Packing list for a two-week work trip, under 1 kg of desk gear

Two weeks away is long enough that you need a real workspace, and short enough that you don't want to haul one. Most of us have made both mistakes: packing nothing and spending ten days hunched over a hotel dressing table, or packing a bag of adapters you never open.

This is the list we actually travel with. The desk gear comes in under 1 kg and fits in a carry-on backpack next to the clothes.

The rule: carry what you use every day

Before you pack anything, ask one question: will I use this every working day? If the answer is "maybe", it stays at home. Two weeks is long enough to buy something you forgot, and most things you think you might need, you won't.

The desk gear

Fold-Flat Laptop Stand, 379 g. The heaviest item, and the one that makes the biggest difference. It lifts the screen towards eye level, so the hotel desk or café table doesn't decide your posture for you. It folds flat and slides into the laptop sleeve, so it takes no extra space.

Solid Desk Mat, about 300 g. 30 × 70 cm, 2 mm thick. It gives the mouse a surface on glass and varnished tables, keeps the laptop off whatever is on the table, and rolls up for the side pocket of the bag. It also makes a strange hotel desk feel like yours for the week.

Pocket USB-C Hub, 70 g. HDMI 4K for the odd hotel TV or meeting room screen, two USB-A ports, USB-C data, SD and microSD slots, and 100 W charging pass-through. It plugs straight into the laptop with no cable. Check first that your laptop has two USB-C ports side by side on one side, as on MacBook Air and MacBook Pro; with a single port it won't fit.

A compact wireless mouse, around 60 to 100 g. Any small one. With a stand, a mouse and ideally a keyboard stop you typing at an awkward angle.

Total so far: roughly 810 to 850 g, depending on the mouse.

The cables

Laptop charger and its USB-C cable. It comes with the laptop, so we don't count it in the desk gear, but it is the one thing you cannot forget. Plug it into the hub's PD port and it charges the laptop while everything else is connected.

One phone cable. Into a USB-A or USB-C port on the hub, so the laptop charger charges both.

One plug adapter for the country you are going to. One. A single adapter for the laptop charger is enough when the phone charges from the laptop.

Keep the cables in a small pouch so they don't end up wrapped around everything else.

Optional, if it earns its place

A compact wireless keyboard, about 200 to 400 g. If you write a lot, bring one. With the screen raised on the stand, a separate keyboard is what keeps your wrists comfortable. With it, the total still comes in around 1 to 1.2 kg.

Earbuds or headphones. For calls and for trains. You probably carry them anyway.

What we stopped packing

• A second laptop charger. One is enough.
• A travel power strip. The hub already turns one socket into a laptop charger, phone charger and four more ports.
• A separate mouse pad. The desk mat does it, and is big enough for the laptop too.
• Extra HDMI and USB-C cables "just in case". In two weeks of travel we needed one HDMI cable once, and the hotel had it.
• A laptop riser that doesn't fold. If it doesn't go in the sleeve, it doesn't come.

How it fits in the bag

• Laptop sleeve: laptop and the folded stand, side by side.
• Side pocket: the rolled desk mat.
• Cable pouch: charger, phone cable, adapter, hub and mouse.
• Main compartment: clothes, packed around the sleeve so the laptop sits flat against your back.

The full list with weights

Day one, wherever you land

At the hotel, before you unpack the clothes, set up the desk: mat down, stand up, laptop on, hub in. Two minutes, and the room has a place to work for the next fortnight. Then go and find the café you'll be working from tomorrow.