Remote work setup checklist
The order is deliberate. Chair and screen first because your back keeps the score, then the connection, then the things that make you audible, then the habits.
31 items
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
The items
- The desk
- A chair that supports your lower back
- Desk at elbow height when seated
- Screen at eye height — books count as a stand
- Separate keyboard and mouse if you use a laptop all day
- A lamp that is not the ceiling light
- Somewhere to put a mug that is not next to the keyboard
- Connection
- Test your actual speed where you actually sit
- Ethernet cable, or move the router
- A phone hotspot you have tested once, before you need it
- VPN installed and logged in before the first meeting
- Know who to call when the internet dies mid-incident
- Being heard and seen
- Wired earbuds with a microphoneBeats a laptop mic and never runs out of battery halfway through a review.
- Webcam at eye height, not up your nose
- A light in front of you, not behind you
- Something soft on one wall to kill the echo
- A background you would be happy for anyone to see
- Software and access
- Password manager
- Two-factor on everything work-related
- Calendar synced to your phone
- Notifications off outside your hours
- Backups running, and verified once
- The habits that keep it working
- A start time and a stop time, written down
- Leave the house once a day, for any reason
- A lunch break away from the desk
- Shut the laptop, or shut the door
- One day a week with no meetings before eleven
Makes your own editable copy. No account needed.
Questions people ask
- What is worth spending money on for a home office?
- A chair, a screen at eye height and a wired microphone, in that order. Everything else is preference; those three are the difference between a day and a bad day.
- Why do I sound bad on calls?
- Almost always the laptop microphone plus a hard room. Wired earbuds with a mic fix most of it, and something soft on one wall fixes the rest.