Nothing beats a Chromebook for letting you stay productive while soaking up the sun during your travels! Most Chromebooks are smaller and easier to transport than regular laptops, and they are much more suitable for office and creative work than tablets. So, they’re the ideal laptop choice when you need to get some work done while traveling.
While Chromebooks are already easy to use and geared towards on-the-go pros, you’ll get a lot more work mileage from your laptop if you follow these expert tips.
Take Advantage of Cloud-Based Applications
The Chromebook is the ideal gateway to countless online productivity features. As long as you have a stable internet connection, you can create and share documents, communicate via email or video, or take over a remote desktop to accomplish more resource-intensive tasks from thousands of miles away.
Unsurprisingly, Chromebooks work effortlessly with online apps like Google’s Workspace and Drive. The latter is invaluable for keeping online backups of crucial work files and syncing them across devices.
A great bonus point about Chromebooks is that even web-based productivity apps that aren’t linked to Google won’t drain your resources. Importantly, they’ll take only a few tries before you get the hang of working with them.
Protect Your Privacy and Data
When traveling, you never know when you’ll have time to work—whether on an intercity bus tour or while relaxing at a café. Either way, you’ll most likely want to use the complimentary public Wi-Fi, but that’s not a good idea if you care about your privacy and data safety.
For hackers, public Wi-Fi is easy to exploit, as it doesn’t take much skill to tap into and snoop on anyone who connects. One careless login to your personal accounts or an online purchase could expose your sensitive data.
You can avoid this terrifying situation by turning on a VPN Chrome extension. VPNs encrypt your internet connection, making it untraceable.
This lets you log into websites or handle sensitive work documents without fear of being compromised. It also enables you to watch shows and other content from home that were otherwise unavailable due to geographic restrictions. Sounds like a great work-and-life balance trick!
Bring the Right Accessories
The portability and small size of Chromebooks make them excellent travel companions, but just like any other gadget, they impose limitations. The trackpad works well enough for casual use, but nothing can match the convenience and precision of a dedicated mouse.
There’s a whole niche of travel mice designed to be small, easy to connect, and usable on almost any surface that will considerably improve your productivity.
Moreover, you don’t want to be caught without power while working on a time-sensitive report. So, a high-capacity power bank is essential.
Speaking of power, don’t forget to bring a universal power adapter when traveling abroad, as plug shapes and voltages in your visiting country may not be compatible with your device.
Learn Keyboard Shortcuts
While you can do much with a mouse, you won’t reach optimum efficiency until you master the right shortcuts when working with your Chromebook.
After all, pressing the right key combination is much faster and more effective than navigating your cursor through a bunch of menus. Here are the essential keyboard shortcuts for the Chromebook itself, but be sure to search for app-specific shortcuts as well.
Save Your Battery
Finding the time and place to recharge your Chromebook can be a hassle, even if you bring all the right gadgets to your trip. Minimize the need to power up your laptop by maximizing its battery life!
Save your Chromebook’s battery by dimming the screen and muting the sound. Close any unnecessary tabs and avoid watching videos or playing games until you are sure there’s a way to recharge the laptop.
This is especially important, as watching 4K movies and gaming drains the battery and forces the Chromebook’s fans to work harder, which uses even more power to keep the laptop cool.
Stay Connected
A strong and reliable internet connection is crucial for working while traveling. Since we’ve already established that public Wi-Fi is unsafe, consider using an eSIM.
If you don’t know what is eSIM card, think of it as a way to avoid expensive roaming charges. eSIMs let you connect to local carriers’ networks without needing to buy a physical SIM card.
eSIMs are convenient because you can switch carriers easily and access strong signals across multiple countries as eSIM UK, ensuring you get the best mobile data deals at all times.
Not all Chromebooks support eSIMs, and if yours doesn’t, you can still use an eSIM on your phone. Simply order a data plan, turn your phone into a mobile hotspot, and enjoy the same benefits.
Work Effectively Offline
Sometimes, going online isn’t an option. You might be in the middle of nowhere or forget to set up an eSIM plan. In cases like this, it’s smart to plan ahead and prepare your Chromebook to operate offline.
Download all the files you know you’ll need and save offline copies of websites you’ll want to use for research. Use various apps’ offline modes to work now and sync later, so you don’t lose any progress while staying productive.
Conclusion
Having a Chromebook with you ensures that your work doesn’t suffer while you’re traveling and expanding your horizons. Remember the tips you’ve learned when you travel next, and stay on top of your work.
The post How to Maximize Productivity While Traveling with a Chromebook appeared first on About Chromebooks.