Essential Kit for Working From Home

More of us are working from home than ever before.

And increasing numbers of employers are saying they never expect their staff to come back into the office full-time.

So it’s worth now examining where you work, how you work – and investing a little to do it more easily. If you are in full-time employment, your company might help with this. If you’re not, set yourself up to work as healthily as possible, investing bit by bit.

You don’t need the perfect set-up.

Although I now have a room of my own to work in (absolute bliss!), my study certainly doesn’t look like those mood boards on Pinterest.

Everyone’s job – your tools, and your preferred working style – will be different, of course. But over 30 years of working from home, this is the essential kit I’ve grown to rely on.

1. The best work chair you can afford

Seriously. If you’re sitting at your desk all day, don’t skimp on this, or you’ll eventually suffer. I’ve tried all kinds of chairs over the years, and I now have a Herman Miller Aeron. I bought it on eBay second-hand for a fraction of its new price, and it’s saved me a small fortune in osteopathy. (Before, I had constant niggling back issues.)

Your chair might be different. You’re looking for a chair that’s fully adjustable, and that supports the way you work. Some people swear by standing desks, others sit on a ball to improve core strength or a kneeling chair designed to help posture.

I also have a really ugly foot rest under my desk, and a stand to raise my iMac screen to give me the best work position possible. There is lots of advice online about ergonomics, and how to set up a work station. Research, experiment, and find the best for you.

If you’re constantly on the phone, a headset might also be useful – and save a lot of neck pain, in the long term.

2. Noise-cancelling headphones

Mine are from Bose, and I’ve recently switched to wireless ones even though my old pair is still in good shape after 15 years of constant use. I have Apple EarPods, too, but I don’t find them as comfortable to wear, or as noticeable. And that’s part of the point.

I wear my big headphones when I want to be left alone to work. At home, my family knows that this is a signal that I’m not really present or available, even if I’m moving about the house.

In a coffee shop or on the train, they tell friends and strangers alike that I’m reading or working, and not open to casual conversation.

They’re fantastic when I want to be free of external distractions. Or when I want to listen to music, an interview or a film at unsociable times of the day or night. 

3. Backup system

I have an external hard drive to back up my iMac every 30 minutes. And the brilliant Backblaze also automatically backs everything to the cloud. It also keeps different versions of a file, which is useful when I accidentally delete paragraphs, or cut them but later realise I need them after all.

I have lost years of data and work to a Mac that once died, without warning – and without a backup. And the first draft of a book on a laptop I left, carelessly, in full view in a car parked overnight in London.

Do I now go over the top with backup systems? Probably. But I’ll never lose work again.

4. Water bottle

I used to get mid-afternoon headaches, and regular migranes. Then I started drinking eight glasses of water a day, and I’ve barely had a headache since.

I now have a glass of water on my desk at all times, and I fill it every time I get up to do anything. And a lightweight water bottle in my bag whenever I leave the house.

If it’s there, I drink it without thinking. If it’s not, I forget to drink at all. Then I get grumpy and dehydrated. (Not my best look.)

5. Good lighting

A good, powerful, directional desk lamp can transform your workspace and save eye-strain. Mine is super-adjustable, and another second-hand find bought at least 20 years ago. I’m feeling mild panic as I write this and realise that I’ve no idea who made it or how I’d replace it, should it die. 

If you’re regularly on video calls, you need to think about lighting for that, too. My desk is (deliberately) in a very gloomy corner, and I’m currently using a cheap plastic ring light from Amazon which is pretty good.

When I’m running workshops or talking to a big audience, my son’s photographic lighting works best. If you have the space or do a lot of video, it’s worth the investment.

6. Timer

This is probably my number one productivity tool. There’s a timer on my phone, of course, but it comes with a big danger of distraction. This one is ugly but also cheap, easy to use and silent, until the alarm goes off.  I had one that ticked, but found the noise too distracting. I also get a childish pleasure out of its digital countdown screen, which looks like a bomb in an action film.

How do I use it? I always set it for 10-15 minutes before opening social media, to stop me disappearing down the rabbit hole. I’ll set it for a focussed hour of writing, or 30 minutes of admin/dealing with email.

It keeps me focussed, reminds me to take short breaks between tasks, and when the mess mounts up, I just put on a banging playlist, set a timer for 10 minutes – and get it sorted.  

7. Task manager

A to-do list, basically. On steroids, if you use one of the many digital apps. I use the Things 3 app synched across my iMac, iPad and iPhone. I’m old enough to remember when my Filofax felt cutting edge, and I’ve tried a lot of different task managers over the years, both paper and digital. I love Things because it is simple, intuitive, and easy on the eye, without lots of excessive bells and whistles.

It reminds me of birthdays and deadlines, when bills are due, of repeating tasks that I’d forget otherwise, and helps me to manage multiple projects.

There are plenty of others available. I have some friends who swear by Notion, Trello or Asana, others who say the bullet journal method has transformed their lives. It doesn’t really matter which system you choose. It’s just important to have a system you trust, to get all those niggling tasks out of your head and properly ordered so you do them at the right time.

8. Journal/planners

There is always an A4 notepad on my desk for client notes, phone messages, doodles and random thoughts (I’m left-handed, so prefer pads that flip at the top). The Notes app on my iPhone has long since replaced the little notebooks I used to carry around with me, to capture random thoughts and ideas on the go.

Some sort of journal iis essential, a constant companion in my creative life. I still find stationery shops hard to resist, but I’m now pretty loyal to the Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks. The paper is good quality, numbered pages make it easy to index, and it comes in a good range of colours with options for plain, lined, squared or dotted pages.

This is where I do my Morning Pages, where I keep my doubts, thoughts, assessments and explorations – and my complaints. For me, 30 minutes spent with my journal is rarely time wasted. It tells me how I’m feeling, it clarifies my thinking, let’s me know where I’m going wrong, what I need to do next. 

I do most of my weekly and monthly planning on paper, using printouts of Charlie Gilkey’s excellent PDF project planners. (I don’t use the daily ones he provides very often – my life just isn’t that complicated.) You can download a month’s set for free, but I just buy mine a year at a time. 

9. Pilot V5 pens

I am a writer. And I’m not sure other creatives fetishise pens and paper in the same way. But anyway, these are my pens. I rarely use any others.

I had a panic that there would be some sort of post-Brexit shortage, so I bought 200 of them at the end of 2020. It is a sign of how antsy I can be if I don’t have a ready supply, that my husband’s response, when they arrived, was an anxious “Will that be enough?”

My point? When you find the basic tools that work best for you, stick with them, and make sure you always have plenty of them.

10. A4 envelopes

Over the years, I’ve learned that simple is best. I don’t need a complicated filing system. Mostly, my paperwork is now scanned and stored in Evernote. Lots of things I used to file – bank statements, for instance, or insurance information ­– now comes as a PDF and can go straight into Evernote or into folders on my iMac. 

I have a cheap metal IKEA cabinet with drawers where I keep notes/papers/drafts connected to articles or books I’m currently working on. Once I’m done, any bits I need to keep go into a labelled A4 envelope, and into boxes. If it’s just a couple of sheets of paper, they’re scanned and kept in Evernote instead.

Current coaching client notes also live in A4 envelopes; past clients get shredded, rather than stored, to protect their privacy.

I also have a small, fireproof metal box with hanging files for really important paperwork (deeds, birth certificates, etc). There’s very little in it any more, and I suspect I’ll retire it altogether as life becomes increasingly digital.

11. The right software for the job

Your list will be different, of course. Mine includes Evernote for keeping paperwork, research, clippings and recipes. Scrivener for book writing, Vellum for book design and publishing. If you do a lot of writing in your work, I have a longer list of tools and resources for writers.

I still have Microsoft Office, but I find I’m using it far less. Everything I did in Exel I now do far more easily in the free version of Airtable. Google Docs is great for collaboration, and all my notes, research, information and short bits of writing are now in Mem.ai, my note-taking app of choice.

12. Desk

Until recently, mine was big, ugly and from IKEA. I dreamed of a Scandinavian partner’s desk in rosewood that I saw in a vintage store in Spitalfields, back in the early 1990s. I was admiring it, and the shop owner offered it to me for half price: £900. At the time, that felt like an impossible amount to spend on office furniture. But I’ve never seen anything similar since for less than £10,000.

Then I saw an oak version of it that was a close match, on a French website. And after a three-month wait, lots of Brexit-related hassle, and a dramatic delivery up three flights of stairs that took a big gouge out of the hall wall, it’s here. It’s even bigger than my IKEA desk. It has six luxuriously big drawers. And it was worth every bit of the grief.

13. Excessive supplies

I order A4 printer paper by the box, not the ream. I always have far too many ink carts for my printer, spare chargers and leads for devices I use regularly. Stamps, envelopes, staples, stationery – none of these things are particularly expensive, but if you run out at the wrong time, the cost can be huge in terms of time, money and missed opportunities. If you use it regularly, and have the space to store it, always buy more than you immediately need.

14. Random little luxuries

Before coaching conversations, I always light a scented candle. To start work in the morning, I wipe my desk with a cloth and a few drops of grapefruit essential oil, or Neal’s Yard oil blend for Focus. I love the smell, but mainly it’s the ritual of lighting the candle or wiping the desk, clearing my mind for the work ahead.

I like fresh flowers in my home office, too. Nothing fancy, just a bunch of tulips, daffodils or lilies: whatever is cheap and seasonal, or growing in the garden. Again, I like going out to buy them or pick them from the garden at the start of the week. Such rituals and rhythms help us get into flow, and focus on making our work. And why not sprinkle a little magic into your working week?

15. Music/ambient noise

Music is another key thing for me, and I have playlists on my computer to set the mood for different tasks. Sometimes I write to music; often I find even the instrumental playlists I’ve created too distracting. On those days, I’ll go to mynoise.net for a soothing natural soundtrack: Japanese garden is a current favourite.

I have a feel-good music playlist for down days, a get-up-and-dance playlist for short breaks and tidying up. And all kinds of others to get me in the mood for regular tasks, even if I only play them briefly before starting. Sometimes, a quick blast of Bolan, Bowie or banging dance tracks is all I need to change my state of mind. And when you don’t commute home after work, just tidying your stuff away to a calming soundtrack can let your mind and body know the working day is over.

So that’s my essential kit for working from home in 2024. What are yours?

PS All of these products are things I use regularly. Some of these links are affiliate links, which means I get a small payment if you buy, to help with the cost of running this site.