Many leaders I know are out of their regular office more than they are in it, moving around between conference rooms or multiple sites. You are facilitating meetings, taking notes, giving presentations, and trying to keep up with everything else going on outside the meeting you’re involved in. Set yourself up for success with a well-stocked bag. (Note: Use whatever brand preferences you like, and whatever makes you effective.)
Here’s my current checklist for what goes in my laptop bag:
Local presentations and meetings where I take my laptop
- Laptop, power cord
- Portable mouse (with spare battery)
- Paper notepad for taking notes
- Documents for use in meetings
- My current task-tracking checklist
- Index cards for making/leaving notes – I like the Levenger 3×5 cards for this
- Flash drive – use for backups of presentations/documents, or transferring files if a network is not available
- A fresh whiteboard marker, because the ones in the conference room are often dried out
- LAN cable – I like this style of compact retractable LAN cables
- Remote control/laser pointer (I’m pleased with this Keyspan unit)
- Security tokens
- Spare pens, highlighter
- Mints
Add for travel — so I can work effectively from anywhere
- Flight/rental car/hotel information
- Driving directions to key locations
- Small notebook (I’m fond of Moleskines!)
- Digital copies of documents under development
- Tablet for Kindle reading and work when a full laptop is just too much– I have used both iPads and Surface Pro devices. I load up the Kindle books before a trip.
- Business cards
- List of contacts, phone numbers, email addresses, help desk contact info (printed, as backup)
- Printed calendar (again, good backup if there are smartphone problems)
- Chargers for all devices
- Envelope for storing receipts
- Post-it notes
- Pencil (for writing on bumpy flights or cars)
- Chapstick, dental floss, vitamins, Tylenol + prescriptions
- Spare shoelaces
- Spare AAA batteries for devices
- Rubber bands and spare ziplock bags
- Spare change in a ziplock bag
- Foam ear plugs for work in noisy spaces
- Some small snacks that don’t require refrigeration
- Cheat sheets for how to do VPN, wireless, other connections – because the Help Desk isn’t always easily available
- Backup charts for presentations
- An extra Flash drive I can leave with someone if necessary
- Headset mic for Skype calls (optional)
- My “On Return” checklist for things to do when I’m back in the office
- Extra reading materials: Trade magazines for catchup reading, Printouts of blog posts and articles.
Do you have other recommendations and suggestions?
Love this. My work bag has to remain well-stocked with everything I may need, as I work remotely part of the time.
I may need to add some things from your list.
The only thing I’d recommend adding – tylenol. Saved me on a few long days of working on the road.
Agree! I listed it along with Chapstick and prescriptions. It can remarkably difficult to get your preferred headache medicine in your preferred format when you actually have a headache 🙂
I find myself with many of these things in my laptop bag. I don’t always use them but feel well prepared. Looking to slip down on the bag now that I’m only using a iPad mini and not a laptop anymore, Still want room for the essentials. Any suggestions?
What’s the minimum you need beside the iPad mini and peripherals to feel comfortable for 95% of situations? Do you need any paper notebook, for example? I’d still carry a fresh whiteboard marker and spare pen. I recently acquired a Surface Pro 3 and a small messenger bag to force me to be more selective about what to carry. (I like my laptop bag but it’s big enough to carry a LOT of stuff.) So the new game is to think like an ultralight backpacker, creatively shaving down the number of times.
Great list on this, Glenn! I really can’t think of anything to add. I am currently using a macbook air, but really thinking about going back to the macbook pro.