Are you 100% confident you have the work from home skills you need to land a remote job? Sure. But what about the tech essentials and equipment needed to actually do the job? Beyond that, what about keeping your remote career going strong despite roadblocks you might encounter—from attending a meeting from the carpool line to powering through your to-dos despite a cross-country move (which is always inevitable with military life!).
Your work doesn’t have to come to a halt. In fact, that’s a big perk of working remotely: location independence—you’re not limited to a geographic location that would force you to start all over again at a new company following a permanent change of station (PCS) move. Here are our top remote office essentials to keep the momentum going.
Do you like to live life on the edge of a “low battery” alert? That might be tolerable in your personal life, but your remote work life? Not so much. The last thing you want to do mid-meeting or mid-productivity flow is scramble to get your device hooked up to a power source. Laptop power bank to the rescue (*it also works for smartphones and tablets)! No matter if you’re driving across the country or down the street, you can breathe easy knowing you’ll never miss a charge.
Looking to keep your options open with powerful remote office “desk” essentials? Check these out.
The bed or couch often offer a comfy change of scenery when it comes to remote work. But what if you’re working from the road or your furniture hasn’t arrived at your new home yet? Make do with a folding laptop desk. It allows you to create a small desk on virtually any flat surface, so say goodbye to feeling the laptop heat in your lap and neck and back pains from getting into a weird, slouched over position while typing away. To be honest, it’s one of our priority office must-haves.
3. Item Locator for Gadgets
Did you know there’s a company out there that creates thin stickers that attach to wallets, keychains and other gadgets, helping you locate items around the house? It’s called Tile. Put one in your bag, on your keys and in anything that holds your technology to keep track of where they are through the Tile app. While not essential, it definitely proves to be a helpful item on the list of work from home accessories.
4. Daily Planner
There are just some things the digital world can’t move us away from; one of those things is a paper planner. We find putting pen to paper to jot down to-do lists can free up our mind and better organize our thoughts. Plus, when you’re working on-the-go, it can be easy to veer “off course.” Keep track of your day and week at a glance. Write notes of learning lessons and positives that occurred and reflect on them later. This is also a great way to show household members what is happening and the timeline.
Your work-from-anywhere “office” might come with a fair amount of background noise. To maintain a professional environment—despite possible kiddos bantering in the background or bustling coffee shop sounds, be sure you have a pair of noise-canceling headphones on hand. If you want to save some cash and avoid splurging on AirPods or Bose headphones, there are plenty of affordable options on Amazon.
6. Remote Work Playlist
How could we resist adding this bonus, fun item to our work from home essentials list? Music soothes the remote work soul. Just be conscientious of the type of music you listen to and when. Firing up your Spotify playlist before diving into “deep work” may not be the best move. However, strategic tunes have the ability to put you in a good mood for more efficient work. *Check out our playlists to get you going.
Having a hard time finding a work-from-anywhere opportunity?
One where you don’t have to worry about restarting your career at each new duty station? Create or update your Arti profile with Instant Teams—a remote-first, tech-enabled solution that builds fully integrated remote teams for companies, drawing from a talent pool of military spouses and veterans who have experience in fields such as marketing, tech and customer service.
Your Arti profile serves as your digital resume and Instant Teams application. What makes it unique from the traditional application process is that once you’ve completed each section of your candidate profile, you’re done!
Ready to get matched to remote assignments by Arti, our proprietary automated remote team innovation software?
