Workplace

Building Your Hybrid Workplace Toolkit, Day 1: Make a Travel Kit

On day one of our five-day hybrid work series, consider how going between home and office would be easier when you’re not packing everything up each time.

We know you’re embracing the hybrid workplace. But are you doing it with intentionality? Now that you have to manage at least two workspaces, you need to find ways to thrive in this new working environment. Over the next five days, we’ll help you build your hybrid workplace “toolkit” to improve the experience..

Today’s tip: Make yourself a travel kit.

How to Make a Travel Kit for Hybrid Work

One of the frustrations of having multiple workspaces—one at home and one in the office, possibly more if you travel or hop around to other spaces such as coffee shops—is the hassle of packing up your workspace whenever you leave for the office in the morning or come home for the night. Or worse, you forget something, and suddenly you’re stuck somewhere without your laptop charger. You can make this part of hybrid work a lot less stressful by creating a checklist of must-have work items that you can reference whenever you go back and forth. Then, set aside a designated bag or case to put those items into.

At the top of your checklist should be the essentials that would come out of your bag when you’re setting up for work at home. These are the things you probably have only one of, such as your laptop, laptop charger, headphones, work phone, and phone charger. Follow this gear with the rest of the items that you want to bring back and forth.

Want to make things even easier? Schedule your in-office days consecutively to spare yourself the unpacking and repacking, suggested Connie Bruce, CAE, director of operations and member services for the Virginia Council of CEOs.

“Currently, I only go into the office once or twice a week, although I may have outside meetings. When possible, I try to schedule my office days back to back so I can keep my computer at the office. I try to make my office work very purposeful, task-oriented, or team meetings,” Bruce said.

Why You Should Make Yourself a Travel Kit

Setting aside what you need in any work environment will make the transition from one space to another so much easier. You’ll also avoid the stress of forgetting something important and the decision fatigue that comes with figuring out what to bring with you. Making decisions every day—even small ones—can be exhausting and lead to feeling anxious and overwhelmed.

Plus, you probably know from other areas of your life that checklists are lifesavers—sometimes literally. Checklists turn a seemingly complex or overwhelming situation into an easy-to-follow series of tasks that you can’t forget because, well, they’re right in front of you.

For example, by implementing checklists in hospitals, “we get better results. Massively better results,” said Atul Gawande, surgeon and author of The Checklist Manifesto. “We caught basic mistakes.”

(grandriver/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Michael Hickey

By Michael Hickey

Michael Hickey is a contributor to Associations Now. MORE

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