Top 21 must-haves for remote working from home

It may sound obvious, but having the right office set-up can make all the difference to your working from home productivity – and this can start with your chair and desk. When working from home, you’ll probably find you’re holding just as many meetings – if not more – via video conferencing services like Skype and Google Hangouts. With these meetings, it’s important to have a good quality webcam.

That includes a large number of federal prosecutors and investigators, postal workers and Transportation Security Administration employees. “A government shutdown could impact everything from food safety to cancer research to Head Start programs for children,” President Biden said on Saturday. For hundreds of thousands of federal employees, that means either being furloughed while the government is closed, or continuing to work without pay.

New Employee Survival Kit

A simple, “Thanks, everyone. Bye!” at the close goes a long way toward making your presence known. There are apps, such as TimeOut for Mac and Smart Break for Windows, that let you set a schedule for when you’ll lock yourself out of your computer. RescueTime also has a pause feature that lets you time 15-minute and one-hour breaks. Set an alarm or timer on your phone, or mind the time with a standard clock.

You can spend hours using your mouse when working from home, so you need to make sure you have one that’s comfortable to hold, as well as being fast and responsive. Even if you have a laptop with a touchpad, you may find getting a mouse will make things more comfortable. In this guide, we’ll walk you through all the essential kit you need to work from home successfully, as well as giving you tips and tricks on working remotely. The TP-Link RE220 is the best affordable WiFi extender we’ve tested, making it a great choice for your WFH setup. It’s easy to set up, offers speeds suitable for casual web browsing or working in a Google Doc, and has an Ethernet port for non-W-iFi enabled devices.

A lap desk to work from your couch

As has been the case for the past few years, there’s some overlap between these and my other predictions, which focus primarily on technology. Simply put, this is because business trends today are largely driven by technology. However, as we develop a better understanding of a technology – artificial intelligence (AI) being the obvious example – we also understand what it isn’t. In 2024, this will lead to new perspectives on what makes us human – a theme I believe is reflected in this year’s predictions. Of course, even when you work on-site, technical problems are a fact of working life.

Putting it together was simple and only took about 30 minutes, though I think having two people would reduce that significantly. It was also extremely well packaged — something that things needed to work from home Branch does with all its products — so it was in top shape once I had it all together. After testing the Expression I was pleasantly surprised at how well this printer did.