Navigating a typical workday isn’t always easy. Regardless of how well you schedule your tasks, meetings, and calls, something will likely go wrong. This is normal, but it can be disruptive. While you can’t foresee or stop daily annoyances, there are several tools and accessories that can help make your workday smoother.

1. Strong Cases For Your Devices

If you use any mobile devices for work, like your smartphone or iPad, make sure they’re protected by a strong, durable case. One of the most frustrating things you could possibly experience is being in the middle of working on something important when you accidentally drop your device and watch the screen shatter. Durable cases prevent screens from shattering when dropped and can also protect your hard drive against shocks.

The consequences of not protecting your devices can be severe. For instance, screens are replaceable, but you might lose your data if you drop your device. If you’re using a company iPad and are required to protect it, you might be responsible for replacing the device if it wasn’t in a case when it broke.

2. Have a Mini Water Dispenser at Your Desk

It used to be that businesses had a water cooler in the office that provided employees with both cold and hot water. Today, not all offices have a water cooler and employees are expected to bring their own water. The problem is that once you drink all the water in your cup or bottle, there’s no refill station.

Staying hydrated throughout the day is critical. Water is essential to life and people who stay hydrated tend to be healthier because water flushes out toxins from the cells and helps with a variety of other bodily functions, like digestion, respiration, hormone production, and joint lubrication. When you’re dehydrated, you’re not going to feel good.

If your boss doesn’t provide you with water, or if you work at home, keep a little dispenser at your desk so you never have to waste your lunch hour driving to the grocery store to buy water.

3. A Dock for Video Meetings

Most teams today use Zoom or Microsoft Teams for video conferencing, but it can be annoying to set up multiple monitors. Many people find technical issues at work to be the most frustrating experience of all. There’s nothing like trying to set up monitors for a conference and not being able to make it work right, pushing the meeting out.

That’s why docks were created. For instance, Logitech makes a dock that connects two monitors at once. It comes with built-in meeting controls, a speakerphone, six microphones, and clear audio.

4. A Wraparound Monitor

If you’ve been looking at monitors in recent years, you’ve probably noticed that manufacturers are starting to make curved monitors. Most people use them for gaming, but others have come to like this monitor style.

If you usually have a dual-screen setup at your desk, your monitors are likely taking up valuable space that you could be using for other work. If you’re lucky, your boss installed a vertical mount for your monitors, but most people are just using two monitors side-by-side with a bunch of cables to connect them to their computer. This is where the wraparound monitor saves the day.

Samsung’s Odyssey OLED G9 is a 49-inch monitor that is slightly curved and wraps around you. Instead of switching between two different monitors, you can use this single monitor to see everything you’re working on with continuity on the screen.

5. An Aeropress

Most office coffee is terrible, but you can make coffee right at your desk with an Aeropress. Highly revered in the coffee world, the Aeropress is a non-electric coffee maker with a small footprint and shouldn’t break any rules about having appliances at your desk. All you do is add your coffee grounds, add the hot water, and push the plunger to “press” the hot water through the grounds. It’s similar to a French press, but it uses additional technology that allows you to use a finer grind, which creates a smooth cup of coffee.

Get the tools that will support your workflow

Your workflow is crucial to producing quality results at work. Whether you work for yourself or someone else, invest in the tools that will smooth out your workflow and reduce the amount of frustration you experience throughout the day. When you do, you’ll get more done and feel better while working.