Our Editor Uses This Sporty Hack for Propping Up Her Laptop During Zooms

Visiting a person’s workspace is like taking a peek inside their brain. Whether it’s at home or in an art studio, Where I Work explores where creative people do all of their, well, creating—so that you can steal their on-the-clock style. 

Name: Julie Vadnal

Occupation: Domino deputy editor

Where I work: My home office in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. 

What time I start: Is my boss reading this? If so, 9 a.m. Right, 9 a.m. Except for Monday, when I go to Barre3—I like to start my week strong—so I usually log in around 10 that day.

What time I clock out: I’m pretty strict about closing my laptop and starting dinner at 6 p.m., but I’ll sometimes check Slack after hours in case there are any fires. (There never are.) 

How I get to work: My home office is three steps from my bedroom. Not a bad commute. 

Three words that describe my space: Garage meets office.

The most important thing in my office: Two Manduka yoga blocks that I use to prop up my laptop during video calls. Sometimes I use them for actual yoga. 

What’s on the walls: Metal pegboards from Amazon. My boyfriend’s orange ones hold his tools, and mine are a bookshelf and mood board. We also hang our bikes there.

My current creative fuel: I can’t get enough of Zakiya Dalila Harris’s The Other Black Girl, a thriller set in the world of book publishing. 

What I turn to when I’m stuck: My bed. I can’t think straight if I’m uncomfortable. 

How I stay organized: The two stacked Bisley cabinets hold all of my stuff, from stationery to my extensive collection of Olive & June nail polish to work freebies that I gift to friends. Without them, I would be a total mess.

Favorite pen: Those free click-y ones you get at restaurants. Nili‘s is in my current rotation. I also love Delfonics’s wooden pen. 

Best notebook: Rollbahn for all the fun colors and because the elastic keeps it from opening and ripping in my bag. I read that they were David Sedaris’s favorite, so they’re good enough for me. I stocked up on a pre-pandemic trip to Tokyo. 

Technology I can’t live without: Google Home Mini, which acts as my office speaker and sometimes my work companion. I love to ask it the weather or random facts. 

Desk chair that I could (and do) spend hours in: It was a $75 vintage find from Time Galleries in Park Slope that I bought because it was cute—and I highly regret it. After a couple hours, the wood seat feels like sitting on a church pew. But it’s cute!

How I fight the 3 p.m. slump: I’m useless when I’m tired, so I’ll either pour an iced coffee or take a 15-minute power nap. 

Ideal office snack: Popcorn with vegan butter and nutritional yeast. I know it sounds like faux fun, but it’s ridiculously good.

Preferred soundtrack: Embarrassingly enough, I made a Domino Spotify playlist based on songs I would hear playing back when we were in the office. Enjoy!

Things I Can’t Work Without

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