Essential Kit for Working From Home

More of us are working from home than ever before.

The pandemic only accelerated this trend. 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. The person who owns the workstation above is setting themselves up for a world of neck pain, for instance. And framed motivational posters are purely optional.

Everyone’s job – your tools, and your preferred working style – will be different, of course. But over 20 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.) You’re looking for a chair that’s fully adjustable, and that supports the way you work.

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

During the pandemic I’ve also realised that for me, a monthly massage is no longer a luxury. It’s an essential need: without it, and my regular Pilates classes, I became creaky and broken, sitting at a desk for eight hours a day. I’m now trying a standing desk in another corner of my study; I’m not convinced I could ever stand and write, but it's been great for meetings.

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 Bose. I wear them when I want to be left alone to work. At home, my family knows the headphones are a signal that I’m not really present or available, ev en if I'm walking about the house and they're clearly not plugged in. In a coffee shop or on planes and trains, they tell friends and strangers alike that I’m reading or working, and not open to casual conversation.

They’re also 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 systems

I have an external drive to back up my iMac using time machine. And another external hard drive on which I clone my entire Mac, once a month. I also back up my current work folder, my music and my photographs to the cloud.

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 this? 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 for 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. 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 wear reading glasses which makes glare hard to avoid.

I’ve yet to find the perfect lighting, though 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; analogue is better. This one is easy to use and silent, until the alarm goes off. I had one that ticked, but found the noise too distracting.

How do I use it? I’ll 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 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 friends who swear by Trello and Omnifocus, and 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.

8. Journal/notebooks

There is always an A4 notepad on my desk for 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 long ago replaced the little notebooks I used to carry around with me, to capture random thoughts and ideas. And now Notes has been replaced by Mem, which is the best note-taking app I've ever used.

But my journals are always written by hand, on paper. I’ve never been loyal to any partiular brand. At the moment, I’m using a journal from The School of Life. When that’s full, I have drawers full of notebooks that caught my eye, and I’ll choose the one that feels most right, at that moment. Like most writers, I find stationery shops hard to resist!

It’s the journal itself that’s essential, a constant companion in my creative life. This is where I write 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, where I’m going wrong, what I need to do next.

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.

When the UK left the European Union, I had a sudden panic that there would be some sort of post-Brexit shortage, so I bought 200 of them. It is a sign of how ansty 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 a supply.

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 in a digital form and goes 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 a box. 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 use Word for shorter writing such as blog posts and features, and Exel for accounts, though I keep being told that Pages and Numbers on my Mac are better. Otter.ai does the first draft of all my interview transcriptions these days, and I use Stripe for most of my invoicing.

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. I’m pretty sure I’ll have this desk till I die!

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. Before starting work in the morning, I wipe my desk with a cloth and a few drops of grapefruit essential oil, or Neal’s Yard Vitality oil. 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 the ritual and rhythm of going to pick or buy them at the start of the week.

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.

But I have a feel-good 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 those are my working home essentials. What are yours?