7 Essential Tools for Working on the Road The modern office is wherever you happen to be. Here's how to take your work with you and seven tools to help you get it done.

Chefs call it mise en place. It's their setup, their office, their workspace. Knives are laid out, vegetables pre-chopped, spices pulled from the rack. When the orders start coming in, they're ready to cook.

Sitting beside an open window in the bar of Phoenix's Royal Palms hotel one afternoon, luxuriating in the gentle breeze filled with the aroma of orange blossoms, I realized that my own mise en place was right in front of me: the tools of my trade. I had a black Piccadilly notebook (a poor man's Moleskine) and a good pen (a Pilot Precise V5). My new laptop, a Dell Latitude E6430, was positioned beside my iPhone, giving me just as much communication with the outside world as I get in my home office.

From that idyllic spot, I could e-mail, call, fax, tweet, text, read a contract, conduct an interview, write a speech or book dinner reservations. I could also--if I felt like procrastinating--check my stocks, watch satellite TV, get the weather forecast and read most of the newspapers printed in America and beyond. All while sipping a rather extraordinary margarita.