Upgrading the Work Bag

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Recently I have been doing a lot of work at coffee shops, most notably Urban Farmhouse.  I like it because they serve coffee out of big cups, the coffee is solid, and it is a lovely eighty-steps away from my front door.  Cannot beat that.  One issue I kept running into though was having to locate all the things I needed for the productive trips to said coffee shop.  I did not have a wireless mouse at home, I own maybe three different pairs of headphones that I can never seem to find when I need them, my thumb drive is flat-out missing, and other random acts of delay usually stall my productivity.  So, I decided to do something about this.

After a bit of research I came across several sites that talked about what you needed to have in your work bag, but most were business-person related.  Of the teacher ones that I found, they usually involved having a backup of your favorite lipstick or a nail file.  The file would be nice, but the lipstick...I am solid on.  So, here is what I ended up getting to help aid my work life when not at work.

 AmazonBasics Wireless Mouse

Look, it was ten dollars.  It just works.  I like that.  There is something to be said in simplicity, and this mouse has it.  No extra buttons, no weird features, just a mouse, a USB adapter, two AAA batteries, and plug-and-play technology.  Beautiful.

 Panasonic ErgoFit Ear Buds

These came up twice on the different blogs I scoured to find what I needed in my bag.  For around $6 on Amazon, this was a no brainer.  I am actually using them now to listen to the Dan LeBatard show while I type up this post, and they are great.  A nice fit in my ears, they are slightly noise-cancelling, and the quality is pretty good (I just switched to "Back Up" by Dej Loaf to test the bass, and it comes through pretty nicely.  Very smooth).

AmazonBasics 4 inch Apple iPhone cable

This one I struggled with a bit.  On one hand, the idea of having a short cable was nice because it would reduce the amount of real estate I would have to take up on the desk I would sit at.  On the other hand, it would make using the iPhone fairly impossible.  I mean, four inches is really not a lot of length to pick up the phone and use it.  In the end I reasoned that I would be using this cable purely for charging purposes, so the length was irrelevant.  Besides, how hard is it really to unplug a phone?

 Kensington Digital DataTraveler 8GB

I know I joked about having no idea where my thumb drives are, but truth be told I know one is in my sock drawer (I have no idea why though) and another is in my box 'o technology in the family room.  I figured it would be smart to have a purely work-dedicated one, so this was a nice $5 purchase.  I also plan on putting some emergency information on there in case something were to happen to me.

Metal Business Card Holder

I have business cards that I am rather proud of.  I spent about half an hour designing them, so I take pride in giving them to clients.  Better they stay in a secure case than my wallet....

Tide togo Pen

If the situation arises that I need to use this I am not so sure I exactly know what I would need to do, but enough blogs said that this was a must-have in my bag so why not.

There is something a little special about an amazon package arriving, and when it came in at work I was as giddy as a little kid on Christmas (which I am still giddy that day every year and I am 28).  For about $30, I made some effective upgrades to my mobile work station that will hopefully make me a more productive out-of-classroom teacher.

Until the next cup of something warm...
~Doug F.


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