A creative way to eliminate paper on your desk.
Several months ago, I transitioned to a new position. Due to the pandemic, all the employees of my new company are working from home and our offices are closed. Working from home has always been sort of a comfort to me. I love taking care of my family and love my work and I always felt torn when I couldn’t be two places at once. Now, both my home and work are located in the same place. The only struggle I had was pulling together an isolated workspace for myself. For a while, I had a desk set up in our dining room, but that wasn’t very practical as it’s a high-traffic area. So, we moved my workspace into our third bedroom, which had previously been used as a guest room. It’s now much more like a study and I find it very comforting. Since I’ve been adapting a home office working space into a work-working space, I’ve added accesories that seem to be practical and that will make the most out of my compact area. One of those items is the Slope from FLUIDSTANCE. It gives me the freedom to take quick notes without wasting paper products.
DETAILS
The Slope is referred to as a ‘personal desktop whiteboard’ and is constructed from 100% steel. The board is powder-coated and made in the U.S. The whiteboard is designed to fit perfectly in the space between your keyboard and monitor so that it doesn’t take space away from something else and because it’s raised, you can store a keyboard beneath it – if it’s not a full-size. Slope features a channel to hold dry erase markers and other accessories. There is also a cut-out for a charging cable and because it’s made with 100% steel, it’s perfect for magnets. Slope comes with felt bumpers attached so that your desk is protected and it’s packaged with a dry erase marker in a microfiber pouch. The board measures 20” long x 8” wide x 3.5” tall and it weighs 3 pounds.
USER EXPERIENCE
The Slope comes in a simple, brown cardboard box with the FLUIDSTANCE logo printed on it. When you open the box you are met with a cardboard covering that reads, “On behalf of the trees, thank you for your purchase. We hope you enjoy using your Slope, whether it’s to doodle, capture great ideas, or keep track of your to do’s.” In addition to the special note, they also provide some information about how to clean the board and some of the features and benefits of using it. There is also one more note that states, “To help further reduce our impact on the environment, for every Slope sold, we will plant one tree.” I think that’s a very generous offer since the Slope only costs $59.
When I first took the Slope out of its box, I was surprised at how heavy it is. I don’t really see that as a bad thing since that will keep it from sliding around on a desktop surface. I am currently using a full size mechanical keyboard so it will not slide beneath the board, but other slim style keyboards do. I like this design very much because the Slope creates a storage space for a keyboard (of the correct size) and it also gives me a creative doodling space, which is very helpful to me in my work as a marketing professional. Before adding the Slope to my desktop, I was littering it with sticky notes because that’s how I kept track of things that needed to get done. When a task was completed, I would throw the sticky note away. I know it’s a horribly wastful activity, but it was a process that worked for me. Now, I can write the list onto the Slope and erase items as they get completed. That works for me, too.
I noticed a couple of things about this board. First, it is very easy to write on with a dry erase marker. The marker that is provided writes smoothly and evenly across the surface of the Slope. It’s suggested that the easiest way to wipe off any notes or drawings is to use the eraser on the tip of the marker’s cap. While it does erase the writing, it leaves a lot of smudges. I actually found that the microfiber pouch that comes with the marker cleans the surface of the Slope much better than the felt eraser on the marker. Second, because the board is steel and magents can attach to its surface, it becomes the ultimate perch for an iPhone 12 Pro thanks to its MagSafe magnet array. I have my phone in a case and while the MagSafe isn’t quite strong enough to hold the phone if the stand is tipped over, the phone stays in place on the surface and doesn’t slide around. It’s quite convenient.
CONCLUSION
While the Slope is not something I would have thought of needing at first, I’m incredibly glad to have it. I will draw some things out on my iPad, but for short notes, this is much easier and honestly, they are harder to avoid than making notes in an app I can close. The Slope is very sturdy and it provides a lot of useful surface to anyone working from home.
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