My Favorite Desk Accessories

• Discover 14 of my favorite desk accessories, ranging from productive to fun!
• Ideal for anyone using their desk for work, school, gaming, or more.
• Great gift ideas for anyone who spends a lot of time at their desk.
• A healthy mix of purchased items and unique DIY creations.
• Includes both a sponsored item and completely unsponsored products.

Hey everyone! In this video, I want to talk about 14 of my favorite desk accessories. These range from some very productive ones like this back here to some much more fun light-hearted ones like this right here.

So no matter what you're using your desk for, whether that is for work, school, productivity, online shopping, budget management, or even just gaming, there should be something in this video that is either great for you to buy for yourself to make your desk a little bit better or potentially a great gift for somebody else who uses their desk a lot.

These are things that I really like and use on a daily basis, and I hope you enjoy them as well! Now there are 14 different desk accessories. Before we get into number 14, a quick little disclosure here: it's kind of a healthy mix in this video of products that I purchased with my own money, some of them I made with a 3D printer, and some of them were sent to me for previous videos for free.

But there's no obligation to those brands, and they don't have access to this video before it goes live. There is, however, one sponsored item which we’ll talk about later in the video, but all the rest are completely unsponsored.

So with that being said, let’s get into number 14!

This is none other than the Stream Deck. Even though the name implies it’s meant for creators streaming online, it’s actually very useful for basically anybody out there.

Quick little summary of what it is: Essentially, it is just a macro keyboard that is completely customizable. You have eight buttons on the top, one little touchscreen in the middle you can swipe back and forth on, and four dials on the bottom. By default, if you press like the top left button, it'll go into your apps, and you can have this open, like the calculator app, or you can go into software on your desktop and change that to open a bunch of Chrome tabs or Excel or whatever you're using a lot.

So if you’re someone that uses Microsoft Office and that whole suite a lot, maybe you program the buttons to open that. If you do a lot of video editing, maybe it’s going to be some useful tools while you’re in Adobe Premiere Pro, for example.

This is essentially just a macro keyboard that’s super customizable, allowing you to access more and open some automations without having to type onto your keyboard or open them manually. You can take this as far as you want with customizations. I’ve seen people use this to open a bunch of different Chrome tabs for investments, for example, so they have all their different investment research tabs they can look at—just an easier way to get your workflow streamlined with a nice aesthetic array of buttons.

The buttons, as you can see on the top, actually have little displays in the back as well, so they’ll change for the right icons based on what you’re opening or what you choose those icons to be in the software.

Now for number 13, something completely different—much less productive but honestly, how could I not include this? Of course, a Doodle Bob! I 3D printed this one; you can find a lot of 3D models for this, you could probably buy this as well.

But this is not just any Doodle Bob; this Doodle Bob holds my pen. This actually holds either like an Apple Pencil, for example, or just a regular pen—a fun little desk accessory that I don’t know, people come over to my desk and they kind of always comment on it. It’s just such a cool thing to have.

Now getting back to something very productive—we’re kind of alternating between fun and aesthetic and highly productive desk devices—number 12 here is none other than the CalDigit TS4 Hub. I’ve tried so many different hubs or dongles to plug in more things to my laptop, desktop, or PC; whatever I’m using, I find that most of them out there just absolutely suck.

They’re terrible! You can plug in like one flash drive, and then as soon as you plug in HDMI, it bugs you. It really just bugs out like it gets really slow; the display doesn’t work well at all, and they never work as well as they're advertised.

But this, the CalDigit, works incredibly well. I can show up with just my MacBook, plug in just one USB-C cable, and instantly be connected to my display here, all of my hard drives, my audio output, my SD cards—anything plugged into here, and nothing is slow at all.

It’s absolutely incredible how functional and fast this thing really is. I mean, it’s not that surprising looking at it; you can tell it’s really well-built—solid aluminum, as you can see—and like I said, it works really well. It also delivers power to my laptop, so I can plug in again with just one cable and be ready to go.

Number 11: I think a desk mat is absolutely essential to a desk. This is a great desk accessory in my opinion, and there are of course many different options out there. But as long as you have something that gives you a nice grip on the table so it’s not sliding around too much, it’s very comfortable, easy to clean, and in my opinion, the best way to do that while also looking really nice is a leather one.

This one was sent to me from Harbor London about two years ago, and I’ve been using it for a while now. I actually really do like this desk mat a lot. I’ll have some links down below to all the products in this video; some of them are harder to find, so some of those will be affiliate links, and some of them might just be whatever links I can find out there.

But regardless, this is a pretty solid gift—it’s a little bit more expensive; I think it’s like $70 or $80 right now—but if you want to buy a cheaper one, there are so many different desk mats.

That is a solid gift idea and a great way to upgrade your desk setup.

Before we get into the weird plant thing I have, we need to get into number 10, which is the display I’m using for this desk setup right here—the sponsor of today’s video, which is LG. This is the LG My View Ultrawide Smart Monitor, and I’ve been trying this out as an ultrawide monitor for a little while now.

I have to say, it’s really quite impressive how much more you are able to show on one display in really multitasking. I used to just have like half and half screens or sometimes just use a full screen, like on my laptop, for example. But here, I’m able to put them like thirds or even quarters on the display to have more shown on one screen.

Also, media is incredibly immersive on such a large curved display. This is something I find especially interesting because, you know, when I’m editing a video, and then when I want to export the video, I’ll just let my laptop go through that export. I don’t want to overload my laptop by opening more tabs and doing more stuff that’s more demanding.

So I’ll just switch over the monitor to the Smart Monitor mode, and you can watch Netflix on here, you can watch YouTube on here—it’s basically a TV when it’s not being used as a monitor. It’s kind of cool to have multiple functions on one device here, and it’s really quite a simple, elegant design.

All of your controls are on the very bottom as well as a remote that you can control the entire monitor with. There are different color profiles, sound output, multiple inputs on the back from HDMI or USB, and of course, it’s a smart monitor, like I said, so it connects to Wi-Fi to play music or videos.

Thanks to LG for sponsoring this portion of the video! They are running a Black Friday promotion; I’ll have that linked in the top of the description down below. So if you want to buy the LG My View Ultrawide Smart Monitor, check out that link down below. Again, thanks to LG for sponsoring this portion of the video.

Moving on to number 9, this is something I included in my gift guide as well. I’m sitting right now at my desk, but I like having a sit-stand desk, so I have a separate desk that I’ll stand at a lot. When you’re standing, you don’t want to just wear shoes; you don’t want to just stand on like hardwood floor. Obviously, you’re just a maniac if you’re doing that!

So what I like to use is a rubber floor mat. It’s actually meant for standing—it’s really nice, has little bumps on there you can massage your foot on, and you can shift your weight around. It’s far more comfortable to stand for long periods. I personally do that a lot when I have meetings; I find that if I’m standing for a meeting, I’m much more awake, much more attentive, and way less likely to fall asleep during the meeting.

Going on to number 8 and number 7—these are both more ergonomic type things. The next one is a laptop stand. I’ve tried a lot of laptop stands. If you like one that’s smaller and folds up out of cardboard or whatever, go for it.

This one is more heavy-duty; it’s made of all aluminum. This is the Minder Laptop Stand. I could be wrong; it might be Minder—I don’t know, I haven’t really ordered anything else from them, but I like this stand a lot. It’s adjustable in height and angle, and it has a little phone stand on the very bottom.

If you have a folding phone or just any phone you want to watch media on, it’s very easy to set that down there. I find this is great—not only for standing desks but also sitting desks—to have my display kind of matching the same height as my monitor.

It makes moving tabs back and forth and using my laptop much easier when it’s plugged into a monitor.

Number 7 is a MagSafe stand. If you have an iPhone, if you don’t—then I would recommend getting a MagSafe case for your Android so you can use a MagSafe stand. This one, unfortunately, Anchor discontinued, but this is the Mag Go, and they have a new one that’s essentially replacing this.

I’ll link the new one in the description, although there is one small difference. Essentially, you have a stand that you can just drop your iPhone onto; it sticks magnetically and charges all day. You can see the time, or you can turn your phone sideways, which puts it into standby mode, showing you an alarm clock or the time of day and maybe another widget if you have the weather or something like that.

The new version of this is basically just a charger. The old version, you could pull it up, and it was like a battery pack on the back. I assume the battery wouldn’t last as long if you leave it plugged in forever, which is probably why they discontinued this.

However, I always thought it was helpful just in case it’s like, “Oh, my iPhone’s almost dead; I have to go on a road trip; I’ll just grab this,” and I just know it’s always fully charged. That’s a cool desk accessory.

Anchor is a little bit more expensive; honestly, I think they’re reasonably priced for what they are, but if you want to find a cheaper one, sometimes Ugreen is a bit more affordable. I know they have some similar ones, or to be honest if you really want to save money, in the past, I have just 3D printed these.

If you have a printer and buy a little MagSafe puck, glue it on there, and you have a homemade MagSafe stand. You can make it exactly the height and dimensions to match your desk as well as the color.

Number 6 is a cool little speaker. Depending on your audio style, you might want some wired speakers for higher fidelity; maybe you want two speakers for stereo sound.

I think this is great because it has a smaller footprint and also has a cool trick up its sleeve. This is the LG Xboom 360 speaker. The 360 refers to its sound, which sounds a little better in a larger room, so you hear it from pretty much any angle.

But if I turn it on, oh, the battery’s dead! But if I turn this on, it has 360 lights around the top you can change the color of, and so it acts as a nice little ambient lamp. I think that’s really cool or if you’re playing music; it kind of brings it to life a little bit with some flashing colors. A little bit of RGB always makes a desk a little bit more fun and exciting, in my opinion.

For number 5 and number 4, I know a lot of keyboard and mouse people are going to be very upset with me, but hear me out on this one! I am not a big fan of the big flat mechanical keys; I’m not a fan of really flat ones either. In fact, I’ve really started using an ergonomic keyboard because I find that it’s way more comfortable, and I can still type incredibly quickly.

Using this right here, we have the Logitech Ergo K860. At first, it is really weird; it’s going to take some time to get used to this. But I mean, ask any doctor out there—you would never find a doctor that doesn’t recommend an ergonomic keyboard.

I had a wrist problem a couple of years ago; that’s when I bought this. I got used to it and yeah, I can type faster on this now than I can on a regular keyboard. I really like using this a lot.

Then there’s the mouse. I just got this because it has a ball on there, which has a huge benefit. If your desk ever gets messy, you don’t need space to slide your mouse around. Instead, the ball—you can scroll really quickly using just your thumb. This is the Logitech Ergo M575 Mouse.

It has multiple buttons on here, so your index finger goes forward or back if you’re navigating tabs on Chrome, for example. The wheel is super easy; you don’t have to slide anything around—it makes your desk setup much cleaner without the need for space for your mouse to always slide back and forth.

It’s quieter and super easy to use. I absolutely love it! I could never go back to not having the ball on the thumb for the mouse.

But like I said, I know a lot of people are more into retro keyboards or different aesthetics. I wish this looked different, but it’s kind of the only great ergonomic keyboard and mouse from my experience that works with Mac and works really well.

Number 3: This is for anyone like me who doesn’t drink coffee incredibly fast. If I chug a coffee, I’m just going to be so jittery and anxious. I would rather let it sit over an hour or so, but I don’t want it to get ice cold.

This right here is the Ember Mug that heats your coffee and keeps it hot. It has a little pad right here, so it’s not just a regular hot pad that’s going to burn your house down—instead, you can see there’s a connection right there, two pogo pins, and two concentric rings in the bottom.

So you set it like that, and the mug itself is going to heat your coffee—not this little pad on the bottom. It’s way less likely to catch on fire if you drop a paper on it, for example, and just like a much cooler piece of tech that gives you a very solid, sturdy feeling mug.

Additionally, it makes it much harder to tip over because you have that extra weight on the bottom. Not that I’m one to knock things over; I’m usually pretty coordinated—I don’t knock over water on my desk a lot—but if you do, that extra weight on the bottom could make a pretty big difference for you.

I just think it looks nice—a nice minimal, clean, matte black mug that matches the puck on the bottom. It’s plugged in on the back with a pin and barrel right there. I really like that a lot; that is the Ember mug, which can heat your coffee, tea, or water.

Moving on to number 2: This is one that you can finally do on Windows and Android now, but originally it was just for Mac and iPhone. This is a continuity camera mount.

You can buy one for about $15 on Amazon; you can also just kind of build one if you wanted to or you could 3D print one, as I have done here. This will be a great way to use your iPhone or, you know, your Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, for example, behind your desktop or laptop on a video call.

Rather than just having a low-quality webcam or even a high-quality webcam, which still is not as good as a phone, you can use the rear cameras on your phone to get honestly the best video quality imaginable for a webcam—short of plugging in a DSLR.

But by all intensive purposes, this is the cheapest and easiest way to get great video quality on your video calls and it’s something I do all the time. A cool little desk accessory that surprisingly few people actually have!

Finally, for number 1, I said that I really like this little plant pot. This is something I mentioned in my gift guide recently. It’s such a cool little device that just adds a little touch of magic to your desk.

It looks really cool, and like this plant just has no business levitating above the table, but it does, and that’s so cool! The way it works, of course, is with some electromagnets inside. So when it’s levitating, you can spin it; you could obviously have a plant in it as I would recommend, or you could just have like a dollar bill in there—whatever you want to set in there, something light enough to levitate.

Just kind of a cool little lively thing to have on your desk. There are several different versions of this; you can find them on Amazon—matte black ones, white ones, and a light wooden bamboo-looking one.

Any style that matches your desk, I think this is a really cool idea to have at your own desk or as a solid gift for anyone who doesn’t already have one. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t think this is a really cool thing to have on their desk.

Just a fun little fidget thing—you can spin it, look at it. I don’t know; it’s cool! It’s a fun thing to have on a desk.

So those are my 14 favorite desk accessories! Let me know in the comments down below what your favorites are. I’m sure there are a ton you like that I probably haven’t mentioned in this video.

But if you’ve watched this video this long, hopefully that means you enjoyed it, and I recommend subscribing. I have some other videos like my gift guide and a few others coming out soon that you might find interesting, just like this video. I’ll link those over here so you can watch those next.

Thanks for watching, guys! See you over there!