The Remote Work Starter Kit — Office Stuff Edition
Get a Kick-butt Remote Work Office!
Your remote office is yours to cultivate. Unfortunately, it takes years of experience to hone in on what makes a real difference. That’s why I wrote this article, these are the remote work office hacks that made a difference for me.
Sure these will work great for a non-remote office, but it’s a powerful list for those of us who have been working remote for a while. You’ll notice a strong theme around comfort and health, you know… the important things.
If you’re looking for 10 things for your desk rather than for your office, check out my other blog post on Remote Starter Kit — Desk Stuff
But hey, you’re here for the office right? Let’s dig into this list, shall we?
Critical items while working at home
- A second uninterrupted power supply (UPS)
- Door draft guard + weather stripping
- Modem cable surge protection
- Door Lock
- Good coffee & vitamins
- Air plant or purifier
- EZ cleaning stuffs
- Backup Internet
- Light dimming stickers / Slide stopping stickers
- A high-quality voice activated assistant
- Chair Upgrades
A second uninterrupted power supply UPS
Of course you have a UPS on your desktops (that was in my last article), but your office should have a second UPS that’s specifically for your internet equipment.
I lose power often down here in New Orleans. You can lose power on your modem/router, but keep the internet if you’ve got your networking hardware on a UPS. This lets you provide a graceful exit from virtual meetings in the case that there’s a sudden outage.
UPSs are effective surge protectors and can extend the life of the devices they protect.
Door draft guard + weather stripping
Doors may stop people, but they can’t stop the intrusion of unwanted sounds. When you’ve got hardwood floors, entire conversations can bounce through into your workspace and distract you or even show up on your podcasts and meetings.
Generally, I welcome these noisy albeit fun interruptions, but if I close my door, I generally want as little distraction as possible. That’s why my door has a draft guard + weather stripping.
These two combined on an office door will cut out a good bit of noise from outside your door.
BONUS: If you have an infant, you should do this with their door as well! It keeps the room nice and quiet and stops the door from making that “boom” noise when you close it.
Modem cable surge protection
Cable modems should be on a UPS, but sometimes lightning strikes can still get through the cable line! A small cable modem surge protector helps you protect your modem and your Internet.
A Door lock
I wasn’t going to add this to the list, but someone else suggested it, so I decided to add it. I didn’t think I would require a door lock for my remote work office, but it’s been very useful.
Situation 1: You have kids
Kids and pets are welcome in a lot of remote meetings and even encouraged. However, if your job requires you to make a presentation, there are small windows of time where you’d like to make sure you’re not interrupted.
Situation 2: Your office is where all the expensive stuff lives
When you leave for vacation do you have house sitters? When you host a holiday do you have kids running around? It’s nice to put all my breakable electronics in my office and just lock the door. No one but me has that key.
A home office has a particular purpose, and it’s not a bad idea to add a lock to the door to protect that space.
Good coffee & vitamins
I think it’s important to have excellent coffee at home. Sure, you can always go out and get the good stuff, but working from home gets a little sweeter when you invest in making the good stuff right there on rainy days.
Our senior designer Jenna Fucci has one of the most impressive coffee makers in her lovely house.
If you’re not as cool as her, and few of us are, having a quality brew is still very doable. Invest in your happiness.
And another thing, invest in your health. There are a bunch of vitamins out there that claim to do all kinds of stuff, but from what I hear vitamin D is pretty important. Supposedly, vitamin D deficiencies are linked to all kinds of ailments, and since you’re not going to an office, your chance of going outside and working under fluorescent lights is pretty low.
Take vitamins, especially vitamin D (I’m not a doctor, always ask a real doctor about how Gant’s advice would affect you personally).
Air plant or purifier
Sick building syndrome is a thing. Offices can cause health issues.
A friend of mine had severe levels of formaldehyde in his house after reflooring. He researched what he could do to clean the air and protect his family. His research landed him on buying…. PLANTS! Two weeks after buying the correct plants, his house had undetectable amounts of formaldehyde on his air quality monitor. There are certain plants that are known for cleaning chemicals out of the air, and once you know them, you see them over and over.
Check out the NASA Clean Air Study to protect your office.
If you’re like me, and you frequently kill plants, there are some pretty easy and fun plant products out there. I’ve been really enjoying ClickAndGrow. Not only am I growing plants that help my office smell great, but I’m also filling my office with wonderful oxygen.
I hate having dust buildup in my office, so I’m also running an air filter. The air filter has a UV sanitation light which kills germs while cleaning my air of dust and pollen. The air in my office is probably some of the richest and cleanest air in the whole house. You can improve your office air quality in a snap.
If you do run an air filter, be sure to remember to turn it off during podcasts and video recordings. While these devices are pretty quiet, they’re not silent.
EZ cleaning stuffs
I’m not a clean freak, but it’s always awesome to have a clean desk. I have dogs and a toddler, so it’s safe to say my desk accumulates interesting debris.
MY FAVORITE house hack is a handheld vacuum. Small vacuums that can be picked up and put down in seconds are the best. Yes, you can get all kinds of keyboard brushes, robot vacuums, and fancy cloth, but a good handheld vacuum makes short work of any mess.
A nice personal vacuum will clean up any workspace in seconds.
Of course, there are the other office classics like compressed air and cleaners with a sophisticated scent. These are good to have, too.
Backup Internet
I don’t know if you’ve had this happen to you. You get all set up for an important meeting in 15 minutes and then one of your apps shows you as disconnected, and to your chagrin, you find out the Internet is down right before your meeting.
Fix #1: Some Internet providers (like Cox Cable) have long-range WiFi that is free to subscribers. You can simply look for wireless networks by your Internet provider, and connect to their wireless access point as long as the outage isn’t widespread.
Fix #2: Get an unlimited plan on your phone + hotspot. While this will be the slowest connection, it turns an impossible situation into a manageable one.
It’s worth checking on your mobile data plan every year or so. I switched to an unlimited plan and went down $10 in my monthly bill. I have no idea why they don’t do that automatically for me, but it’s worth checking every so often.
Light dimming stickers / Slide stopping stickers
It’s raining LED lights. If you’ve got something electronic, it has a light. Sometimes those little lights shoot straight into your face for no good reason throughout the day.
Don’t get me wrong. I love that I have RGB indicators on everything, even my USB Hub, but sometimes blinky lights ruin everything. My bedroom has three smart devices, so sometimes I wake up to a fireworks show when the Internet is having issues late at night.
Protect your office and your whole house from LED strobe lights with a light dimming LED sticker. You can still see the indicators, but they don’t rock your world or demand attention.
The best part about these stickers is the silly ads they made for them on Amazon🤣 I mean cmon, this is really selling it, isn’t it?
Stock photography-driven marketing is my favorite marketing. But seriously, these lil stickers are nice to have when hardware shows up with LEDs that flash like a rogue Tesla coil. ⚡
In that same vein, having some no-slip stickers helps your office hardware stay where you want it. Grab some grip stickers. These are extra useful if you have anything 3D printed or made from wood. Just one little sticker and it generally stays in place without ruining your desk as 2-sided tape would.
These are also good for any surface you have to grab often, like your microphone arm, etc.
You can also get gel versions, which might work better, but leave a residue.
A high-quality voice activated assistant
Voice activated assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home are easy to add and essential to an office.
- “Hey, <insert device you prefer here>, when is Easter?”
- … “when does the sun set today?”
- … “when is my next meeting?”
- … “turn off desk-lamp.”
- … “what does ‘obstreperous’ mean?”
- … “tell me a joke.”
- … “I’ve got 99 problems.”
I recommend getting one with excellent audio quality and volume, or hook it into a system that does.
I generally don’t like having mine taking up valuable desk space, so don’t. Just have it anywhere in your office. My virtual assistant has proven quintessential to my remote office setup.
Chair Upgrades
You might have a nice chair that keeps your cool and comfy. But do you know a souped-up chair?
Buy super rolly wheels:
These are my daughter’s favorite. The wheels that come with chairs snag chords, eat carpet, and stop rolling. Change them out for some rollerblade wheels that can go anywhere.
She has me push her through the whole house on my work chair. It’s actually tons of fun, but I NEVER have an issue rolling my chair anywhere. Upgraded wheels let you focus, roll, and focus. Don’t skimp!
Buy pillows for your arm:
These are INCREDIBLE. They’re soft happiness for arms. I thought life was fine with the normal arm-rests. I WAS WRONG. Get yourself some arm pillows and scoff at everyone still resting their arms on hard plastic. Those peasants don’t know luxury. Ergonomics are critical for important for remote work.
We’re not done
This is only the list of things for you to get started with your office. Creating a dependable work environment for remote work is an ongoing endeavor. I hope at least a few of these items already exist in your work environment, and hopefully you picked up a few more.
What Did I Miss?
Are you a remote worker with something amazing in your office? Add your tip to the comments or tweet it at me @GantLaborde.
Gant Laborde is a co-owner and Chief Innovation Officer at Infinite Red, published author, adjunct professor, worldwide public speaker, and mad scientist in training. Clap/follow/tweet or visit him at a conference.
