Setting up your home office can be confusing because of all the choices you have in terms of the gadgets that are available. I’m sure in the past you’ve bought a gadget because of the coolness factor, only to find out that its use is limited or it does not quite fit into your office. Instead of adding to your productivity, it adds to your clutter. Evaluating home office gadgets for freelancers – the essentials, some great ideas, and accessories is what this article is all about.
So what kind of home office gadgets for freelancers are there? For a freelancer’s home office, there are essential office gadgets to improve productivity, gadgets to make your home office feel more attractive and organized, and gadgets that link to your furniture. Additionally, you have gadget accessories for your desk and computer. Choosing the right gadget and accessory depends on the space you have for your home office and the type of work you will do in your office as a freelancer.
Look at it this way; if the aim of having a home office is to create a place that you can rely on that has all the tools necessary to progress your projects as a freelancer, it’s to your benefit to set it up and have the right gadgets and accessories. It will improve your productivity and ability to focus on your freelancing project. Let’s dive into this right now!
Essential Home Office Tech Gadgets
There are many home office gadgets to choose from in the market, especially tech gadgets. To set the scene, we need first to cover some ideas on how to decide the essential gadgets that you need, and then after that, look at how gadgets can improve your productivity. As mentioned previously, as a freelancer, you need to rely on your home office to be able to support your focus and concentration so that you can make progress on your freelancing projects.
Freelancer Gadget Needs – How to Decide the Essentials
The essential gadgets that you need would be decided along with the following ideas:
1. What space restrictions do you have in your home office – if you are fortunate enough to have a whole room at your disposal for your home office, then there are hardly any restrictions to the type of gadget you can choose. However, if there is only a small corner of the room designated for your home office or one wall where you keep your home office, then you have to make decisions based on the available space.
2. Consider the type of freelancing work you do – a freelance writer will choose different gadgets for their home office compared to a video editor. For instance, a freelance writer may decide to have a timer on the desk, which is easy to see and easy to set to improve their writing time. But a video editor will choose to have multiple computer monitors or even a keyboard editing console, which makes editing easier.
3. Choose gadgets that keep you more focused – being able to concentrate on your project is critical. If a device makes you more distracted or leads your concentration away from your project, then perhaps this is not the one for you. If it makes your work easier and enables you to concentrate for long periods, then it is a gadget that helps you
4. Gadgets that make things more comfortable for you – if a gadget makes your home office feel more comfortable, for instance, a mousepad or a multiple function button computer mouse, you may want to add it to your home office. However, not all gadgets will add to this comfortability or concentration, so you’ll have to evaluate.
Essential Office Gadgets to Improve Productivity
Being productive means getting things done during the allotted period. As a freelancer, this helps you to progress and finish your projects, which builds your business.
Here is a list of office gadgets that help some people improve their productivity.
Multiple monitors – multiple monitors allow you to look at more sets of data for reference when you are working on a project or enable video editors to view at numerous clips at once
Laptop desk stand – a laptop desk stand enables you to place your laptop in a way I am that you can use it as a monitor and adjust its height. Use this with a wireless keyboard. It will enhance your comfort as you use your laptop.
Standing desk – sitting for long periods will not only affect your concentration, but it’s also bad for your overall health. A standing desk can help your productivity in the long run by helping you to stretch and stay more active, rather than being in the same lethargic position all the time.
YouTube Video – Improvement Using a Standing Desk After 1 Month
Home office chair – a home office chair that is not only comfortable but ergonomically suitable for you, will help you concentrate more.
Color enhancements – a lot has been written about color psychology and the use of colors for productivity in a home office. When it comes to home office gadgets, you can choose colors that set the mood for productivity as well as selecting a combination of productivity and energy. If you want to read more about color psychology, check out this article HERE.
Wi-Fi set up – is nothing worse than slow Wi-Fi other than spotty reception. For your home office, to be the most productive as possible, be sure that your Wi-Fi connection and coverage works well. Several tech gadgets enhance the reception for your Wi-Fi as well as more powerful routers.
Cloud storage – having a data cloud storage that syncs with all of your devices in your home office as well as when you’re on the run can not only save you time but boost your productivity. It helps because you don’t have to worry about backups or accessing your documents when you’re out of your home office. Although there are many on the market, Dropbox and Google Drive and iCloud work well for a lot of people.
Wireless printers – depending on the type of work you do, having a printer nearby and in your home office can improve productivity
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Related Freelancing Job and Work at Home Articles You Might Also Be Interested In:
How Can You Create the Perfect Freelancer Workspace at Home?
Remote Video Editing Jobs : Work at Home, YouTube, Career
How to Have a Minimalist Home Office Desk Setup (Workspace, Computer, Decor)
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Specialty keyboards and mice-keyboards with special function keys or even video editing keyboard consoles can help the productivity when processing your work. Additionally, the higher and computer mouse with special functionalities and customized buttons can help you.
A whiteboard – sometimes writing things on the board can help visually with brainstorming and let you keep reminders of important points.
Conference speakers – if you have many phone or video conferences, and external conference speaker can help you engage more during your conference and hear things more clearly. It is a great alternative to wearing a headset.
Headphones with noise-canceling functions – to help you concentrate more, headphones that have noise-canceling technology will keep almost all the external noise to a minimum. It’s great to boost your productivity by choosing your favorite music to listen to and know that there will be no other external sounds.
Home Office Essentials List
To consider what the essentials are needed in your home office, we need to take a look at the bigger picture. Your home office, depending on how much space you have, will determine how many gadgets and accessories you can fit.
In the table below, I list out the layout or item in the first column. For each of these I list the essential item ideas. Then I rank from 1-10 (10 needing the most) the space requirements you will need. After that, in the next column I estimate whether it is essential for your home office on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the most essential). I indicate the cost level from 1-5 in the next column, 5 being the highest cost level. Lastly in the next column I indicate whether it is necessary for productivity.
Table 1 - Home Office Essentials List
| Layout or Element | Essential Item Ideas | Space Requirements 1-10 | Essential for Home Office 1-10 | Cost Level 1-5 | Essential for Productivity? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home Office Environment | Big items - Main Desk, Lamps, Tables, Chair | 8 | 10 | 3-5 | Yes |
| Home Office Environment | Lighting, Wall decorations, Ceiling décor, Floor additions | 5 | 7 | 2-4 | No |
| Home Office Furniture Additions | Cabinets, Shelves, Side Tables | 8 | 7 | 3-5 | No |
| Home Office Desk | Wireless keyboards, Laptop stand, Speaker set, Wireless printer | 2 | 8 | 2-4 | Yes |
| Home Office Computer | External hard drives, USB hub with micro and regular SD card readers, Wireless mouse with customizable buttons, External microphone for dictation | 2 | 7 | 1-3 | Yes |
| Layout or Element | Essential Item Ideas | Space Requirements 1-10 | Essential for Home Office 1-10 | Cost Level 1-5 | Essential for Productivity? |
Ideas to Make Your Home Office Attractive, Organized and Even Minimalist
As you probably know, an attractive and organized home office tends to encourage you to do more work and give a feeling that you want to do be productive. But how do you do that in general, and more specifically, in choosing gadgets that don’t make your home office look cluttered? Here are some ideas to help you reach that goal.
Ideas to Make My Office More Attractive
When it comes to making your office more attractive, colors and lighting can make the difference. Colors can set the mood and atmosphere to be energetic or calm and peaceful. As mentioned previously, you can also choose colors to improve productivity. Colors can also be used with your furniture, flooring, and ceiling – not only for your walls.
Lighting also can make your home office attractive. Natural light, if you’re fortunate to have lots of windows in your home office setting, will improve the situation. But also the ceiling spotlights, table lamps, and standalone lamps can be used to enhance the attractiveness. These days there are all different types of bulbs that can give your home office a different ambiance, even colored light bulbs.
Not only does lighting make your home office more attractive, it can also save costs if you choose LED (light emitting diode) light bulbs. According to Energy.gov, “Widespread use of LED lighting has the greatest potential impact on energy savings in the United States. By 2027, widespread use of LEDs could save about 348 TWh (compared to no LED use) of electricity: This is the equivalent annual electrical output of 44 large electric power plants (1000 megawatts each), and a total savings of more than $30 billion at today’s electricity prices”.
Keeping clutter to a minimum will make your home office attractive. As they say, “a place for everything and everything in its place” is a great motto and is useful even at your office desk. Sitting down to a well organized and clutter-free home office and desk makes it a joy to start working and making progress on your freelance projects.
Lastly, there is something to say about green plants. Whether the plants are big or small or hanging in a home office, the attractiveness is evident. Choose the green plants you like and strategically position them in your home office.
Home Office Gadget Organization – Furniture and Solutions
Organizing your home office has a lot to do with furniture and how you arrange it. Look at it this way, when you organize your furniture so that it’s functional, the gadgets that you will use should fit into that organization, and also, it should enhance its functionality.
You can choose furniture for small spaces, such as corner desks, L-shaped desks, or U-shaped desks, which allow you to expand the functionality of the desk. It’s the same thing with cabinets and drawers; some multiple shapes and sizes can be joined together to support functionality.
Some gadgets will work well with furniture, kind of like a furniture solution so that they increase productivity, attractiveness, and functionality. For instance, a desk monitor mount or arm can be attached to the desk, and then your monitor can easily be moved around or swiveled to the position you want.
Home Office Gadget Minimalist Style Ideas
In keeping your home office clutter to a minimum as well as streamlining its style for functionality, you may find you are approaching a minimalist home office style.
Why go, minimalist? The best thing about minimalism is that it tends to keep you focused and functional, almost to an extreme. For freelancers and their home office, this supports helping you to concentrate on your projects and get work done.
There are many options when it comes to minimalism, and if you are interested in exploring this, check out my article HERE, which takes a look at what minimalism is, what are the levels, and whether that’s a style for your home office gadgets that you want to adopt.
Cool Home Office Tech Gadget Accessories
The problem I’ve found is that there are so many cool home office gadgets and accessories that introduce new technologies that I sometimes buy them just to try them out. But coming back to the ideas I presented at the beginning of this article – namely, that we should choose home office gadgets that are functional for the types of freelance projects we do and that they should support productivity – let’s take a look at the possibilities.
Gadget Accessories for Your Office Setup
For your overall home office set up, here are some useful gadget accessories that are functional and can support productivity:
●Wall calendar
●Accessories that can be placed on the bookshelves, like file folders
●Cable ties – they keep your wires and cords tied behind your desk or furniture
●Extension cords – varying lengths and number of outlets give you the possibility to plug multiple electronics
●Wireless mobile phone chargers
Gadget Accessories for Your Desk
The majority of your work will be done on your desk. The useful gadget accessories and support productivity are:
●Wireless keyboards
●Laptop stand
●Speaker set
●Wireless printer
Gadget Accessories for Your Computer
Gadget accessories for your computer can range from less than $25 to hundreds of dollars. Again, functionality and support of productivity can be the guideline here. Here is a shortlist of items for your computer, but you may find it helpful.
●External hard drives
●A USB hub with micro and regular SD card readers
●Wireless mouse with customizable buttons
●External microphone for dictation
Conclusion
What does all this mean for you and your home office? With all the gadgets and accessories possible these days, one can be overwhelmed by all the choices. By focusing on the essentials and choosing gadgets that increase your productivity and are functional within your home office, you cannot only save money but keep your home office organized and more streamlined.
