Lean in to your rights for flexible working this summer. According to a study of CTrip, China’s largest online travel agency, by Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom, employees who worked from home were more productive and took shorter breaks and fewer sick days compared to their desk-bound counterparts.
So embrace that productivity with these gadgets to power you through the working day.
1. The laptop: Huawei MateBook 13
Huawei’s 13-inch screen laptop consistently tops best-of lists — and for good reason. It has a lightweight design and high-performance thanks to an 8th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, as well as extremely long battery life, so you can leave that charger at home when popping out for meetings (or to the pub).
£1,099, Currys.co.uk
2. The soundtrack: Coffitivity
If you find yourself missing the chat of your colleagues and the general thrum of the office, just download this app. It recreates the ambient sounds of a café and promises to boost creativity.
Free, coffitivity.com
3. The productivity app: Asana
This app offers you and your team ways to collaborate on projects and goals, assign daily tasks and more to keep track on work wherever you are.
Starting version is free, Asana.com
4. The health tracker: Fitbit Inspire
Not working in an office means less moving around to talk to colleagues. Fitbit’s subtle Inspire fitness tracker vibrates when you haven’t moved for 30 minutes as a reminder to get up from your at-home desk and move. Also receive calendar and text alerts so that you can stay connected without the call to Instagram.
£69.99, Fitbit.com/uk
5. The email tactics: Gmail
The scheduling tool will be the making of you. You can set emails to send while you’re in the pub so you look like you’re still at your desk.
Free, Gmail.com
6. The coffee subscription: Pact
Working from home also means not spending on takeaway coffee. But don’t settle for bog-standard instant, invest in a subscription.
Pact trades directly with farmers to ensure that they get a fair price.
Starting from £6.95, Pactcoffee.com
7. The headphones: Bose Noise Cancelling 700
Working in a café or battling vocal neighbours? These cans are a wonder. They have eight mics to cancel the sound around you, including two which block out background noise for the person on the other end of the phone. Perfect for work calls on the go.
£349.95, Johnlewis.com
