Air and the speakers since I can’t work without good music :)
What are you doing to stay focused?
Switch places regularly, go for a walk, workout and make sure that my nutritional lifestyle is balanced. Sometimes I also like to switch environments and work from a coffee shop, that helps as well.
Is there something on your desk which helps you stay focused? What is it?
It’s unsexy but my bottle of water. We tend to forget to stay hydrated and drink enough throughout the day, so this alone helps me focus.
What was your latest self improvement experiment?
There was a mental and a physical one. The mental one was to start journaling in the morning and at night. I used to fill out a gratitude journal and felt like this was helping a lot. But additional journaling helps you collect your thoughts and ideas you’ve had throughout the day. I keep all of this in one place as I’d hate to carry multiple notebooks (learned this from Richard Branson). The physical one was to move every day. There were days where I sat at home for multiple hours and didn’t do anything. In the afternoon I started to get back and leg pain. My body was literally craving movement. So I started to do any kind of movement every day. This can be my workout routine, a 45-60min. walk or even simple mobility exercises. It really helps.
Where do you see yourself and your desk in the next 5 years?
I’d love to see me in a position where I can help more people to achieve greater productivity by improving their health. That’d also mean that we won’t stay chained to our desks all the time. So hopefully my entire setup (with couch, relax chair, squatting desk and foam rollers) will evolve together with me so I can move more and stay productive.
