The Best Home-office Tech Tips You Need To Know Today

From tablets and laptops to smart televisions, the 21st-century home is often crammed with gadgets and equipment.

Take a look at five technological breakthroughs that are already ordinary in many people’s homes.

• We’ve rounded up the best work-from-home tech you can get to set up your home office.
• Our picks include a sharp computer monitor, a comfy keyboard and mouse, an effective webcam and 26 more essentials.
• We’ve personally used all these items when we have worked from home over the years.

One of the biggest challenges of working from home is setting up a home office with the right tools, but once you’ve got everything in place, it’s easier to get your work done.  

Even if you don’t have a ton of space or a dedicated room to turn into a home office, you can still have a comfortable and productive work-from-home setup. All you need is a table, chair, and a few key pieces of tech. 

We’ve compiled this handy list of the best work-from-home tech to help you increase your productivity. The main tech essentials everyone needs to work remotely are reliable internet and a laptop, but we also recommend getting a monitor so you have a bigger screen to work from as well as a decent keyboard and mouse. With these gadgets, you’ll feel much more comfortable working than you would if you had to squint over your small laptop screen all day. 

When I first started working from home, I used a towel as a desk pad to protect my table from wear and tear. After a few months of that, I started looking into desk pads and found this one by Grovemade. It’s made of natural linoleum with a cork backing to give it some cushion and prevent it from sliding around on the desk. You can also get it in wool or leather, but both of those options are more expensive. sizes range from small ($40+) to extra large ($90+).

I got a large linoleum desk pad in the blue color, and it makes my desk look great while also protecting it from stains, scratches, and other dangers. It cleans up easily, too with the swipe of a damp washcloth or a paper towel. The desk pad works as a mouse pad, too, if you don’t want to get both.

You don’t need the thinnest, lightest, or most elegantly designed items for your home office. In the space you make your living, you need reliable, comfortable, efficient tools—though it doesn’t hurt if they look nice, too. That’s why a team of three experienced remote workers spent more than 150 hours researching and testing new gear and apps, picking the most office-friendly items from Wirecutter’s guides to find a selection of tools that we’re sure will earn a place in your workspace.

To round out our work-optimized list of computer, phone, printing, and audio gear, we looked for the best software and apps that help remote workers get organized and connected. We tested apps for time tracking and task management, tax filing, and Web meetings, and then compared and debated the merits of each to find the best fits for most people.

Once we had our picks, we set them up on our ideal standing desk, took some photos, and then, inspired by the challenge, fixed up our own home offices. As our picks change, we’re updating our own home-office setups and swapping out our recommendations below. We hope this guide provides you with your own spark to make your home office a more efficient and less stressful place to get things done.

Feel relaxed while you work

The Perfect Pillar is the world’s first remote-controlled candle. It combines the warmth and beauty of traditional real flame candles with cutting-edge technology to produce a safe, smart, and convenient candlelight experience. Simply activate the candle with a small remote and set the timer to receive an instant flame. Traditional candles, such as taper candles, can also be purchased to add sophistication to the environment.