As we are returning to the office more now I thought I would run through my everyday carry for my work bag. This has changed somewhat since the pandemic started and I have added some things to help with the ergonomics when working in the office. I try and keep what’s in my bag to the minimum as I don’t want to be carrying around a heavy bag.
The Bag
I got this bag from Amazon a couple of years back now, it is nice and compact which means that I can’t put all that much in. It has three compartments.
1)The laptop section
2)Main compartment
3)A small outer compartment.
Laptop
I am not going to talk too much about this but it is my work Lenovo Yoga which lives in this bag. It is only a small laptop so it fits in this bag nicely.
Laptop Stand
Now, this little stand was one of my best finds on Amazon coming in at under £12. I love how compact this is, it folds out to a decent size and holds my laptop perfectly. There are 4 different settings that you can choose from depending on what position you like to have your laptop in. When you are finished for the day you push it back together and it goes back in the handy little carry bag it comes with. I love the fact that it has a carry bag as it means it not going to damage the other bits that I have in my bag.
Keyboard
I have the Logitech MX Keys mini which is nice and portable so fits nicely into my bag. I was a bit reluctant to take this into the office and was just using the laptop keyboard but it does make such a difference to be able to use an external keyboard with the laptop stand. I might look at getting a case for the keyboard to avoid any nasty scratches that might occur when it’s in the bag.
Mouse
I use the Logitech Pebble for taking in the office as I didn’t want to take the MX Master 3, which stays firmly on my desk at home. I like the pebble for a few reasons one it is small and compact so fits easily into my bag, it can connect via Bluetooth but it also comes with a USB adapter. The USB adaptor can be kept in the mouse itself so you can keep it all together. The other thing that I love about this little mouse is the price, I think that I paid about £20 for this on amazon.
Headphones
As part of my job, I spend a lot of time on conference calls so I also have some wireless headphones to hand. For when I go into the office I pack my Samsung Galaxy Buds rather than my over-the-ear headphones. These are great for taking into the office as they are small and compact so don’t take up much space at all and they have great noise cancellation.
Chargers and Adaptors
I also carry a couple of charging cables in my bag for charging my work phone, iPhone and headphones if needed. The other thing that I have in my bag is a UBC-C to HDMI adaptor so that I can plug my laptop into an external monitor if there is one available. These cables tend to live in the front compartment of my bag so they don’t scratch my keyboard.
Pen and Notepad
I also always carry a Pen and a notepad with me in my work bag. My pen of choice at the moment is the Uni-ball VISION Elite which I pair with a small pocket size Moleskin notebook. I don’t always use them but it’s always handy to have a pen and paper to hand if I need to jot something down or I fancy making a to do list.
Water bottle
I also carry a reusable water bottle and recently purchased the Chilly’s series 2 bottle. This is a great water bottle and keeps my water nice and cold for 24hrs. I think it’s always worth having a reusable water bottle so you don’t have to spend money on buying bottled water and also it is better for the environment.
And that’s about it, actually, there is more in there than I thought but as you can tell I like to keep what I pack small so that it’s easy to carry around.