Lighting has to be one of the toughest things to get right on a desk setup, but once you can actually control your lighting environment, it seriously impacts how productive you are (and how long you can sit there without feeling cooked). In this video I break down the philosophies I use every time I’m dialing in my setup—lighting affects your mood, the amount of time you can stay productive at your desk, and the quality of work you can do. The big levers are color temperature, light positioning, and ease of use/functionality. To keep it simple and repeatable, I follow my “rule of 3 lights” as a baseline: a main light, a backlight, and an ambient light. For the main light, I’m all-in on a monitor desk lamp with color temperature control—my favorite being BenQ’s ScreenBar style lights because they’re clean, practical, and just work. For backlighting, I use Philips Hue light bars behind my monitor to reduce eye fatigue with a nice spill on the background. And for ambient, I use a Govee light bar as the “fun light” to boost mood without being distracting. From there, you can go down the rabbit hole with things like Nanoleaf panels or an offset studio light like the P60x for calls and filming—just be ready for extra cost and power management.