What’s in the backpack of a professional freelancer. What gadgets help to be 100% productive

I have been working on the Internet for over eight years. All this time I have been trying to achieve maximum personal productivity. In this I, among other things, are helped by modern multifunctional gadgets. In the left pocket of shorts, jeans or sportswear I now have an iPhone 11. On the wrist of an Apple Watch Series 5. The rest is in my backpack.

Modern ultrabook

Basic 2020 MacBook Air Powered by Apple M1 Chipset

I chose the most affordable MacBook Air on M1 as my main working tool. It has a 256 GB drive and 8 GB of RAM. In continuous operation mode, it discharges 10% per hour. If you take breaks, it will last even for 12 or more hours of use. The laptop is charged via USB-C. 30 W of Power Delivery is enough for him to fully power up. Performance is also heady. I don’t edit video, but I regularly work with image and sound processing. The laptop also copes with office documents perfectly. Only the brightness of the screen is not enough for me – 400 nits.

Tablet with stylus

128GB iPad 7th generation with 1st generation Apple Pencil

I don’t always throw a tablet in my backpack, but I still do it quite often. I use it for handwritten notes, for which the standard Notes are great. Apple Pencil responds very accurately to touching the screen – you can fully take notes in lectures and seminars.

Wireless headphones

Prefer TWS in-ear – now on AirPods Pro

Until I started using it, I was sure that AirPods Pro completely cut off ambient sounds using the active noise cancellation system. In practice, they only muffle the most monotonous ones. However, you can comfortably work with such TWS even in a fairly crowded cafe. This is great.

Universal power supply

65W Baseus GaN Quick Travel Charger Multiport

To charge all my gadgets, I use one single power supply, which is based on gallium nitride. The USB-C ports, which are a couple, support Power Delivery. There is enough power to charge both a laptop and a smartphone. There is also a USB-A interface for traditional cables. It is important to note that charging three gadgets at once, despite the high declared power, is quite difficult for this power supply. However, most of the time I only need to charge my iPhone 11, which has become the weakest link among my devices. But Baseus GaN Quick Travel Charger helps keep it in shape.

• To this topic: What are GaN chargers and how they differ from conventional adapters

Set of cables

Belkin USB-C to USB-C, to Lightning, USB-A adapter

I am trying to buy Belkin cables. Today, almost everyone around me is from this manufacturer. During use, they showed themselves on the positive side. None of them have failed yet, although the oldest (USB-C to USB-C) is about three years old. Excellent result.

External battery

ZMI10 20,000 mAh with Power Delivery, power up to 45 W

An external battery that I bought back in 2017. The number of abrasions on its body clearly shows how much it has gone through. It has one USB-C port in and out, as well as a pair of USB-A ports that can only distribute energy. Through Type-C, it delivers up to 45 watts, and this is enough even for a laptop. The 2020 MacBook Air on the M1 can be fully charged with such an external battery, and there is still energy left for the iPhone. In general, the thing is cool. The only one weighs 405 grams. Therefore, if without a backpack, I take a 5000 mAh Mophie “can” with me – this is enough for a smartphone.

External drive

Samsung 860 Evo-Series 500 GB in Transcend’s pocket

I assembled an external drive based on a high-speed SSD from Samsung. 500GB is enough to fit the information I need, but the MacBook Air won’t fit. The only thing is that the laptop does not always provide the power required to power such a thing. Therefore, I’m thinking about replacing it with an external Samsung T7 SSD.

Universal flash drive

Dual SANDISK Ultra Dual with USB-C and USB-A 32GB

A flash drive that runs at USB 3.0 speed. Its main feature is the presence of two connectors at once: USB-C and USB-A. This makes it possible to connect the drive to any computer, as well as to TVs and other gadgets. By the way, 32 GB for small files is more than enough for me.

Universal hub

Kingston Multiport Nucleum Hub

A pair of USB-A standard 3.0, a pair of USB-C, one of which can be used to charge a laptop, as well as a card reader with a pair of connectors and HDMI for connecting a monitor, projector or TV. This dock connects to the computer using a short cable, which is much more convenient than a tight port-to-port docking. The latter is not practical, especially if the laptop is not used on a table. There is a risk of breaking the USB-C ports, which can lead to time-consuming and costly repairs. The only pity is that the case of this hub is very scratched even with careful use.

Additionally

Lightning to microUSB adapter, macro lenses for iPhone

Among other things, I also always have an unnamed Lightning to microUSB adapter in my backpack for charging old gadgets. And then there are a couple of fairly high-quality macro lenses from the Black Eye company, which I bought four years ago. With the help of them, close-up photos were taken for this material.