To enjoy successful stint working abroad, it is important to ensure that you have the right equipment to aid your work – and nothing is more important than your laptop.

laptop-yellow-pivot © by Salvor

I say laptop because that is the most common choice for remote workers. You may want a tablet, and for some jobs that might be a possibility. But for many workers, myself included, a tablet just does not have the power to do everything that I need it to do.

And if you are involved in creating content of any kind or using your screen for long periods then a laptop is the better option.

Here are a few things that you should make sure your laptop has if you want to get the most out of it.

Wi-Fi

A Wi-Fi-enabled laptop is essential. You are likely to be out and about quite a bit when you work remotely, and if you cannot connect to a Wi-Fi hub then this will get in the way when you want to complete some work in a café, restaurant or other public place where you can connect.

You can even turn some smartphones into Wi-Fi hotspots and then access the internet using your laptop which could help you out when there is no other way to get a connection.

Luckily, most new laptops come with built-in Wi-Fi capabilities so it should not be hard to make sure your laptop comes with this feature.

Good-Quality Webcam

This is important if you plan to hold any face-to-face meetings with clients or team members in other locations. Real-life meetings can often be replaced with video calls which are more personal than audio calls, but a good-quality camera is essential to get the most out of it.

Again, this often comes built-in with many laptops, but you may want to purchase one separately so that you can enjoy even higher-quality video calls.

And of course, this is also great if you plan to speak to friends and family back home during your time overseas.

Lots of Memory

If your laptop has a lot of RAM then you will be able to run more programmes more quickly so that you can do lots of different things all at once such as speaking on Skype, downloading software and working on a project. It may be hard to sort out extra RAM when you are abroad so do this before you leave home. A lot of new laptops now come with 6GB to 8GM of RAM built in, but you can also purchase more separately.

Large Hard Drive

You should try to either have a large hard drive on your laptop or to carry one separately. If you do have a separate hard drive then this can also serve as your physical back up (as well as backing everything up in the cloud of course). It will also allow you to keep a large collection of films, music and photos without worrying about running out of space.

Extra Accessories

There are a number of other accessories that I take with me when I travel to a new location which you might want to take as well.

Along with my laptop I always take a USB mouse and keyboard, a set of headphones and an extra monitor, and this allows me to use my laptop like a desktop computer when I have set up my new office space.

If you work on a laptop all day this is a terrible posture to be in and can lead to bad neck and back ache, so setting up a proper workstation is a good idea. You can then just unplug the laptop when you want to take it out with you.

Invest in the Right Kit

Remember that it can be expensive to buy electrical goods in some countries due to hefty import charges, so do yourself a favour and have a good think about what you might need to take with you before you arrive in your new destination.

A laptop with the above capabilities will help you out enormously and allow you to be more productive wherever you work.

For more tips on how to make your business truly location independent, buy our eBook ‘Head In The Clouds: The Location Independent Office‘