Working from home is great. You can spend all day in your pajamas, blast music at your desk, and your longest commute is from your chair to the kitchen to grab lunch. However, a home office is like a shrine to your productivity and making sure it's an effective space is very important. There are almost always ways you can improve your setup to get more work done or, at least, be more comfortable while you work. So, we've assembled a list of tech essentials that we think can spruce up your home office.

Speaking of desks and chairs, this specific list won't cover which ones we'd recommend, but be sure to check out our dedicated guides for the best standing desks and best office chairs for more details on office essentials. That said, based on our personal work from home experience, here are the top eight products we'd recommend to elevate your - or your loved one's WFH space, starting with the best remote work monitor- the ASUS Rog Swift PG279QM.

Best remote work tech essentials: Our top picks

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM is a great all-around monitor. Its 27-inch screen should be large enough for most home office environments, and it's small enough to double up if you want to run a dual-monitor setup. In terms of design, it has a bit of a gamer aesthetic, but you're at home, so who's going to judge you? It can be a tad pricey when it's not on sale, but it also often goes on sale during big sales events like Black Friday.

This monitor does everything well, the 100 per cent SRGB and Adobe RGB support means you can use this for creative work while the high refresh rate gives you a smooth experience no matter what you're doing.

It also supports AMD FreeSync as well as Nvidia G-Sync, so it'll support whatever graphics card you own. Like all IPS monitors, the contrast ratio isn't great, but it's not the biggest deal. About the only pitfall with this monitor is its HDR capabilities are fairly mediocre. Otherwise, it's a great monitor.

The LG 34gp83a-b UltraGear is a truly excellent ultrawide monitor. It's 34-inches, which means it's approximately the same height as a 27-inch monitor while also being nearly twice as wide. This gives you most of the benefits of a dual monitor setup without the hassle of extra cables figuring out where to put two monitors. I've worked on an ultrawide monitor for years, and it's really quite an excellent experience.

For the LG UltraGear, you get a lot of bank for the admittedly high dollars. It has excellent colors, so it's good enough for most creative work while the 144 Hz refresh rate and QHD resolution makes everything feel smooth and look sharp. The high level of performance makes it reasonably good at everything, including gaming, so this is definitely a monitor you can buy and use for just about anything. Just make sure you measure your desk space because ultrawides can take up quite a bit.

It's not a bad idea to keep a secondary device with you to help offload some of your work. One thing I always enjoyed when I had a secondary device was letting it take all of my email notifications, so my PC workspace was clear of distractions. The 10th generation iPad is a great device for these types of things. The screen is large enough to be useful while being small enough to fit on almost any desk. Plus, it opens up the App Store ecosystem to give you even more options.

We're pretty big fans of the 10th generation iPad, and lauded the tablet for its solid performance, good battery life, and USB-C port. Sure, there are more powerful iPads options out there, but they're also more expensive and not everything needs to be top of the line. Of course, if you do pick up one of these, you might wind up distracted while watching YouTube all day. This may or may not have happened to me on occasion.

A good headset can serve you well in a variety of ways. The HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless is about as good as it gets unless you spend some big money. The headset is relatively light at 335g with a decently thick headband and reasonably comfortable ear cups. They come with red accents which helps add a splash of color to the home office experience. It boasts a ridiculous 300 hours per charge for battery, so you should only have to charge this thing once every couple of weeks or so if you use it all day every day.

The reason this is a good product is that it works with everything. Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack, whatever you need, this will do it. The microphone is a lot cleaner than you'll get with wireless earbuds or your stock webcam microphone while the headset isolates outside noise well to help you focus. The end of the mic boom houses a red light that you can easily see in your peripheral vision to check if you're muted or not. Yes, it's designed for gaming, but there's no law against using gaming accessories for professional work.

The Elgato Stream Deck MK.2 is designed for people who stream on Twitch. It's a 15-key keypad with a lot of customization. In general, you'll see people use this for things like volume or mute buttons for both audio and microphones. However, you can program these 15 keys to do basically anything you want. Yes, that includes productivity stuff as well.

The software to control it takes a bit of practice, but fortunately you don't have to spend a ton of time in there. I've used this product for hotkey shortcuts in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Firefox, which is my browser of choice. Each button is also an LCD screen, and you can assign icons to each one to remind you of what it does. These things are so cool and a wildly underrated productivity tool.

The Logitech Z207 speakers are a rock solid investment in your office space. They work better than most speakers south of $50 and include helpful Bluetooth functionality for when you don't want to plug them in, like with the iPad we recommended earlier. I've had the older, non-Bluetooth version of these speakers for eight years and haven't had any major issues with it. The knob turns smoothly, and the sound quality is more than good enough.

They aren't exactly the cheapest PC speakers on the market that also sound good. That title goes to the Creative Pebble. However, the Logitech has larger speakers, extra functionality, and it uses the headphone jack as opposed to a USB port, which makes them a bit more versatile. They are rather large, but they fill in desk space well. It would be awesome of Logitech updated these with more modern Bluetooth, as this one supports 4.2, but other than that, these are a good purchase.

The Kafri RGB Headphone Stand is a great all-around piece of tech for your desk. It holds your headset while also providing several charging options for your other devices. The base model has two outlets, two USB-A ports, and a USB-C port where you can charge your phone, your wireless headphones, or essentially anything else you have lying around. The USB-C port isn't powerful enough to charge or power a laptop like a MacBook, but the outlets in the back are powerful enough if you want to go that route.

You do have some options as well. There is a pink variant that has all the same features as the black variant. There is another version that omits the outlets in the back in favor of a pen holder. However, we think the variant with the two outlets is the best one. About the only bad thing about it is that its simple, black plastic design doesn't look as aesthetically pleasing as some of the high-end wood headphone holders, but that's a minor nitpick.

The APC Performance Surge Protector is an excellent addition to a home office. You have to plug in your computer, probably a phone, and a few accessories and gadgets like a printer. Those items are what make you money and deserve protection from things like surges. This protector costs just over $50 when not on sale and comes with a 2,630 joule surge protection rating, meaning this thing will take the hit if your house gets struck by lightning.

In addition, it comes with two USB ports, 11 total outlets, and an eight-foot cable. There are mounts on the back, so you can hang it on the wall or from something else if you don't want to put it on the floor. There are several great surge protectors out there. However, APC offers a lifetime warranty with a $250,000 connected equipment protection policy so if this thing doesn't take the surge, you'll get reimbursed for your lost items unless it was caused by human error.

One of the first things I bought after I purchased a laptop is one of these things. I've had mine going on six or seven years now and while I don't pull it out as often as I used to, I still enjoy having it. The Lapgear lap desk has two bean bag-style pads on the bottom that rests on your lap. You place your laptop and, optionally, a mouse on the top, pop your smartphone into the provided slot, and you can sit practically anywhere in the house with it.

On Amazon, you can find the one carbon black option. Surprisingly, Best Buy has several models that range from a fake wood grain to pink, silver, and, of course, the black carbon look. In my experience, you can fit a 17-inch laptop on here, but just barely, and it's not comfortable enough to recommend. However, a lot of folks use MacBooks, and this will fit any MacBook ever made. It's worth having so you're not stuck at a desk all day long.

A good keyboard is exceptionally important when working from home. It's at the front and center of all the tools you'll use when you're at home, so why not get yourself a nice one? The Logitech G915 is a nice mix of convenience and usability. It's wireless, so you can swap it from one computer to another quickly while also avoiding a bunch of wires. Additionally, it's a mechanical keyboard, which many people feel types better than rubber dome keyboards.

While the Logitech G915 is technically a gaming product, it doesn't have the usual gaming hardware look. With the Logitech G Hub app, you can also assign macros to the side buttons and change the colors of the keyboard to customize to your liking. Aside from this specific model, we also have a whole list of excellent keyboards if you want to look at some more options.

The Anker 555 USB-C Hub is a nice addition to any home office setup. It plugs into a PC with a USB-C cable and then gives you access to a bunch of extra functionality. The hub includes a 100W USB-C power delivery port that does require you to plug it into a wall, but everything else works without plugging-in. You also get another USB-C port for data, two USB-A ports, an Ethernet port, an HDMI port, and an SD card slot.

These hubs are especially good for folks who work off of laptops. Laptops have been getting thinner and lighter, and that comes with the drawback of having fewer USB ports. Modern MacBooks and some Windows laptops like the Razer Blade almost require the use of a USB hub if you want to connect more than one or two things.

Best tech essentials for your home office: The bottom line

The best home office setup is one that gets the job done without being too crowded. Harvard Business Review did a study that showed that clean, uncluttered work space helps your productivity as much as any piece of tech. However, having a sweet monitor like the ASUS ROG Swift listed above certainly doesn't hurt. Some of the other products, like the Elgato Stream Deck and the Kafri Headphone Stand, take up a small overall footprint for the extra functionality they provide.

It's also nice to have a dedicated wireless headset for video calls that can steam music, such as the HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless or solid speakers like the Logitech Z207s that bring surround sound to your desk.

How did we choose these home office tech essentials?

Well, it was mostly just looking around my own home office setup and seeing what would make for a good recommendation. I personally use an ultrawide monitor because I love them, but I know when I shopped for one, I needed a monitor with mostly accurate colors for creative work. Speakers, a headset, a headphone stand, all of these things are additions onto the basic home office setup that have the capacity to improve a person's quality of life or help remove clutter while they're at work.

Once a list was formed, it was just a matter of finding the best options in that space. Browsing monitors that had good color, speakers that sounded good, and, well, there's only one Elgato Stream Deck, so that one was pretty easy. After a full list was assembled, it was looked over by our talented staff and now here we are.

How much should I spend on a work from home setup?

That is a very subjective question. It depends on what kind of work you're doing, how much space you have, and how much money you make. If you underspend, you'll struggle to get work done. However, you can overspend, too. There simply comes a point where having the most expensive thing doesn't increase your ability to work, and you're just wasting money.

So, at the very least, we can give you some general advice. If you have an empty room and no equipment, it's probably a good idea to start with something less expensive. Once you have a rudimentary setup in place, then start spending extra money to make it how you want. If you go for the most expensive stuff out of the gate, you'll likely wind up with way more than you need while also going broke in the process.

What is the best monitor for a remote work setup?

Ideally, just a monitor that can do what you need it to do. On the list above, we recommend two, the Asus ROG Swift and the LG UltraGear. Both of those are complete overkill for office-level work, but we know that our audience includes all kinds of people, including creative types, streamers, and other people. For those types of folks, the monitors we recommend aren't overkill, they're just right.

Essentially, it's just finding one capable of doing what you need. If you're attending Zoom meetings and looking at spreadsheets, any monitor will work fine as long as it's big enough, so you're not squinting or craning your neck all day. If you do creative work, you'll want something with accurate colors. Those who stream will probably want a gaming monitor with good pixel response times. At the very least, it gives you a starting point.

Regular monitors vs. ultrawide monitors: Which is best for remote work?

Oh, now that's a question right there. I am a massive proponent for the ultrawide monitor as a writer, and blogger. It's wide enough to have my work on one side and my research on the other. When I do need Photoshop or Lightroom, they also both fit nicely on one half of the monitor. Personally, I think ultrawides are great at everything, but I know that's just my opinion and not everyone agrees with me. That's perfectly fine.

Regular monitors have the benefit of being cheaper. Plus, there are tons of multi-monitor accessories like arms or mounts that let you get pretty creative with a single or multiple monitor setup. For working, I almost exclusively recommend dual regular monitors or a single ultrawide at minimum because it lets you see at least two things at once, which is super helpful. Other than that, get the one you like most.

Is there something I shouldn't get for my home office space?

Obviously, if you don't have a pair of headphones, you don't need a headphone stand. A lot of people think they need an endless number of gizmos and gadgets to work from home. Depending on your job, it's best to focus on the essentials. For me, I write for a living. My keyboard is the most expensive item on my entire desk that isn't my PC tower or my monitor. My Elgato Stream Deck has buttons like undo and redo, along with macros for things like adding links to text.

In short, try to avoid buying things you don't really need. It just adds clutter and complexity to your tasks, which makes for a bad work experience. Focus on and think about what would actually make your life better.

What tech is essential for a home office?

The tools necessary to do your job, probably a computer, a desk, and a chair are the bare minimums. From there, it's mostly just following the advice above. If there's a gadget that you believe will make your job easier, then it's not a stretch to call such an item a requirement. I can do my job on a $15 dome keyboard, but I type much faster and more accurately on a mechanical keyboard. Thus, a better keyboard was a requirement for me. Use that logic to determine what's a requirement for you.

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