# Working from the Beach Review

Publish Date: 2022-04-10

I live very near the beach currently and want to make the most of it, knowing that I likely won't live near one forever. Armed with a desire to enjoy life, a world freshly molded by a global pandemic, and a few beach accessories, I set off to change my work-from-home environment from a boring home office, to a luxurious beach atmosphere.

## The Plan

My goal was to spend an entire day working from the beach. I currently work from home in the field of software development, so this seemed achievable. For this to work, I planned out a few requirements and things I would need.

#### Requirements

My list was simple:

- Good weather
- Good enough cell reception
- A day without too many meetings

##### Things To Bring

This is the checklist I created in advance to make sure I had everything I needed for success. I already owned everything I thought I would need, so this plan would not cost me anything.

**Beach Equipment**

- Wagon
- Small Folding Table
- Beach blanked & towel
- Sunscreen
- Beach Chair
- Beach Umbrella
- Sunglasses
- Hat
- Jacket

**Work Equipment**

- Laptop
- Battery
- Headphones
- Monitor (optional)
- Tablet (optional)

**Food**

- Cooler
- Ice packs
- Water Bottles
- Lunch
- Snacks

**Dogs**

- Dog Backpack
- Water Bowl
- Leash Spike

Ah yes, I forgot to mention I have two dogs that I did not want to leave at home alone, so they must be included. Go ahead and add them to the list of requirements.

## The Day Of

We actually start the day before when I realized the weather was looking great and I packed up the beach wagon with all my supplies except food, so that I would be ready to go in the morning with nothing in my way.

I decided not to bring an extra monitor for my first day out of fear of running out of battery, so I brought my tablet instead.

Since my biggest concern was whether or not I would have a strong enough internet connection while tethered to my phone, I took my 9am morning standup meeting at home as usual. After helping out with a few issues in the morning that I didn't want to risk missing, I grabbed drinks, my lunch, the dogs, and we were out just after 10am.

My walk to the beach took about 20 minutes. There is a closer beach about 10 minutes away that does not allow dogs, so I made the trek to the dog friendly spot. The wagon was easy to pull and the dogs behaved.

[![Beach-JustArrived.jpg](https://www.wswapps.com/uploads/images/gallery/2022-04/scaled-1680-/9oi6jxIqiwxaA6H5-beach-justarrived.jpg)](https://www.wswapps.com/uploads/images/gallery/2022-04/9oi6jxIqiwxaA6H5-beach-justarrived.jpg)

Setup was quick and easy. In no time at all we were settled and my office was open for business.

[![Beach-Front.jpg](https://www.wswapps.com/uploads/images/gallery/2022-04/scaled-1680-/sWFJDTVMUFHOGcYS-beach-front.jpg)](https://www.wswapps.com/uploads/images/gallery/2022-04/sWFJDTVMUFHOGcYS-beach-front.jpg)

[![Beach-Rear.jpg](https://www.wswapps.com/uploads/images/gallery/2022-04/scaled-1680-/5YXT61kPv420qL8g-beach-rear.jpg)](https://www.wswapps.com/uploads/images/gallery/2022-04/5YXT61kPv420qL8g-beach-rear.jpg)

[![Beach-MyView.jpg](https://www.wswapps.com/uploads/images/gallery/2022-04/scaled-1680-/0cXKj3Uo4L4cpVPS-beach-myview.jpg)](https://www.wswapps.com/uploads/images/gallery/2022-04/0cXKj3Uo4L4cpVPS-beach-myview.jpg)

I checked in with a colleague in the morning over a video call to test out my reception and slightly brag. To my surprise we were able to have a 20 minute long call with no issue other than my Bluetooth headphones disconnecting once. I felt I was set for the day and this would work well.

Tethering off a cell phone is not an ideal internet setup, and I did experience some slowdowns throughout the day. An afternoon one-on-one meeting was troublesome and I called the person's cell directly. Another meeting where I was an active participant with about 15 people went great.

Towards the very end of the day I noticed a significant slowdown in internet speed. I suspect my cell carrier was throttling or de-prioritizing my traffic for using so much bandwidth while tethering.

I worked all day long until 6pm, with a lunch break to eat and run the dogs through the waves. Despite the occasional network hiccup, I was able to get all my development tasks done, as well as project planning, code review, and meetings. When I needed to think or step back from my work for a moment, my beautiful surroundings made this much more relaxing and less stress inducing.

I particularly around 5pm when a family that had been enjoying a beach vacation day nearby packed up and asked me what I did for a living. Their initial guesses were writer or day trader. Not bad guesses, but I hope this post helps prove even more people can and should work outside.

## Lessons Learned

- I had much more battery power than I needed. This could likely be done without any extra battery if your laptop is newer. With battery saver mode, I was shocked how long my battery last. I used to think my laptop battery would die within 3 hours.
- An extra monitor would be nice, but is not at all necessary. I checked the power draw and tested this at home later. My battery could easily power a monitor all day, so next time I'll bring it.
- My tablet didn't end up helping much, but I did use it to play music and check notifications. I will bring it for email/chat/etc notifications only when not bringing a second monitor.
- Meetings didn't work well on a tethered device. I always ended up switching to the phone app. I suspect this is due to carrier throttling.
- Internet is definitely the limiting factor. If I decide to do this even semi-regularly, I will look into a mobile hotspot device to see if the traffic will be better prioritized. I may also need to upgrade to a plan with higher tethering allowance.

## My Equipment

**Battery - RAVPower PD Pioneer (RP-PB187 70,200 mAh)**

At the time of writing, this specific model is out of stock, but you can find their other models here: [https://www.ravpower.com/collections/pd-pioneer-power-bank](https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1223007&u=3199205&m=81599&urllink=www%2Eravpower%2Ecom%2Fcollections%2Fpower%2Dbank&afftrack=wswapps)

**Laptop - System76 Darter Pro**

[Read my review](https://www.wswapps.com/books/physical-things/page/system76-darter-pro "System76 Darter Pro")

**Table - $20 aluminum table from Marshalls**

## Takeaway

If you get the chance, take it. Maybe you're not by the beach, but a nice park can be just as relaxing a place to work for the day. Heck, you could even just sit in your yard. I hear the wifi is better there.

**Update:** I did this again in 2024, this time with a buddy as well. Things went great and being able to refer to this for a list of things to bring made it even easier. I live slightly further from the beach now so this time I drove instead of walked. Once again the most difficult part was positioning myself to get a decent cell connection. I should find an area of beach with better reception.

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