Essential Tools for Remote Work | Remote Work Survey – JUNYUAN

Last month, the Knack Team sent out a survey to learn more about how “work from anywhere” is impacting you as well as to understand the tools you are using to make remote work easier and more enjoyable.

Hundreds of you responded and we loved reading your answers.  After tabulating the results, we thought you’d be interested in seeing some of the highlights.

Are you back in the office yet?

In March, we saw a massive migration from working in offices to working from home.  Knackpackers shared stories of packing up their desks thinking they’d be back in a week – only to still be working from their dining room table months later.  (For tips on setting up a home workspace. We were really curious to see if Knackpackers were back in their offices (or coworking spaces).  Here’s what respondents shared in the survey:

We were surprised that the share of Knackpackers who were 100% remote was only a bit larger than the share of Knackpackers who were working in an office either full time or part time.  However, it is interesting to note that only 25% of Knackpackers said they were back in their office full time. 

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Where are you working?

The Knack Team is 100% remote, and before March we were working anywhere from the airport terminal to our kids’ doctor’s offices to a local coffee shop.  We know that remote work doesn’t necessarily mean working at home, and we were curious as to whether our experience was mirrored by Knackpackers.

In the survey, we included a section on this topic, asking people who were not back in the office yet: “If you work remotely, please select all the locations you worked over the past 30 days.”  We suggested a few locations and asked Knackpackers to list other locations. 

Remote Knackpackers were able to select all locations that applied to them.  83% reported they are working from a dedicated home office but 61% said they working also from somewhere else in the home besides a dedicated office space. We found it fascinating that a large percentage of Knackpackers seem to be commuting in their own houses! 

Working in the car (or plane or train) was the next most popular category.  We get it: over the past few months, several Knack Team members have visited national parks or gone on road trips using our Knack Packs as a sort of desk while typing away on our laptops in the car.

No one else is working from a park?

Something that the Knack Team was surprised by was the low response to working from a park or outdoor space (1%).  Maybe it’s just us, but we’ve found going to a local park to be a great way to get out of the house and get some socially-distanced work done while escaping from other people in the house who are also working from home.  (After all, being on a Zoom call and hearing another person in your house on a Zoom call is… not an ideal situation.)

Do you find it challenging to work while outside?  Share your experience with us in the comments.

What are the most essential items for remote work?

Given that the vast majority of Knackpackers are working remotely at least a few days a week, we wanted to know the “top 3 essential items that you can’t live without when you work remotely” to understand if we should change our bags to better accommodate these tools.

You shared a good number of recs on items that we expected to get (laptops, tablets and water bottles were among the favorites).  But here are a few products that caught our attention – and that may be good to check out for you!

• Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones (by far the most popular headphones listed)
• Fuse Reel for MacBook Cord
• Targus Collapsible Mouse
• Vari Desk Converter (Vari Desk Laptop30) 
• Uplift Standing Desk
• Aeron Desk Chair

Mobile Office Kit

Seeing all of these great product recommendations made us think of Chase Reeves, a YouTuber who reviews everything from laptop backpacks to stereos.  Talking with Knackpackers on social media, we realized that many of you had created “Mobile Office Kits” with your essential items – using your Knack Pack to carry items from your home to the car to an outdoor restaurant to the park with your kids!

We partnered with Chase to create a video with tips on creating your own “Mobile Office Kit,” and he provides all his recs for what to pack (including what pants to wear!) here.

What products are making remote work easier for you?

We loved reading through the survey responses and we remain really interested in the products that have made working remotely easier for YOU.  Please help us by sharing your recommendations in the comments below:

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