The perfect personal work setup
A love letter to a travel monitor and improving mental health
The people in my life know that I’m a strong advocate of hybrid/remote office policies, though they aren’t available to a lot of people around the world. I never thought I’d start this life-journal-of-sorts (Xanga, anyone?) with those words, as simple as they are.
From mid-COVID to 2024, I was slowly burning out. Like many people in the advertising/food spaces, the growth-to-decline curve of business revenues ate up a lot of my personal time. I prioritised work more than most white-collar workers, because I felt a personal connection to the people and the product. At the time, this benefited everyone, especially me and my employer. My actions and decisions were visible, and I made some real, life-long friends and collaborators in the process. But that mental strain quickly looked like:
Side note: the number of books I read is probably the most indicative of my mental state.
It only turned deep-south in 2024, as businesses grew, people left, and life slowly morphed, as it always does. I never thought I would be a freelancer, and yet, by fall 2024, that was the right solution for me. I gave up many things that brought me joy – the reliable social connections, a hard cut-off between work and life, to name a few. I didn’t realise, however, that I was already working my way towards freelancing during COVID work-from-home in Germany.
“So, what’s the perfect set-up?” you’re probably yelling at the screen right now. The unfortunate answer is, it differs for everyone, and not everyone has the type of job where these options are accessible. But for me, it was a travel monitor that changed my worldview in the advertising industry.
Like many companies, my previous role benefited from COVID hybrid policies, meaning I could work from Home 1, Berlin; or Home 2, Chicago; or even Home 3, Bavaria. Checking my Amazon orders (how prehistoric in 2025), I bought my first travel monitor in January 2021, deep lockdown in Bavaria with only the snow, fields, and my grandpa’s Rummikub nights to entertain me.
Once I had my travel monitor, my productivity went from:
To:
I was used to responding to messages from anywhere, on-the-go. This felt different somehow, like my life didn’t need to be dictated by a singular place and time. It sounds like common sense to most people but experiencing it in COVID was a wake-up call that worsened my deep mistrust of capitalist work styles.
It also made me rethink how much I’ve moved over the years, always seeking a new perspective or change of pace. What if the whole time, I just needed to be more flexible?
My main job for the past 10 years was advertising, so I’d be remiss if I didn’t say I believe in growth and the benefits of face-to-face connection. Being a freelancer, though, I’m now adamant that I work within my own constraints, because we can’t always trust corporate policies on work locations (at least in the “productivity” sense), even if we try to influence or push to change them.
I’m not perfect 100% of the time – none of us can be – but I get to be less available full-time and more available at the right time. I get asked often about why I don’t do xyz to grow my work portfolio and take on more projects, and this is usually the answer.
“So how did it feel, having this epiphany?” you definitely didn’t ask.
I work part time now, strict 25 hours a week, with 2–4 fluctuating projects from week-to-week. I work from wherever my personal life needs me to be. Sometimes that’s a benefit, and sometimes it means I’m the “always flexible” person. I’m okay with that, if it means I can be around family and friends, and I spend 50% of my time doing activities that fill my own cup. Not everyone can work this way in the current environment, but if it benefits you, it’s always worth exploring.
I’m a writer (surprise!). I get to enjoy writing without a deadline but still pay the bills. I don’t earn more than I should comfortably live with (a common moral dilemma in a non-trade field), and if I do, I have the time and energy to find the right causes to put that money towards, like good charities or savings for my future niblings to come to Europe (if you’re my sister and you’re reading this - no, you didn’t).
So, my perfect home office is a travel monitor, laptop, and wherever I need to be. Hopefully someday, corporate practices will align with the fact that not every job needs to be at a single desk. It can be a huge benefit, and I thoroughly enjoy it during the 5-10 times per month I work from an office these days, but it’s not the only way to live.
Does this mean I take less “proper” vacation? Yes, especially versus European policies. At the same time, I balance my social activity with my mental and physical health, and I spend more time focused on what I eat, how active I am, how much I connect with my loved ones across time zones, and more.
Moral of the story: it may take you until 32+, after living in 5 different cities, to find the system that suits you, but when it does, it will be worth it. Definitely not all the time, but as people often say, and you wouldn’t appreciate the highs without the lows.
This Substack isn’t meant for deep thoughts or only work-related topics—sometimes it might just be ramblings from my brain because, as you now know, I don’t have a consistent physical office where I can get on my soapbox or entertain crowds. So, you are now “my office,” and I hope you enjoy, laugh, roll your eyes a few times, and relate to the experiences of an everyday person in 2025. If you’re from the future, viewing this in FBI-stalker mode, now you know what I was like. I can only hope I live up to my persona, or yet, better.