Carry-on slash day bag for my flight and 10-hour layover in Brussels. From top-left, like a book:
- 13″ Macbook Air
- Laptop Charger
- Lightning and Micro USB extendable cords – rather than charging each device with its own proprietary charger, I bring these little guys. They can pull out to be about 2 feet long, but coil back into themselves when not in use. Astonishing how nice it is to avoid charging cables in my bag, and largely inspired my almost-totally-cable-free carryon.
- Stainless Steel water bottle (Colorado state flag!)
- Nikon camera on loan from my Dad (Thanks Dad!)
- Mini Listerine, since I always feel gross after a flight. A little mouthwash is really refreshing, I think. It’s new and sealed since I’ve had half-full ones tossed by the TSA without even a moment of hesitation.
- Airborne – because I live in fear of getting sick while travelling.
- Kindle
- Kindle Light – because airplane overhead lights are irritating to my seatmates, and don’t provide enough light to read by.
- Wireless headphones – earbuds really irritate my ears after about an hour of use, plus they have cords, so this is a great way to kill two birds for me.
- These three devices are all portable USB chargers, from Anker, Jackery and Anker, top-to-bottom.
- Not sure what to call this. A blindfold? An eye cover? A nap enhancer? The headband also has a little pocket for earplugs, which is awesome.
- International power converter, with built-in dual USB ports.
- Gamestorming, a great book I wrote about previously – we’re spending this upcoming week setting up a roadmap for our team’s next six months, so the materials and activities in this book will be very helpful.
All this, plus if there’s a bit of space, my standard Dopp kit (deodorant, toothbrush, etc)
Simon Ouderkirk 
What kind of headphones do you have? Am looking for a new pair.
These are Outdoor Tech Privates – http://www.outdoortechnology.com/Shop/Privates/ – I really like them a lot. You can adjust the volume and skip tracks using the touch pad on the side.
OMG it comes in turquoise.
Thanks Kathryn, I was about to ask the same thing 🙂
How happy are you with these? I can’t stand earbuds either, but I never found any foldable headphones that didn’t hurt after a few hours (by pushing the arms of my glasses into the side of my head), or make me sweat. I travel with the headphones I use at home because they’re really comfortable and reduce outside noise, but they take almost half of my carry-on.
I am very happy with them – at first I was bummed that they are on-ear, rather than over-ear, but the on-ear means that they place less pressure on my glasses, which has also caused me some headaches in the past. I haven’t gotten any sort of headache or ear pain using them. I would recommend them, especially since you can use them fully wirelessly via bluetooth on airplanes now.
I have these headphones in my cart and am close to buying them, found them on sale at a Canadian retailer. 😉 I would also like to know how well they block out external sound. I noticed they don’t claim to be noise-cancelling. Anything would be an improvement over what I have and I’ve fallen in love with the turquoise, but just curious.
Jeremy – interesting I noticed that the band has what looks like a canvas fabric covering. Maybe a good thing on the sweating front, i.e. that they’re not plastic/rubber?
They aren’t as good as over-ear headphones, or specifically designed noise-cancelling headphones, but at the price point (and the wireless feature), I can’t really complain about that. I haven’t noticed any problems with outside noise, but that’s not a feature that’s super important to me, so ymmv.
The entire top band is a woven canvas type cloth, not rubber or bare plastic.
Ended up buying these headphones and just used them on a 2-week trip. Listened to the entire first season of Serial. Love ’em and would recommend ’em! Thanks again!
So are you checking a bag with clothes or carrying on that as well?
See ya Monday!
I am checking a bag with clothes (and office supplies!), this is my carry-on and day bag 🙂
Travel well and have a great time
Thanks Dad!
As big of a techie as I am – I think the most essential item in your bag here is the listerine. I too feel so gross after a flight. Haha