I’m the Product Marketing Manager at Raven Internet Marketing Tools, and I work in Austin, TX out of my home while the company is based in Nashville, TN. Throughout the next couple of weeks I’ll be sharing tips on how I succeed while working out of my home.

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Working from home definitely has its benefits, but in order to maximize your efficiency you ned to have your home office setup properly. Everyone has their own needs and their own way to do things, but here’s a look at what my home office looks like.

My ultimate goal when setting up the room was to have a functional desk. Something that was clean and organized to keep me efficient with my day-to-day tasks. I’ll breakdown each section of the office and will list any special products I used to get my setup. As you can probably tell I’m from Pittsburgh and a huge Steelers and Penguins fan!

To the right of the desk is a whiteboard where I keep my to-do list for the various things going on in my life. All color-coded, of course.

The Desk

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I recently converted to Apple and use a MacBook Pro. The toughest thing about converting was figuring out a way to run three screens at once with the laptop (yeah, I’m a nerd). Thanks to this great post by Danny Sullivan, I was able to do just that. These are the steps I took in order to get the two external monitors working:

1. Bought a Diamond BVU195 HD USB Display Adapter (DVI and VGA with included DVI to VGA adapter)
2. Installed the latest Driver for Macs

And that was it! That’s all you need to do. Here’s a list of everything else I have in this picture:

• Plymouth Writing Desk – $299.95 (which was the easiest desk I’ve ever put together)
• Logitech Speaker System Z523 (Black) – $85.99
• Apple Magic Mouse (the best mouse EVER!) -$69
• Apple Keyboard Kit – $49.99
• Zits 2010 Desk Calendar (my favorite comic!)
• Black KONNET iCrado iPhone dock – $27
• FlipTime iPhone app – $0.99
• Pittsburgh Penguins Championship wallpaper – free!

The Shelves

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On my shelves that I got from IKEA, I have the following memorabilia displayed:

• Jerome Bettis autographed football
• Tony Dorsett autographed football
• Zamboni autographed by the 2002 Pittsburgh Penguins team
• Picture of my Grandfather from his military days
• Spider-Man 3 figurine
• Two bobble-heads: Joe Mullen and an autographed Mario Lemieux
• Pittsburgh Penguins puck autographed by Alexei Kovalev and Robert Lang
• Picture I designed of Alexei Kovalev (which he autographed)
• Pittsburgh Steelers helmet signed by the Steel Curtain
• Autographed picture of the Steel Curtain
• 1983 World Series baseball signed by the St. Louis Cardinals team (year I was born)

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The Coat Rack

I use this coatrack to display the following:

• Autographed jersey by the entire Wilkes-Barre Scranton 2002 team
• Sidney Crosby baseball cap (I’d love to get this signed)
• Apron signed by the 2007 Pittsburgh Penguins team at their charity fundraiser: Penguins at Your Service
• Autographed Mario Lemieux jersey
• Autographed Penguins stick by Evgeni “Geno” Malkin

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The Book Shelf

I actually found this bookshelf at Lowe’s for much cheaper than lookalikes at Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel. I use it to house a bunch of Internet marketing books, a basket to hold any mail that requires my attention (usually bills) and our wireless printer.

That about does it for my setup. What does your home office look like?

Related posts:

1. Why You Need to Setup a Grocery Budget