Top 10 tech to help you work from home

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6. Laptop rest

If you’re using a laptop all day get a laptop rest. This enables you to angle your machine away from the desk, which helps to keep it cool, and prevents it from overheating. Some have integrated USB hubs, making it easy to plug in peripherals such as a mouse, keyboard and webcam.

7. Webcam

If you feel as if your office will want to keep an eye on you then get a webcam – that way you can communicate visually with your colleagues, which may help with that feeling of being round a desk together.

Of course, ideally, you’ll want a set up as powerful as this 1080p video conferencing system from Lifesize. If your budget is rather smaller – consider webcam that’s compatible with Skype’s HD service – it really does make things sharper.

8. Portable storage

You may need to transfer large files between your office and home. To that end investing in a portable flash memory stick makes sense. The price of these has plummeted so that 16GB sticks can be picked up for a mere £20 or so.

If speed is important you’ll have to spend a bit more. If it’s vital you can now get hold of removable SSD drives with both USB and eSATA connections making transfer as fast as an internal hard drive when using the latter.

9. VoIP

Software such as Skype will enable you to talk to other Skype users all over the world for free. However, dedicated VoIP phones will let you hook into your company’s network and make calls over its internal connections.

Numerous handsets are available on the market. If you want to set things up for yourself, take a look at our video guide on setting up your own VoIP PBX.

10. Backup

When you’re in the office, the IT department might take care of your backups. When you’re at home however, you’ll need to look after it yourself. You could take the conventional approach and go with backup to a local hard drive or go for an online service that backs up your files incrementally to the cloud. There’s are a number of offerings to choose from such as Carbonite or you could even consider Microsoft’s free Mesh service to get you started.

‘Wacky’ stuff for the desk

Why not inject some life into your home work area with some fun stuff – the ’Darth Tater’ potato head Lord of the Sith is a real classic.

And finally….

Bottle opener

Once you’ve got those essentials in place, you need to find room for some fun stuff. Come the end of the day, you don’t have to worry about driving home, so crack open a beer with this Star Trek Enterprise shaped bottle opener! Drink long and prosper…

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