Working away from home has its challenges, but if you pack carefully, you can still be productive

I’ve been a Mac user and lived in Apple’s ecosystem longer than I’d care to share with you, and I’ve no complaints.

Are they the cheapest? Nope, but they work.

Macs simply work from day one. Right now, there has probably never been a better time to buy into the world of Mac as Apple’s hardware, because of Apple silicon, is about as good as it’s ever been.

Recently, I’ve had to work away from my studio, and my normal day-to-day workflow has been forced to change. That’s no bad thing, though, as it means I have to find out what I need to pack to make certain I’m as productive as possible whilst working remotely.

This week I’ve been in Brighton on location working on a video for a sponsor. The amount I had to pack was bloody ridiculous – but I ended up using almost everything I took. There were lights, tripods, cameras, lenses and all manner of bits and bobs that I needed as I set up a temporary studio in my hotel room in Brighton.

Outside of all the camera gear that I packed was, of course, the Apple gear and Macs that I’d be using. They would be at the heart of my trip. So this story is going to be a first for me! Normally, I’m a hermit and only ever work from home or my studio.

But now, I can finally write from a first-hand point of view of what five things were essential to me as a Mac user when working away from home. There are no affiliate links or paid-for links anywhere in this story – it’s just me trying to help you and let you know what I think were the most essential accessories that I packed.

The Mac of choice

I was going to be shooting both pictures and video on this trip, so I knew I needed to take a Mac with me. Even with iPadOS 26 on my iPad Pro, this was still going to be a job for a Mac.

I was taking a Mac not only for the creative side of my trip but also to carry out general admin work as well. I had a choice of two Macs, but in honesty, for working on the road, there really was no choice at all.

The Mac was going to be my 15-inch M3 MacBook Air. It’s lightweight, has decent battery life and a great display. The most taxing thing I would be doing on it was a bit of basic Final Cut Pro editing. I wanted to edit what I shot each day into a basic timeline so that I stayed as organised as possible.

The MacBook Air, for all its portability, was more than up to the task, and the lack of weight came into play as I was carrying it around most of the day. The only downer for me was that I scratched the display on this trip, and I’m gutted!

They’re only minor, but it’s the first time I’ve ever snatched one of my Mac displays at all. I pointlessly tried in vain to polish them out, but with no joy.

When the M4 MacBook Air came out, I briefly thought about swapping, but I didn’t think I’d gain anything. This week, I think I was proven right. My M3 MacBook Air did everything I asked of it. For something so small and light, it’s ridiculously powerful

It’s the perfect Mac to travel with.

External storage

On this trip, I took about 300 photos and shot hours of video as well. As much as the MacBook Air was fantastic, it only had 512GB of storage.

Over the past few months, I’ve come to rely more and more on external SSDs. These latest Macs are equipped with either Thunderbolt 4 or Thunderbolt 5 ports, so transfer speeds are quick.

My workflow was to come back each night and grab everything that I’d shot that day and get it on the external SSD. I happen to use an Acasis one, which again, isn’t the cheapest, but when I’m storing my data on them, reliability matters more than price alone.

Once I had the day’s shoot on the SSD, I then uploaded it to my UGreen 4800+ NAS back at the studio for complete peace of mind. Luckily, the hotel’s Wi-Fi was reasonably quick, so uploading wasn’t too painful. Not only did it mean I could reformat the SD card each day, but it also meant I knew the files were backed up in two places as well and again, I was keeping my files as organised as possible.

AirPods

Much like with the Mac, I had options as to what AirPods to take.

I have the latest AirPods Max with USB-C charging, AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro. The AirPods Max, although the best in terms of audio by quite a long way, I just figured were too bulky. I wanted to pack as lightly as possible.

I have used the AirPods 4 out and about, and although they offer some noise cancelling, they are not the match of AirPods Pro. The only annoying thing for me was that my AirPods Pro still had lightning charging, which meant I’d have to take one extra cable with me.

Now, I know I could have charged them wirelessly, but I have an issue with that, which I wanted to run past you.

When I try to charge either pair of my AirPods wirelessly, it seems very hit and miss. Sometimes it works, but then other times I go to grab them and they haven’t charged. I always wait to hear the ping to make sure they’re located properly, but even so, it’s not 100% reliable. Is that just me, or do you have the same issue?

If the rumoured AirPods Pro 3 get released next month at the iPhone event, as we expect, it sounds as if they’ll have some pretty tasty upgrades to them. We’re hearing that the H-series chip could get a refresh, along with better 5.4 Bluetooth, too.

There may even be some new health features on AirPods Pro 3 as well that may include heart rate monitoring and temperature sensing.

If all this plays out, I’ll be at the front of the queue. I think my AirPods Pro are quite probably my most-used bit of kit. They pretty much go with me everywhere, and with so many changes, unlike with the MacBook Air, it would be money well spent.

Display

The MacBook Air has a lovely Retina display, but even though it’s the larger 15-inch model, it still feels small-ish and fairly cramped to use all day, and of course, it is only a single display.

With the kind of work I do, extra screen real estate is always a must. Over the years, though, I have wasted so much money on portable displays that promised the world yet failed to deliver.

Some may have had an okay display, but the build quality was awful. So many have felt cheap, plasticy and less than premium, and just not fit for purpose. Recently, another creator mentioned to me that I should try displays from the Aussie company Espresso Displays.

The guys behind Espresso Displays are quite clearly Mac fans, as there’s a real nod with their design that leans into the Apple ecosystem. There’s hardly any plastic in sight, and the body of the display is made from aluminium.

The first of their displays I tried was the 15-inch 1080p Display 15. That was so good that it proved to be their gateway display! I ended up taking their 17-inch 4K display with me on this trip. It comes with a stand that means the display sits above the display on the MacBook Air, so no shoulder pain came from sitting working on it.

This display is a touchscreen panel and is fully interactive. It is also as close as I’ve come to Apple’s Retina display – I have no issues editing photos other than videos on it. It has over a billion colours with a 100% DCI-P3 colour space.

It’s bright, has a hardened glass that doesn’t scratch, and there is no need for any external power supply. If you’re looking for a portable display and are a creative of any kind, check them out.

I’ve finally found a portable display I like and can hand on heart recommend.

Connectivity

The last part of the home-from-home jigsaw puzzle was a hub.

The main driver for taking one was that the MacBook Air doesn’t have an SD card reader. Now, sure, I could have just taken a dongle, but I took another bit of Acasis kit with me.

I know I was trying to pack light, but in taking their 21-port 40Gbps dock with me it would offer other benefits. My camera battery charger, for instance, is USB-A. This dock has plenty of these ports on it. Also, the portable lighting I was taking was USB-A, so again, this dock would be perfect.

It would charge my Mac and also has plenty of USB-C ports for charging phones, iPads and watches. So, although chunky, it was the right choice.

Final thoughts

I’ll freely admit I’m not the most experienced when it comes to packing up shop and working away from my desk.

But this week proves it can be done! I both worry and wonder what will happen if I ever have to fly, as I still took enough gear with me that easily filled the boot of my car. But that’s for another day and another story.

As for now, this week I got it right. Most importantly, I didn’t get to my hotel and found that I’d forgotten something that would stop me from working. It was a case of being home-from-home. I was able to work creatively and productively whilst holed up in a hotel room.

I didn’t miss a beat.

It made me realise that I have some lovely kit around me and it’s the kind of kit that I now know will pack up easily enough and help to keep the wheels turning wherever I happen to be working.

I’d always kind of shied away from the chances to travel for fear that I’d lose precious working time. Now, though, it’s a new me.

I enjoyed the experience this past week so much that today I’ve started to plan another trip that will be centred around the new iPhone release in September.

Have Mac, will travel is my new mantra!