Working from home is great. In fact, it’s the best. Sometimes it’s nice to get out and change up the scenery though. If I venture away from my home office, I often find myself at my local coffee shop or another cafe where remote workers are generally welcome.

I usually like to travel light, taking with me only what I plan to actually be using while out and about. Even though the post title is about what’s in the bag, I do think it’s important to highlight the bag in use too. Here we go!

*Note: I haven’t linked any of these products for two reasons: I’m not affiliated with any of them, and now you don’t need to question if I’m fishing for kickbacks 🙂

Items

• Timbuk2 Dashboard Messenger Bag (Medium, Twill Carbon/Black)
  • Includes a removable protective insert for laptop and table
• UGREEN Elastic Organizer Board
  • Various cables and adapters
• Ray-Ban Aviator Total Black Sunglasses
• Savi Notes Felt Notepad
• 2021 MacBook Pro 14” M1 Pro
• iPad Pro 11” 4th Generation
• Apple Smart Keyboard Folio
• Apple Pencil 2nd Generation
• iPhone 15 Pro
• Apple Leather MagSafe wallet
• Apple AirPods Pro
• Microfiber cloth (non Apple)
• Pyramex Lense/Glass wipes
• Promotional App Stickers

Timbuk2 Dashboard Messenger Bag
I have to start off with saying, I love this bag. It’s water resistant so I’m not stressed if it starts to rain while I’m out. It’s super durable with impeccable craftsmanship (I’ve had this bag for over 8 years already with virtually no signs of wear). And it holds quite a bit while maintaining a slim profile. The front zipper pocket is a soft tricot-lined compartment perfect for quick access to my AirPods and Sunglasses. And it comes with a thick removable sleeve that fits my laptop and tablet with room to spare (but not too much room). The sleeve itself is also well crafted and appears to offer a decent amount of shock absorption if you were to drop the bag.

UGREEN Elastic Organizer Board
This organizer board has become essential to my sanity travels, whether it’s to a coffee shop, to an office, or flying to customer sites. You can fit almost any small cable or accessory here and keep it neatly tucked away and protected. It’s have mostly adapters and charging cables here, but I also have my 14” MBP Power Brick. Keeping these things tidy in the organizer is so much better than being loose and getting tangled and mangled in the bag.

Ray-Ban Aviator Total Black Sunglasses
I go everywhere with my sunglasses, and not just because they’re prescription. These babies are tried-and-true American classics and always look good. That’s a fact. 😎

Savi Notes Felt Notepad
If I really want to be productive and get things done, I need a good old fashioned notebook and pen. Physically writing out lists and crossing items off that list is an effective way to not only remain organized, but to feel a genuine sense of accomplishment. There’s nothing particularly special about this Savi notebook. Any notebook will do for my purposes, this is just the current one I happened to be using.

2021 MacBook Pro 14” M1 Pro
The best laptop I’ve ever owned, period. The M1 Pro chip is wonderful. I’m not a laptop reviewer, so hit up YouTube if you want to find weeks worth of reviewer content on the machine. However some of the apps I use are worth calling out. Obviously I use more than what’s listed here, but these are some of my favorites

• Xcode - lets me make fun apps like Hello There and Bento Craft
• Slack - absolutely essential to my workflow and connecting with my team and other teams
• Ice Cubes - a wonderful Mastodon client I use to stay connected with the #iOSDev and #SwiftUI community
• Apple Notes - I put almost everything here and sync it across all my devices
• Bakery - used to generate my apps’ icon sets
• Magnet - Helps me organize my windows in a productive manner
• Gimp - I latched onto Gimp doing my Linux days and still continue to use it for graphic design today

iPad Pro 11” 4th Gen + Apple Pencil
I’m repeatedly amazed at the capability of the iPad Pro. If it weren’t for Xcode, I could likely do most of my work from the iPad which is really impressive. Here are some of my favorite iPad apps:

• Libby - Library books and audiobooks
• Procreate - I am definitely not proficient in this tool yet, it’s incredible what can be done in it
• Files - the most boring of the list, but it allows me to access and continue working on files synced from my Mac
• Apple Notes - Pairing with the Apple Pencil breathes new life into this productivity super-tool
• Games - Ok so I don’t game on the iPad when I’m working remotely, but it’s still worth a shoutout. From Pokemon Unite, to Brawlhalla, to LEGO Star Wars Castaways, gaming on the iPad with a paired gaming controller is really good.

iPhone 15 Pro
I love the Natural Titanium iPhone 15 Pro. I was afraid that once I went Pro I wouldn’t be satisfied with a non-Pro iPhone ever again. Turns out that’s exactly what happened.

AirPods Pro
Possibly the most essential item, second to a primary computing device, are my AirPods Pro. I think the AirPods are one of the most innovative products Apple has created since the original iPhone. They’re simply magical. From the charging case, to the ANC, ATM, sound quality, and how ultra portable they are, I never work remotely without them.

Apple Leather MagSafe Waller
Prior to the MagSafe wallet, I had a slim metal wallet that I would keep in my front pocket. I’m done with carrying wallets in my ‘butt’ pockets and love the minimalistic and slim profile of the MagSafe option.

Promotional App Stickers
Of course I can’t go to a coffee shop without representing! Often times cafes and coffee shops have corkboards where local business owners can pin up their business cards and events. These are also great places to distribute stickers for my apps. Who doesn’t love free stickers?

Honorable mentions
A few items worth calling out that didn’t get pictured:

• myCharge MagSafe iPhone Charger - never leave home without some extra juice!
• Offline Playlists - you never know how good your connection is going to be so if you need those dope LoFi Study Beats, be sure to make available offline
• Tic Tacs - no one ever gets ahead with bad breath

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