Choosing the Right Tech for Your Home Office

A home office can be a way to seriously amplify your productivity. What better way to maximize the amount of work you get done than continuing to work from home after you’ve finished up at the office for the day? Or, maybe you’ve just started working remotely, or your own business, run from home! For any of these options, you’re going to want to invest in some productivity-boosting gadgets to help you power through your work as efficiently as possible. As the old adage goes, work harder, but work smarter. Check out our guide to buying the right tech for your workspace.

First, think about what kind of work you do.

Are you a graphic designer or a self-employed lumberjack? Maybe you’re an adjunct chemistry professor, or maybe you mine cryptocurrency for a living. Whatever your needs, there are going to be some excellent tech options out there for you. Just be sure you think about what kind of tech your job specifically needs rather than buying something because it’s the hottest gadget on the market. If you’re in the creative industry, consider large monitors for maximum visualization potential.

If you’re doing a lot of programming, dual-monitors are an absolute must-have. Writers can benefit from having a tablet for reading, and a more traditional laptop or workstation once it’s time to start writing. Don’t just jump at the first item you see that’s been well-rated; it might not be as highly rated for the purposes you need it to be!

Next, think about what kind of essential tech you’ll need.

We live in an era of plenty – plenty of gadgets to choose from! If you’re building a home office, no matter your profession, here are some office tech essentials you should definitely consider.

1. A computer with 6 to 8 Gigs of RAM: You don’t want your productivity to be slowed by a computer that keeps freezing up every time you want to load a video, have multiple Word documents open at once, or are downloading something at the same time as using a program on your computer. Make sure that the workstations you’re looking at have plenty of RAM before committing to anything.
   
   
2. A reliable printer: Shopping for a printer can really be a headache. Different models come with all sorts of different features, and it’s hard to know which features are necessary and which are just gimmicks made to sell. Plus, even perfectly useful features might not be specifically necessary for your line of work. When thinking about printers, you’re going to want a reliable and trustworthy machine. The last thing you want is to make a midnight trip to the store for a new ink cartridge because your printer didn’t remind you to buy a new one. Make sure you read extensive reviews before buying.
   
   
3. A tablet: When you’re working at home for hours, it can be nice to switch it up throughout the day. Maybe once you’ve finished hammering out that report, you can grab your tablet and head over to your reading chair to catch up on the latest industry developments with a cup of coffee. Switching up your work area can be a great way to stay productive even on those days when you’re feeling a little antsy.
   
   
4. A solid router: You don’t want to suddenly lose connection during an important conference call, or lose connection to your cloud data storage halfway through an analytics report, or suddenly be unable to load an important report fresh off the presses. A router is absolutely not the place to cheap out, so make sure that if you’re working from your home office frequently, that you invest in a quality router that you can trust.

Last, make sure you stay up to date on industry-specific techs.

Not everyone needs a 3D printer, but some people would be unable to do their job without one. Make sure that you know what your colleagues in the industry are using in order to stay up to date. Falling behind technologically can be disastrous for a small company, so don’t forget to frequently read up on what the newest trends and developments are!