Working from home essentials ft. Foyles

Working from home can be great sometimes. You don’t have to deal with rush hour or commute in the middle of Summer. There are always snacks available and every day is bring your dog to work day. But it also requires an awful lot of self-discipline, motivation and will-power. When there are distractions so readily available to you – like Netflix and your bed – working from home can be harder than what you think it is, especially if you’ve never done it before or it’s new to you. I’ve been self-employed and working from home for a few years now and although I’ve not quite perfected my routine, I do know what works for me. Here are some of my absolute must-have essentials for anyone working from home.

A fan

Although we have the luxury of not having to get on a crowded tube which feels like hell on Earth in the Summer, it’s still not comfortable working in a boiling hot office / bedroom / living room, especially in the U.K where air-con is a thing of dreams. So investing in a decent fan to keep things comfortable is a must-have for me.

Chargers

If you work from your computer or photo constantly like I do, keeping chargers on hand is an essential because if my phone or laptop dies, so does my work for a short while and it’s just the worst when you’re on a roll with a blog post or a piece of work and then all of a sudden your laptop cuts out and throws you off.

Notebooks

Although phones are super handy for writing notes in and most people do taxes, spreadsheets and schedules on their computers, I always have a few notebooks on the go for various different things because nothing beats physically writing things down sometimes. It also gives you a break from looking at a screen for a while and can get your creative juices flowing!

I was recently sent this lovely mint hardback notebook * from Foyles (YES the bookshop!) to feature in this post. Pretty notebooks always encourage me to write in them more too – funny that! I love the simple geometric-esque pattern on the front of this and the colour schemes used. It’s just a plain lined notebook but it has over 200 pages, which will certainly last you and the inside pages are great quality too.

They also come in a range of colours such as Mint, Blush (first photo), Navy and Terracotta Red and retail at £12.99 each which I think is perfectly reasonable for such a high-quality notebook. These would make great gifts for the stationery lovers in your life but if you head on over to my Twitter, I’m running a giveaway for one person to win one in a colour of their choice!

Glasses

I suppose this goes for anyone who spends a lot of time working from a screen but when you work from home, it can be hard to switch off sometimes and you find yourself staring at your screens from 9am until 9pm (well at least I do occasionally!) and that can be a killer on your eyes. I always wear my glasses when I’m working and let this be a reminder to anyone who works behind a screen to go and get your eyes checked! Eye health matters!

Water

It can be so easy to forget to eat and drink properly when you’re working from home and there’s crisps and chocolate at your disposal 24/7. So just make sure you drink plenty of water throughout the day and keep a glass or a bottle of water on your table next to you at all times.

Fruit and healthy snacks

Similarly to above, when I work from home it’s so tempted to snack on chocolate or crisps or cook myself a shed load of cheesy pasta on a daily basis. But although you’re not physically going to work, you still have to keep your mental and physical energy up in order to get through your work load. So I’ve learnt that making sure there’s plenty of fruit in the house as well as Alpro dairy-free yogurt and Nakd bars encourages me to snack on healthier things!

If you work from home, what are your must-have essentials?

* Products marked with a (*) were sent to me