Before you load your bag with gadgets, take an honest inventory:
What do you actually use every single day?
Not what you admire, not what you bought because a YouTuber pitched it — what you reach for without thinking.
Travel punishes unnecessary gear. If it isn’t core to how you work, communicate, capture, or navigate, you’re just babysitting plastic.

Why this matters

When you don’t define your core devices, the bag fills itself.
You end up hauling backups for the backups and chargers for equipment you won’t unpack.
Identifying your daily-drivers means you carry:
• less weight
• fewer cables
• fewer decisions
• fewer points of failure
A tight kit gives you fewer excuses and faster setup anywhere — airport lounge, Airbnb table, coffee shop, or train seat.

How to choose your core devices

Start with the backbone:
• One laptop you actually use
• One phone that does the heavy lifting — maps, camera, messaging, payments
Then pick one capture device — not seven.
If you shoot video, phone or Meta glasses.
If you photograph seriously, bring one camera, not a museum.
Everything else should orbit these — not replace them.

What people get wrong

Travelers overpack tech because they imagine future versions of themselves.
“I’ll become a filmmaker in Bali,”
“I’ll edit cinematic footage on the plane,”
“I may start vlogging.”
No you won’t — not if you aren’t already doing it weekly at home.
Mission-specific fantasies produce unnecessary gear and dead weight.

When specialist gear belongs

Only when it meets these checks:
• It earns money
• It protects money
• It supports an identity you actually live
Otherwise, your phone and laptop handle 90% of life.
The rest just clutters packing cubes.

What this unlocks

Your bag shrinks.
Your focus strengthens.
Your workflow stabilizes.
When everything you carry is something you use, travel becomes lighter and sharper — and you actually do the work you flew across the planet to do.

Pro tips

• Pick one primary capture device
• Keep laptop and phone as the backbone
• Avoid anything mission-fantasy specific
• Use Meta glasses or phone for fast shots only

Final thought

Your core tech kit isn’t the dream setup — it’s the real one you use every day.
Start there and the rest gets easier.