Freelancer Road Trip: Essential Supplies
Posted April 26, 2010 in Lifestyle
One of my freelancing resolutions is the separation of work time and vacation time.
I know this is one of my problem areas, but I do feel the need to work on a pretty constant basis in order to hit client deadlines. When the opportunity came up to head on a 15-hour road trip to the beach, I took it… with the caveat that I’d be working on the trip down and sporadically while at the beach. I loaded up my bag with the essentials to get some work done on the road.
I thought my list of goodies would help other freelancers gearing up for a road-trip-mobile-office.
My List for Working Remotely
Here is my list of essential supplies for working remotely:
- Messenger Bag. I have a cool, vintage leather messenger bag with plenty of space inside and out. Make sure it’s large enough for all your gear and enough compartments to keep your stuff separated, preventing scratches and dents in your fragile equipment.
- Computer. Of course as a freelance web designer, I can’t get any work done without my laptop. Make sure the battery has a strong charge, but just in case you run a little short on juice, you may want to purchase a power inverter.
- Power Inverter. This little gizmo will plug into your car’s cigarette lighter and convert that into a power outlet that you can plug your computer into for times that battery power just doesn’t cut it. Some adapters even have USB ports for you to charge your mobile phone at the same time. Make sure the adapter packs enough juice to do everything you need it to do.
- Cell Phone. Just because you’re in the car doesn’t mean you need to cut off contact via phone. Forward those business calls to your cell phone and try to convince the other passengers to keep it down while on business calls.
- MiFi. As a web guy, I can’t get much work done without an internet connection. The MiFi from Sprint or Verizon acts as a mobile wifi hotspot, getting on the cellular data connection and turning that into a wifi signal for up to five devices. There’s similar cards that plug right into your computer, but the MiFi has the advantage of being able to be shared across a few devices. The access isn’t cheap at $60 per month, but if it helps you get an hour or two of work done, it’s worth the cost.
- Notebook and pens. I work almost completely digitally, but for some tasks there’s nothing better than scribbling it out on physical paper with a real pen.
- Bluetooth mouse. Mice are difficult to work with while in the car, but when you get to your vacation destination they’re much nicer to work with than a trackpad if you ask me. Go for a bluetooth mouse and avoid wires and extra dongles sticking out of your computer.
- Headphones. A nice pair of noise-canceling headphones is great for blocking out other car noise that may distract you from your work.
- Digital Camera. Just because you’re working on the road doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun too! Make sure you bring that digital camera and capture some of your fun moments on the road. You can even upload them to your Facebook from the car with all the other gear you brought along!
What About You?
What do my fellow road-tripping-mobile-workers take with them when they’re away from their normal offices?
Image by boboroshi
Related posts:
- What To Do Before You Take Your Business On The Road
- 8 Tips for Success When Freelancing On the Road
- Open Thread: Do You Have a Smart Phone?
- 10 More Essential Plugins Every WordPress Blog Should Have
- Essential Advice from 6 Successful Freelancers
About the author: Tim Wasson a freelance website design and developer based in Peoria, Illinois. He serves clients large and small through his company, TJ Dub Web Design. You can see his personal site at timwasson.com, or follow him on twitter @timwasson.
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43 Comments
Stefan / intuitiv
April 26th, 2010 at 8:47 amHi,
instead of a DigiCam I use a Pocket Camcorder (eg Kodak Zi8). Video becomes more and more popular.
I have combined bluetooth headset an headphones with the Jabra BT 3030, 8 hrs. battery life.
A very important thing to your photo above:
NEVER (and I mean rally NEVER) use a notebook in the sand on the beach (it seems it is windy there, too). The fine powder sand and the salt water particles in the air destroying these kind of electronic stuff immediately.
Stefan
Yair Mor
April 26th, 2010 at 8:56 amLoved the list! I don’t go anywhere without my sketchpad and some pencils :)
There’s also the WeFi software that helps you find and connect to good hotspots everywhere in the world. http://www.wefi.com/
Yair
Jordan Walker
April 26th, 2010 at 9:04 amDon’t forget the sunscreen!
I went to Natal, Brazil for the holidays and tried to do a little freelancing, everything on the list I had except WiFi. To compensate for the lack of internet, I created a local development environment on my computer where I could build dynamic database driven websites with no need for a live connection.
crazywabbit
April 26th, 2010 at 9:21 amLove the picture here, sand in your keyboard LOL
Laura Spencer
April 26th, 2010 at 9:33 amThanks Tim, for the great post!
BTW, for those of you who are worried about Tim’s electronic equipment, that’s not Tim and his family in the photo. We added that image since it seemed to go with the topic. :-)
Matt Pritchett
April 26th, 2010 at 10:17 amExcellent article! Laura, thanks for the clarification, I saw that picture and immediately was horrified!
Vivek@InfoEduTech
April 26th, 2010 at 10:42 amThanks for the share. As i’m also a freelancer and i know how important is to connect with the people around you even in the vacation time. Sometimes the vacation becomes an official tour and the family members complained about it.
Jonathan B
April 26th, 2010 at 11:45 am“Love the picture here, sand in your keyboard LOL” – crazywabbit
I think we all thought that.
Cook
April 26th, 2010 at 11:52 amgreat article…awesome picture by the way
TheAL
April 26th, 2010 at 12:24 pmFor a spontaneous vaca or day out this is a pretty solid list. I’ll never drop the bucks for a mifi/aircard device, though. If I could pay per-use and it was cheap to do so, ok then. But at $60-100 a month it’s just too much for me. Wifi spots are usually easy enough to find nowadays that I get by. But, for the most part, I just plan my trips so I don’t do work at all. Like you said, work != vacation. I’ve always been the type to keep business hours.
Gavin
April 26th, 2010 at 2:14 pmI know this sounds counter-productive, but should you really be working on your “vacation”?
I know there are clear differences between being self employed and employed but why should Vacations be one of the bigger differences?
We work our asses off for sometimes what seems peanuts and we all deserve a real break.
If a client isn’t understanding that you are entitled to a vacation, then do you really want that client?
I tend to try and prioritise work and limit spending to cover the time off.
Of course… If something really important were to come up or your bored, then you could squeeze in a few here and there.
My two-penneth worth.
Gavin
April 26th, 2010 at 2:16 pmOh, and I forgot. Quite a lot mobile/cell phones these days have the ability to tether the 3G/EDGE/HSPDA network and broadcast via the WIFI.
My new HTC allows me to do so and so long as I don’t go overboard, the network don’t care.
Of course, Roaming data charges are disgusting.
Tim Wasson
April 26th, 2010 at 2:18 pmStefan – We’ve got both a handy little camcorder and a still camera… we found the video camera doesn’t produce print-quality photos, but maybe we need to invest in a higher-quality camera to save valuable space in our bags.
Tim Wasson
April 26th, 2010 at 2:19 pm@Yair – I’m an illustrator myself, so I definitely see the value in sketchpads! Good link to help others find Wifi as well, thanks for that!
Tim Wasson
April 26th, 2010 at 2:21 pm@TheAL, I’m slowly getting better at the work/life balance, but I have a long way to go. If you’re in the US, check Virgin Mobile for pay-as-you-go broadband. Per megabyte, it’s much more expensive on a prepaid plan, but in the long run you’ll save money if you don’t use it often.
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/mobile-broadband
Tim Wasson
April 26th, 2010 at 2:23 pm@Gavin, I totally agree… vacations should be “time off”, but this was a sort of sporadic idea and I didn’t have time to brace my clients for pushing back their deadlines. My choice was to skip the vacation or work while there, and I chose the latter.
Still, you’re 100% correct that freelancers need complete vacation time, and the balance is still not easy for a guy like me to get used to.
Gavin
April 26th, 2010 at 2:34 pm@Tim: I appreciate that everyone’s working ethics and clients are all different.
I assume you’ve been doing this for a while so you won’t need someone like me telling you to make sure you put your family first.
I’ve had to resort to working full time because of the amount of time freelancing took up of my personal life.
That said, most people become self employed to “spend more time with the family” lol in fact they probably spend even less time.
I’d love to take my laptop to the beach, although if the sand and sea air wouldn’t kill it, the fact that I wouldn’t be able to see the screen would make it completely pointless ;)
Tim Wasson
April 26th, 2010 at 2:42 pm@Gavin,
I have been doing this for a while, but quite the contrary: I need constant reminders to stop working and start hanging out with the family a little more often. I still had a great vacation, and got most of my work done on the drive down and the few hours after everyone else went to sleep… not ideal, but at least I was able to go on vacation at the drop of a hat! Many full-timers do not have the luxury of such a flexible schedule.
It is difficult to find the balance, and I know I tend to err on the “work too much” side. Still, I wouldn’t change my career for the world!
Gladys Strickland
April 26th, 2010 at 5:03 pmThank you for this list – I’m going to take a semi-working trip to visit a friend next month, and I’m trying to decide what I need to take to get my work done and will also fit in my carry on luggage.
While this trip will be a vacation from my full-time job, it is also a chance for me to test how mobile my business is. I’m hoping to take it full-time fairly soon, and I want to be able to work from different locations without my clients noticing a difference in service. And it will also give me an opportunity to see how well I can balance my business with fun!
Jon Clark - Internet Marketer
April 26th, 2010 at 5:17 pmI love this post – it covers all the essential and as, freelancers, we definitely use many of these items on a daily basis. I would recommend one addition to the list. Microsoft’s arc mouse is an awesome device that works on any surface (something not all bluetooth mouse devices can do) and is completely wire-free. Plus it folds in half for easy storage. Despite it being a ‘CPU’ product I can still use it with my Macbook Pro. I love it!
Lastly, I never leave without my bluetooth headpiece. I may look rediculous with it jammed in my ear but it keeps both hands free to type notes or multi-task.
Dr. Freelance
April 26th, 2010 at 6:05 pmI don’t go anywhere without my digital audio recorder and the little Olympus TP-7 “telephone pickup.” It plugs into the recorder on one end, on the other it’s a little earbud that sticks in your ear and allows you to record both sides of a conversation–perfect whether I’m doing an interview for an article or having a conference call with a client and don’t want to take notes.
For under $20, it pays for itself a million times over:
http://bit.ly/bymnAz
Russell - Business Blog
April 26th, 2010 at 6:18 pmThank you for this article, very interesting. I always find it difficult to get a WIFI signal or always make sure that I stay in a hotel that has free WIFI
Thiago Cavalcanti
April 26th, 2010 at 7:26 pmI’ll be sure to remember your list when I get to take some time of.
designfollow
April 26th, 2010 at 10:48 pmgreat articles.
thank you for the tips.
Issa
April 27th, 2010 at 12:16 amNice list you’ve got there. I usually bring with me my notebook, wireless pen, digi cam, portable scanner, and flash disks when I’m out on a travel. Being a freelance writer and illustrator, I think these are the essential tools I should carry with me in my portable laptop bag that’s ultra lightweight ( other than my personal stuff ). Unless you’re going to a place where power supply and wifi is an issue, I guess everything’s good to go. Just my two cents here.
Tim Lewis
April 27th, 2010 at 2:37 amThe iPhone might be the most amazing tool for freelancers ever. Never leave home without it.
Vunky
April 27th, 2010 at 3:19 amNice post!
I always love the “Its all in a designers bag” post on nikibrown.com.
Check out what I am packing on this post I wrote on my blog.
alex
April 27th, 2010 at 5:23 amnope!
if im in vacation or on a road-trip,
i cut all the connections, no cellphone, no internet no contact, no stress,
otherwise it isnt a vacation, or? =)
Chris M
April 27th, 2010 at 10:11 amForget the extra bag, instead grab yourself a ScotteVest jacket, shirt, or vest. With 22+ pockets you can take it all with you without having to fumble for all your gear: http://bit.ly/aBvcYj Also, I like the iphone adapter, and http://www.xshotpix.com mono-pod camera tool so you can take be in your own pictures or video while away.
Kennyh
April 28th, 2010 at 6:25 amIt’s a pretty complete list, although for mobile internetting I use my Blackberry and share the connection with my notebook. Works like a charm and it’s pretty fast.
I do have a power inverter but I stumbled upon a mobile battery pack which you can charge at home and you have about 30 hours of power to go. Enough to charge your phone/notebook a couple of times even when you’re not in the car.
Wesley Craig Green
April 28th, 2010 at 8:44 amI agree with an earlier comment regarding the iPhone. I find it indispensable! It won’t replace my netbook for traveling but it does come in handy to take pics, dictate some reminders or notes, deal with email, look up a site, etc.
Wesley Craig Green
Liz
April 30th, 2010 at 2:28 amI’d also have to vote for the iPhone/Blackberry. If my clients ever email while I’m on vacation and ask for a quote for a job, I can quickly create an estimate for them with my Blackberry with my online invoicing manager Billing Boss (http://www.billingboss.com) or check on any payments clients have made. They have a mobile edition so it loads quickly, and saves data fees.
Or, if I ever come up with an awesome idea and need to write it down or research on Google immediately, I definitely need my Blackberry with me at all times.
@Tim, you’ve probably heard about this before, but you can probably take advantage of notebook and pen usages from LiveScribe (http://www.livescribe.com). It’s a pen that instantly records anything you write down, whether it be a diagram or text. Text can be captured images or converted into typed letters. My client was using it at a meeting once, and it was amazing the amount of time you can save with it!
Please note: This author has been compensated by Sage.
Charles Ek
May 18th, 2010 at 4:08 pmCount me among the iPhone addicts. Among the highlights so far:
1. I’m turkey hunting last spring and walking in the woods before dawn. An inquiry about a prospective job appears in my email on the iPhone, including the source document as an attachment. I scan through the document, send my confirmation that I’m available, get the job, and go back to hunting, all within ten minutes. Did I mention that the inquiry came from an agency IN Turkey? :-)
2. My wife and I take a two-week trip this spring around Lake Superior with our camping trailer. I get an email inquiry about a job. I do the job in the evenings on my laptop, using my iPhone for access to online dictionaries whenever I’m out of WiFi range. I can charge the laptop battery whenever we have an electrical hookup to the trailer at a camping site. Job is done on time, and I’m earning money while I’m (sort of) relaxing.
And the car plug inverter has also come in handy at times.
When a way to transfer files from laptop to iPhone is available so I can receive and send them without WiFi, I will have achieved translator Nirvana, methinks. On a related note, that 3G/WiFi iPad looks like it might have a future someday, when it can handle documents satisfactorily . . .
Seattle Attorney
June 3rd, 2010 at 5:08 pmDefinitely essential supplies for freelancing at all times. Great post.
dmx
January 31st, 2012 at 7:31 amHi, this is a great blog!
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