The Finer Things About Working from Home
With the right amount of discipline, working from home can maximize your productivity in a variety of ways. Not only do you not have to deal with sitting in traffic during your morning commute, but we’ve also found that we can squeeze almost two hours of extra work out of our day by removing the risk of daily disruptions in a crowded office.
Though working from home offers various benefits, the only way to achieve enhanced productivity is through strict self-discipline and consistent routine. Here are a few tools that we use in our home offices to polish our professional efforts and stay on track throughout the workday.
Headphones: Beyerdynamic DT-770-PRO
A high quality pair of headphones coupled with the right playlist can keep you focused for hours on end. We trust Beyerdynamic DT-770-PRO headphones to deliver an unparalleled immersive music experience, with a clear and deep bass and detailed highs. Comfort is just as important as sound quality when it comes to headphones, and these Beyerdynamics don’t disappoint. The headphone’s adjustable, soft-padded headband and soft skin ear pads offer comfortable listening through the longest of workdays.
Speakers: KEF EGG Wireless Music System
Whether you use them to listen to your favorite tracks while getting ready for the busy day ahead or to stream talks from thought leaders in your industry, we believe that every professional who works from home should invest in a pair of high quality desktop speakers. What we love about the KEF EGG speakers is that they allow you to listen to music wirelessly over Bluetooth aptX from anywhere in your house. The speakers offer an incredibly balanced sound with rich vocals, natural instrumentals and deep bass. In fact, the KEF EGGs are so impressive that they won the prestigious title of “Best Desktop Speaker £200+” from What Hi-Fi? in 2015.
Writing Accessories: Field Notes Memo Books + Palomino Blackwing 602s
After hours of staring at a screen, working on a computer at the end of the day isn’t the most inspiring way to flesh out your creative ideas. To get yourself stimulated again, try taking a walk outside and jotting down ideas with a pencil and paper. Field Notes offers beautiful memo books, with a clean, simple design and rugged binding. They’re pocket-size and come with a variety of different styles of paper to fit your needs.
For writing utensils, the Palomino Blackwing 602 is our premium pencil of choice, just like it was for John Steinbeck. It’s our trusted companion everyday, providing us with firm, dark lead to write our thoughts down with and an extendable eraser that leaves nothing in its path.
Headset: Plantronics Voyager Legend UC
Working from home means lots of calls and video conferences. You need a reliable headset to provide clear communication with your team and clients. The Plantronics Voyager Legend UC gets the job done. Not only does it feature noise-cancelling technology, but it also allows you to seamlessly switch between devices, including your computer, phone and tablet. One of our favorite elements of the headset is its Smart Sensor, which automatically senses when we put on the headset and then answers the call without us having to push a button. This version of the headset also comes with a bluetooth USB adapter and portable charging case.
Personal Assistant: Amazon Echo
If you know how to use the Amazon Echo effectively, it can take care of small tasks for you while you’re working at home, saving you a good chunk of time. Here are a few ways we use Alexa as our personal assistant to help us save time:
- To check what’s on the calendar for the day.
- To add tasks to our to-do list and cross tasks off.
- To choose a new restaurant to take clients or coworkers to.
- To ask about traffic before we head out to meet with clients.
- To turn on music.
- To give us a quick answer to a question.
- To order more time-saving products.
Display: Dell Ultrasharp 25” Monitor
Whether you’re designing a website or building an ad, you need to see your work in ultra fine detail. That’s where the Dell Ultrasharp 25” Monitor comes in. This monitor delivers defined color accuracy and consistency, along with pixel-perfect performance at 99% sRGB. You can tilt, swivel and pivot the screen to meet your needs in the most comfortable way possible. The Dell Ultrasharp Monitor also offers a range of port options, allowing you to charge, connect and project a range of devices. We suggest a dual monitor setup to improve your productivity.
External Hard Drive: G-Technology G-RAID
When your work computer is also your home computer, you need places to store the stuff you don’t use every day. The G-Raid is our trusty vault for some of our most cherished digital items. You can go for the 4 TB or 8 TB option depending on your needs. But each supports multi-stream XDCAM HD, HDV, DVCPro HD, uncompressed SD workflows, and ProRes 422. It also features high performance Thunderbolt interface technology. The G-RAID is all you need in an external hard drive.
Inspiration: If You Want To Write by Brenda Ueland
The writers of our team suggest keeping a copy of If You Want To Write by Brenda Ueland on hand for whenever you need inspiration. It’s not a book about the technical aspects of writing. Rather, it pushes you to reach your highest creative potential by breaking through the self-criticism that can easily hinder and dull writing, and other forms of creation. If you’re experiencing writer’s block at home, or a stall in your creative process, read a few pages of this book to get your creative juices flowing.
Home Office Chair: Aeron Chairs
A cheap home office chair can leave you frustrated and in pain throughout your work day. But a carefully constructed chair can transform your home-work experience, leaving your mind to focus on one thing: your work. We’ve haven’t found a better chair than Aeron Chairs. Every section of the chair is designed to provide you with the most comfortable seating experience possible. Aeron Chairs feature a breathable, woven suspension membrane to avoid heat building up and pressure points. You’ll understand why it’s on our list when you sit in it.
High quality tools can lead you to produce higher quality work while at home. We hope these products help you just as much as they’ve helped us to increase our efficiency. If you’re interested, take a look at some of the more recent work that we’ve completed with the help of these tools.