The Top 10 Work-From-Home Tools,
Tech, and Other Useful Gadgets

The 5 AM Miracle Podcast, hosted by Jeff Sanders

Episode #510: "The Top 10 Work-From-Home Tools, Tech, and Other Useful Gadgets"

If you work from home or you have in the past, you know that it's not the same as being in an office.

I have worked from home since 2014, so I have nearly forgotten about life in a cubicle, but not completely.

Aside from the lack of co-workers, which I find to be refreshing, you may find it's actually harder to get your work done simply because you don't have the same access to your favorite resources, like that enormous printer/copier/combo machine, which I used to love.

So let's dig into that this week.

This is The 5AM Miracle, episode number 510, the top 10 work from home tools, tech, and other useful gadgets.

Good morning and welcome to The 5AM Miracle.

I am Jeff Sanders and this is the podcast that is dedicated to dominating your day before breakfast.

My goal is to help you bounce out of bed with enthusiasm, create powerful, lifelong habits, and tackle your grandest goals with extraordinary energy.

In the episode this week, I'll break down a few of my favorite tools that I've used for the last 9 years while working from home.

Let's dig in.

Buying more tech is rarely the answer to anything, but it is fun.

So if you're tempted to solve your productivity problems by collecting more stuff, this episode is not for you.

However, if buying a few more gadgets can increase your productivity and make working from home better than ever, well then let's make that happen.

As I said, I have worked from home since 2014, so we're now on 9 and a half years of making this my number one go-to place to make things happen.

I am recording right now in my home studio/office/work from home center where I have been for a long time.

And there are so many things that I have bought and used and tested over the years to optimize not just what I'm doing here with podcasting, but specifically working from home, getting things done as efficiently as I can with the right tools, the right resources, and really making my space an awesome place to be.

One thing that you'll see as I go through the list this week is a shift that I made from functional to fun, from getting things done to getting things done in an awesome new way.

And a very simple example of that, which is not on the list this week, I have this large glass vase on my studio desk filled with over 100 bouncy balls.

Why do I have that?

Because it's fun.

That's it.

There's no rational, logical, productive reason to have them except that I love color and I love having the bouncy balls around.

That's it.

So sometimes getting things done is just that.

It's just making your environment an awesome place to be.

On the other hand, of course, we want to be as productive and as useful as possible to accomplish our biggest goals.

And so the tech tools this week are going to err on the side of both functional and fun.

So let's just dig right in.

This top 10 list is not in any particular order.

These are just 10 of my favorite tools that I've used for the last almost 10 years to work from home in a more fantastic way.

We'll focus on tech, we'll focus on kind of weird gadgets, but mostly I want to focus on the things that recently have made a tremendous impact in my ability to work from home in a better way.

So let's kick this off with number one.

But before I get there, I do want to mention that the show notes page this week at Jeff Sanders.com/510 for episode 510 has links to all of these gadgets and tech tools.

So don't feel the need to take notes if you don't need to or can't right now.

Jeff Sanders.com/510 has all the links for all of these gadgets.

Some of these names are highly technical, so just let that fly over your brain for now and we'll get to the actual links later.

Okay.

Number one this week are the Ola Dance OWS Pro Bluetooth headphones.

What does all that mean?

Well, essentially I have been looking for years for the right set of small kind of low profile headphones that I could use on video calls that I could use potentially while out for a run or at the gym lifting weights.

I was looking for not your typical large over the ear headphones, which I use for podcasting and have for a long time, but also not the in ear design that you tend to see with a lot of your sport model headphones because I don't like things being shoved in my ear canal.

I don't know about you, maybe using those right now to hear this podcast, but I have never found the in ear headphones to be comfortable, let alone actually sounding good.

And so when I discovered this new open ear design set of headphones, it changed the game for me.

Now, what does open ear design mean?

Well, essentially these Ola Dance OWS Pro headphones have what is called open ear, which means they're not in your ear and they're not over your ear.

They kind of rest on top of your ear, which means yes, you can hear the sound from the headphones themselves, but you can also still hear the outside world.

So for example, if you're out for a walk in nature and you have these headphones in listening to a podcast, you're also going to hear nature at the same time.

It's not going to wall you off from the rest of the world.

You're still going to be able to hear your environment around you while also surprisingly hearing high quality sound from the headphones.

What I've been really surprised about is how, how true that is, right?

How I'm able to hear the sound clearly while also, for example, hearing my kids in my house.

Um, sometimes I'll wear headphones while walking around the house, doing chores and still hanging out with them.

Well, I can still hear my kids while also wearing these headphones, which is pretty cool.

The other amazing part of these headphones is how lightweight they are.

The way that they actually fit onto your ear.

It's almost as if you can't feel them at all.

I don't know how they made this technology.

It's weirdly invisible in that sense of like, you can't feel them that well, which is awesome.

Like they basically just kind of rest on your ears and off you go listening to your great audio and it's fantastic.

You can also make phone calls with these.

I've not actually tested that feature.

I don't tend to like to use headphones for phone calls, but you can.

Uh, the battery life is also fantastic.

So this model of headphones, the open ear design by itself is amazing.

The specific model that I purchased, these pro headphones are a little pricey.

They're over 200 us dollars.

Uh, so they're not going to be the best bet for everyone.

But if you want to test, you know, test the open ear design model, there are a lot of cheaper models available online.

Uh, so you can try one of those.

And if you later on want to upgrade to a higher end model, of course these exist.

Now, if none of that works for you and you're not a fan of the open ear and you still want to go traditional noise canceling over the ear headphones, my Sony's have been amazing for many years now.

And I use the WH 1000 XM four models.

Uh, it's a long winded way of saying, uh, Sony's best noise canceling headphones.

Um, they do a newer model available, but I don't like the newer model as well.

So the XM fours have been my favorite go-to's.

Uh, so if you're looking for amazing noise canceling, uh, that model has been awesome for me.

Number two is the genius scan iOS app.

What this provides is mobile scanning on your phone.

Uh, as far as I know, it's iOS only, and I'm not aware of an Android, uh, option.

Uh, but if you do use an iPhone, this is the best mobile scanner I have ever used.

You can use a traditional scanner.

If you need to, uh, there are plenty of large printer scanner things or that big, large, uh, copy machine image on top of the show.

If you have access to one of those, that's amazing.

But if you work from home, you probably don't own that 3000 pound machine.

You probably just have your phone available.

And if you're going to use your phone, you want a scanner that works really well.

And this app has been a game changer for me.

It is super fast.

It works amazing for PDFs, multiple pages.

You can email your scans, save to cloud services.

It is the fastest, most efficient way to scan documents on the fly that I've ever seen.

So it's the genius scan iOS app.

Um, at this point, as far as I know, is actually free and they offer some in app purchases.

Um, I have never, never paid anything for it.

So the free option is fantastic.

Uh, so once again, genius scan on iOS.

Now number three is my new home router system.

So about a year ago, I switched over to AT&T's fiber network.

When they finally came to my neighborhood, dug some big holes in the ground, laid down some fiber cable, and then brought that fiber into my house.

So I have for the last year or so had access to amazing gig speed, internet, uh, upload speeds, download speeds, well over a full gigabyte.

And it's amazing.

If you have access to fiber, Oh my gosh, please get it.

It's amazing.

However, when you have access to great internet, that does not always correlate to great wifi.

And of course, AT&T's modem router, they sent to me is terrible.

It doesn't work very well.

And I had to overwrite it almost immediately.

So what I ended up buying was the TP link Deco mesh router system.

I have used mesh routers in the past, uh, primarily from Google.

Uh, but this one is the best I've ever used is also the wifi six E speeds, which means you're getting the latest and greatest wifi speeds that are available.

As of this recording, a wifi seven is still theoretical.

It'll be out in a few years and a more widespread nature.

But right now, six E is the best you're going to find.

And it's an incredible system.

The wifi six E speeds are fantastic throughout my entire house.

Now here's the kicker for that to work.

You're going to need to buy extenders, which is pretty common and a mesh router system, but that's the point of the mesh.

The way this system works is through some AI technology to not only place those extenders in the right places in your home, but then also as you move throughout your house, your devices, your phone, for example, will switch from one extender to the other, uh, to guarantee you get the best possible speeds, which works really well.

I've tested this many times.

I love doing speed tests on my phone and laptop, and it's an amazing thing, but I also went a little further and I bought the TP link Deco wifi six outdoor extender.

So for this to work, you really can't have just a random wifi extender outside of your house.

First of all, it has to be designed for the outdoors.

So it's waterproof and windproof and designed to protect itself from the elements.

Secondly, you really can't have one of these extenders set up where it wirelessly connects to your main hub.

You're going to have to have an ethernet cable that runs to this to really guarantee the best possible speeds.

Well, in my house, I didn't have that for a while.

I just simply had it outside on my back deck and the speeds were really kind of bad because it was trying to connect to my main router through a brick wall, which doesn't work very well with wifi.

So what I wound up doing was buying a 100 foot ethernet cable designed for outdoor use.

And I ran it in my crawl space under my house, up to my deck.

And then I plugged in my outdoor extender from there.

And now my entire backyard has access to some amazing wifi speeds.

So I went a little further on this one to guarantee these speeds and no, I don't work outside that often.

It was just a fun project for me, but it's amazing because I now have guaranteed amazing wifi access on my back deck, in my garage, in my living room, in my home office, my entire property essentially now has the best possible wifi speeds.

And when you work from home, this really matters.

I don't need to explain that.

Most people understand wifi is important, but in the case of working from home, of course you want to have the best possible internet speeds you can.

And a mesh router system is amazing.

And this specific one from TP link, the Deco wifi 6E model has been awesome.

It's pretty user-friendly as well.

One of the things that's been the case for many years are that the best performing systems have been more technical and harder to, uh, to introduce to your common person who just wants to have good wifi.

I'm more tech oriented, but even I have found those systems to be too techie.

Well, luckily these systems are way easier now to get into.

So if you want to try your first mesh router system, this model is amazing.

The speeds are fantastic and it is to a certain degree future-proofed because wifi 6E will be around for a long time.

Wifi 7 is not going to replace these devices for years.

And so you're good to go for, I don't know, five years, maybe more with this kind of a system.

And speaking of wifi number four on the list this week is the cloudflare 1.0.0.2 DNS connection.

Okay.

What does all that mean?

Well, on previous episodes of this podcast, where I've discussed my favorite tech tools, I have mentioned services just like this one.

I've mentioned the Google DNS system.

I've mentioned cloud flares before, but this one is an upgrade to what I previously have discussed on the show.

So in the past, I mentioned cloud flares baseline system, which is 1.1.1.1.

Well, this one with the .0.0.2 connection, what it does is it allows you to block malware and malicious content at the source of your internet.

So what I'm able to do with this system is actually add those DNS settings to my main router, that same TP link deco I just discussed.

It's on the routers network.

So any device that attaches to my wifi network has the protection of this DNS service.

Now, DNS as a service is a little over my head.

Technically, I understand it just enough to use it.

But what I have understood about this is that it does do a pretty good job of blocking kind of those worst websites and malware on your entire network.

So you don't have to individually add this to all your devices.

You can just do it on your main router and get access to the entire protective measures while also getting phenomenal speeds.

So if you're a little more tech savvy and you want to go a little bit further to guarantee that your home internet is the best it can possibly be, I would recommend something like this.

There are others to choose from, but from what I have seen, this one is rock solid in terms of performance and security.

And I have so far seen no problems while using this DNS service.

Now shifting gears just a little bit.

Number five this week is a soft box light system, or basically just a single soft box light.

Now what that is is a lighting system that you add usually behind your computer or monitor.

So you look better on camera.

So for years I have done, whether it's YouTube videos or zoom calls or online courses, you know, as someone who works from home as a creator, yes, I'm recording videos more often than most, but even if you work from home, you're probably doing a large number of video calls all the time.

And the number one way to improve your visibility on camera, no, it's not your webcam and no, it's not your background.

It is your lighting.

When you're well lit, you look better.

People can actually see you.

Now, if your goal is to not be seen, that's a different discussion, but if your goal is to be seen well, to look good on camera, a great lighting system, in this case, a soft box light is a very nice soft light that can enhance your face in a really dramatic way.

Now years ago, I made a really intense upgrade in my home studio to use a mirrorless camera from Canon to have way higher quality webcam, uh, access, right?

The camera I'm using is, it has a really expensive lens on it.

And so I visually have the, the pixels are there, right?

The detail is there, but that does not solve lighting at all.

And even if your pixels are really high and your, the clarity is in theory there, you're still going to look bad if no one can see you.

And so if you want to save money, but still look better on camera and improve your work from home video calls and recordings, a soft box light, though not free is a really good, reasonably cheap investment to improve your video quality.

And honestly, it's, it's a must have since I installed mine a few years ago, I cannot imagine ever doing any kind of recording or video call without it because it's just that important.

Now, along those same lines, number six this week is my favorite little toy, which is my on air sign.

So yes, as a podcaster, I have an on air sign.

I have one both in my studio that you see over my shoulder on a video call, but also one outside of my home studio on the wall, just above my door.

Now I have two different on air signs for two different reasons.

The one that you see over my shoulder on video calls is just there for the aesthetics, right?

It's just there for me to say, Hey, I'm a podcaster.

I have a microphone.

Look at the on air sign.

Isn't that cute?

But that one's less functional.

The one that actually matters is the one that's outside of my studio on the wall.

It's there for my wife and my kids.

If I'm doing any kind of recording, any kind of video call, or if I need a focus block of time, an amazing solution to that is to have this little battery powered sign that looks pretty professional.

Actually, it feels kind of cheap, but it looks great.

And so when you hit the button, you turn it on and this on air sign lights up.

It's incredible.

It gives that visual to other people in your house.

Listen, I need some alone time.

I'm doing a recording.

I'm doing an important call.

This is some me time right here.

And if you have not used an on air sign before, and it sounds silly, it's actually extremely functional and looks really cool.

At least from my perspective.

So it's also pretty cheap to have a link.

Once again, to that in the show notes, jeffsanders.com/510 a link to that one.

It's a really cool and simple thing to add to your home studio or home office.

And number seven this week is a tool that I have actually discussed multiple times on this show.

And I'm going to talk about this to the end of time because it's such a critical piece to have, which is a backup power supply for your most important electronics.

So this device is called an uninterrupted power supply or UPS.

And there are a lot of these available.

Um, I bought a model that I think was around $200 at the time that I bought it.

Um, maybe 300.

What it does is it provides you the opportunity to plug in your most important electronics, a computer, a monitor, a recording equipment, anything that you're using throughout the day.

You can plug into this main backup battery, which has traditional power attached to it.

But then if the power goes out, you continue to have power to your devices that you need right there.

And so one of the things that I've relied on for a long time is a backup battery to save me.

Yes.

During a podcast recording like this one, everything that I record goes to a backup battery source.

But also if you're doing any kind of important work on your devices and the power goes out and you don't have a backup, you're going to lose your work.

I happen to live in a neighborhood just South of Nashville that gets so many power outages.

It's unbelievable.

We have these ridiculous power lines near us that almost every single time the wind blows just a little bit too much, the entire neighborhood goes black.

It happens all the time.

It's extremely frustrating.

I don't have a solution besides moving somewhere else, except if I have a really solid backup battery solution, which I do.

So if you happen to live somewhere where your power is not reliable or you want to be extra cautious and have that kind of backup insurance policy to make sure the work you're doing is saved all the time, a backup battery matters a lot.

And these UPSs, the uninterrupted power supplies work extremely well.

They're very quiet and they will, in the case of the model that I bought, will last for one, two, maybe even three full hours of power when the power goes out, which for me, it gives me enough time to finish what I'm working on and shut everything down and wait for the real power to come back on.

But usually one to two hours is enough time for the power to return.

And so I don't miss a beat.

I'm able to keep working through the outage and get all of my work accomplished, which is incredible.

Now, number eight is more of a personal preference, and this will depend on where you live.

You want to make this move, but this is my favorite device.

And I say favorite because there's something very precious for me about temperature.

I do not like being hot.

I love going to my sauna.

That's part of it.

So that's a different story.

But on a day to day basis, my average working temperature, I like things to be cool.

And so to guarantee that I have what's called a U shaped window air conditioner in my home office.

Yes, my household temperature is actually fairly low, but I have a ton of equipment in this studio, so many things that create heat.

And I personally don't want to be hot while I work anyway.

So I bought this U shaped window air conditioner.

What that means is, is that the loudest part of the AC is actually outside the window.

And then the portion where it brings in the air is on the inside.

And so it's shaped like a U.

So the window slides down into that U shape, which dramatically reduces how loud it is.

Now, at present, during this recording, I have it turned off just to guarantee it doesn't interfere with the background noise.

But I technically can use it on low while doing a recording because it's that quiet.

And so if your goal is to have really amazing, uh, control temperatures in your home office while also not having a super loud unit, that's extremely distracting or what could be heard on a recording or on a call, the U shaped models are extraordinarily quiet.

They're very cold and they optimize your space.

So if you're like me and you're very picky on temperature, these window ACs are a game changer.

Now for number nine this week, this is a component of my work from home office setup that I have.

I have used and loved for about three years now.

And I have featured this on all the pictures of my home office and podcast recording studio.

And it is my uplift standing desk.

If you have not made the move to a standing desk in general, do it.

It is awesome.

And if you have a larger budget and you want to buy a more expensive standing desk, the uplift models are incredible.

Yes, they're pricey.

These are not going to be your cheapest options, but my goodness, the desk I have is a staple in my studio.

It is gorgeous.

It is sturdy.

It is functional.

It is large.

It's easy to adjust the height.

It's got all the things I want.

The only caveat would be the same issue you'd have with any standing desk, which is that number one, the taller you are and the higher you raise the desk up, the more likely it is to be less sturdy.

And the second potential issue is if you have the desk on wheels so you can adjust its location, that can also make it less sturdy.

If you happen to have wheels and the desk at a higher height, like I do, the sturdy factor is a little questionable.

So what I have done to kind of counter that is I have a lot of stuff, a lot of heavy stuff on my desk, which actually helps to support it and make it more secure.

You also have options to try to actually physically stabilize the desk at a certain height you want to keep it at and then lock it down to your wall if you want to.

I haven't gone that far.

I don't feel the need to do so, but there are a lot of hacks, a lot of DIY solutions to stabilize a standing desk.

Once you have it at a height, you want to keep it at.

Also, I have young kids and they love to press buttons and the buttons for this desk are just too easy for them to find.

And so I disconnected all the controls from this desk.

So the height that it's at is where it's going to stay for a long time, which is fine.

I chose a height that I love.

I keep it there.

I can stand at my desk every day and get the work done.

I need to, or in the case of this recording right now, I actually bought a very tall chair so I can actually record with the desk at the same height, but while still seated, I do that back kind of back and forth to have the option to stand or sit and the desk stays in a nice high level.

And so once again, if you want to see pictures of this entire setup, jeff sanders.com/510, the show notes page this week, we'll have a link so you can see my podcast studio setup and all the gear I use for that as well.

And finally, number 10 is directly related to a standing desk, which is one thing you're going to notice with any kind of an unstable, potentially wobbly surface, which is that computer monitors shake a lot.

Oh yes.

And it's really annoying.

And so one thing I found out a long time ago is that if you want to really lock down your computer monitor, cause I have a desktop computer, a Mac mini here in my studio, and I have a separate display because there is no display in a Mac mini, but the display shakes and there's really no way to stop it from shaking.

If it stays on a desk that's on wheels and really high in the air.

Right?

So in order to lock this down, I actually have attached my studio display to the wall and I bought a monitor wall mount to guarantee it is stuck into the stud in the wall and it is rock solid.

This display does not shake, doesn't move.

It's incredible.

And this seems like a picky thing, but if you've ever used a monitor that shakes while you're trying to, I don't know, look at the monitor, it's insanely annoying.

It makes doing your job almost impossible.

So a very simple, very cheap, actually, it's like $25 to buy a wall mount.

You can attach your display right there.

There is a little bit of adjustment that has to be made to guarantee it fits with all your studio equipment.

And as your desk raises and lowers, you don't want things to get squished.

So do some planning ahead of time about where you're going to position this.

But once it's attached to the wall, my goodness, the monitor just doesn't move and it's great.

Now you thought that we were done this week.

Oh no, no.

I have a bonus idea.

Uh, this is something that actually has almost nothing to do with working from home and has more to do with my obsession with great coffee and tea, which is my very lovely and trusty electric kettle.

I use an electric kettle all day, every day.

I use it for coffee.

I use it for tea.

I use it for hot water for cooking.

I heat up water all the time for lots of reasons and a little electric kettle that I keep in my kitchen just serves so many purposes for me.

I use an arrow press device for all of my coffees.

It's kind of like a French press and for that you need hot water to make it work.

And so I simply have this electric kettle available all the time with nice fresh water that I heat up and use throughout the day.

I also drink green tea in the afternoons.

And so I have access to that as well.

Uh, this probably has nothing to do with working from home and more to do with my obsession with lots of healthy, tasty and caffeinated beverages all day long.

Uh, but when you work from home, that's one of the perks is you get to basically optimize your entire environment and that goes beyond the office space itself and actually includes potentially your entire house.

And so kind of the bonus tip here has nothing to do with electric kettles.

It has to do with the bigger picture of what it means to work from home, which is that this is your office now, not just the space you sit and work at or stand and work at, but the entire house itself, which brings me to kind of my final points and one that I have discussed at least a little bit in the past, which is this concept that I call clean house syndrome.

What does that mean?

Well, clean house syndrome is this kind of high achievers, perfectionistic tendency to want to make everything just right before you get to the thing that matters most.

As a practical example of that, what I tend to do literally every morning is get my house to a nice working condition.

I will put away the dishes and the laundry.

I'll clean up the rooms and the toys for my girls and I kind of get my physical space in a nice clean shape, which is wonderful and allows you to then start my work and get things done.

And a very efficient way.

But there's a major hiccup here, which is that clean house syndrome can kick in, which is this overly perfectionistic tendency to want to make everything perfect.

And it's a major distraction from the work that matters most.

So if you have ever found yourself in that position, not just at home, could be at an office, could be anywhere you're trying to get something done and you find yourself doing picky little things as a distraction, as a procrastination technique to not do your work, you know what I'm talking about.

We all do this on some level.

Me working from home, I have my entire house to fiddle with.

I could do all kinds of things around the house all day and never actually get to my job at all.

Which yes, there have been days where that has kind of happened.

And so knowing that, I have to be very careful about how my working from home setup is designed.

Not just my home office itself, but the entire house and my perspective on what things need to look like before I get to my most important work.

One of the best ways to prevent this is don't work from home.

That's going to sound weird, right?

That's going to sound like the opposite of everything we just discussed this week.

But I'll be the first to tell you that environment is everything.

That's the point of the episode, right?

Optimizing your environment to get your best work done is the thing.

But if your environment is a distraction, if your environment stops you from doing the thing that matters the most, change your environment, which could mean leaving it.

Go somewhere that allows you to focus and get your best work done.

There are many examples of me going to local libraries and coffee shops to do work I honestly just cannot do at home.

I can't because I won't.

Because I know that I could do the laundry.

I could mow the grass.

I could do a hundred other things that are not the thing I'm supposed to do that day.

Even to sit down this morning and record this episode took some work on my part to ignore other things.

Like I have a door in my home office and I close it to ignore the rest of the world.

Turn on that on air sign, close the door and in I go.

So if that's what it takes for you is to wall yourself off, to guarantee focus, to get your work done, definitely do that at home.

But then also consider the idea you have to leave your home to get your most important work done.

And then of course you're going to need a whole new set of tools of what to bring with you when you travel, which we can cover in another episode.

If you have any questions about any of this content this week or suggestions for tech tools you have loved over the years, email me, Jeff at Jeff Sanders dot com.

I would love to share your best advice and tips and tools and tech and gadgets that have allowed you to work from home or from the office in a more effective way.

I love recommendations and feedback like that.

So once again, Jeff at Jeff Sanders dot com.

For the action step this week, of course, go enhance your work from home setup.

You want to choose something that will add significant value to your productive flow.

And it's really easy to buy a bunch of stuff.

So keep your setup simple but effective for your goals.

Now, I have been slowly adding gear for years and I'm really glad I've taken it just one step at a time.

So enjoy making your home office a functional and fun place to work.

Jeff Sanders dot com slash five one zero or five ten is the place to go.

The episode notes and that includes all the links to all the tech I just mentioned.

And if you also want to go right to Jeff Sanders dot com slash podcast studio, you'll see the link to all the gear I use to do all my tech work here in the five a miracle studios.

That's all I've got for you here on the five a miracle podcast this week.

Until next time, you have the power to change your life and the fun begins bright and early.