With the rise of hybrid workplaces, more homes have become home offices, which has brought new challenges for productivity. Staying on-task while surrounded by the trappings and distractions of your home can be tricky, but well-chosen hardware and a mix of office software can tip the balance in your favor. One of the first devices I recommend for any new home office user is one of the best NAS devices around, as they recreate many of the functions of an office workspace to help you stay productive. While everyone's needs are different, there are some more-or-less universal productivity tools that your NAS should be running.

5 Peace of mind

Because we all work better when we're not distracted

If your computer is anything like mine, it's probably stuffed with important files and projects that would be tricky to reproduce if anything happened. That's why having a robust backup solution always pays off, with important data saved in multiple locations. Cloud services like Google Drive and Dropbox are good at what they do, but you don't really own your storage space, and accidents that remove your data could happen.

For the utmost level of control, you can't beat having a local server running on a NAS to back up your devices. The good models have their own backup solutions that you can install on your devices and automatically sync your files with, or you can roll your own using services like Nextcloud and know that your projects are safely being duplicated onto your NAS. Knowing your files are being backed up regularly keeps your mind clear to focus on important tasks, and you won't lose any productivity if the worst happens to your devices, as everything will be backed up.

4 Automate your smart home

Home Assistant is one of the best things ever made

I'm a big proponent of setting up automation to handle the drudgery of daily life, whether that's using Power Automate on your Windows PC, or using IFTTT and Zapier to fill in the holes between the IoT devices around my home. That's why I love Home Assistant, which lets you connect the disparate controls and apps for the cornucopia of smart home devices into one easily controllable dashboard, running right on your NAS. Everything from your HVAC to lighting can be controlled by whatever triggers you decide, like using the weather report to change your HVAC settings to stay comfortable.

You can use it to set up a home security system with a few USB webcams, give voice control to devices that don't have it natively, like garage door openers, or seemingly countless integrations from any smart home device manufacturer you can name. The initial setup can be a little involved due to the depth of features on offer, but once set up, you can be far more productive by offloading repetitive tasks to Home Assistant.

3 Self-host your own private cloud

Nextcloud turns your NAS into Google Drive for free

A well-ordered workspace is key to productivity, and while cloud storage providers are useful, the subscription fees add up pretty quickly. Plus, you might not be comfortable having your data in the hands of another company. One way to keep your files in order while saving money is by adding Nextcloud to your NAS, which is a super easy way to turn your Network Attached Storage device into a private cloud for your use.

The best part is that once it's set up, you can run its applications on your computers and mobile devices and have your files automatically sync just like the big names in cloud storage. With a little more setup of a VPN like WireGuard or Tailscale or reverse proxy like Nginx, you can access your saved files from anywhere. It doesn't stop at file storage; there is a whole Google suite replacement through Nextcloud Office, so you can work without needing any other productivity software.

2 Roll your own VPN

And access your NAS from anywhere in the world

Once you've set up your NAS as a private cloud, you're well on your way to productivity nirvana while on your home network. But to ensure peak productivity while away from home, you'll want to set up a solution for accessing your files from anywhere. We like WireGuard for this purpose, but it's time to set up Tailscale on your NAS for a more powerful way to access your files. It's built on the WireGuard VPN protocol, but instead of running a single VPN server, it creates a decentralized mesh known as a tailnet. Tailscale hosts the servers coordinating these mesh networks, including sharing IP addresses and public keys.

With a little more setup, you can turn your NAS into an exit node for your tailnet, effectively turning it into a VPN for all your devices. The best part is that, unlike the pain of DNS setup for consumer VPN services, Tailscale's MagicDNS handles giving all your devices hostnames on a unique subdomain on Tailscale's DNS servers. This makes running and advertising services across your devices almost effortless, making enterprise-grade networking easy.

1 Filter trackers and advertising

It's time to shut your Pi-hole

Being distracted is a killer of productivity, and nowhere else is as distracting as browsing the internet. Browser-based adblockers are helpful, but they don't stop all of the tracking and targeted advertising that appears on your devices, especially if some of those don't support browser extensions. Pi-hole is a powerful tool for blocking tracking of all kinds, and while the name came from running on Raspberry Pi hardware, it's just at home running on a NAS.

Once running, adding your NAS's internal IP address to your devices' DNS field keeps trackers and other nonsense away from your devices. Say goodbye to targeted advertising, privacy concerns, and many other things that harm your productivity in one fell swoop. It only takes a few minutes to reclaim your sanity from the assault of online advertising, and it's well worth doing.

A NAS provides the structure you need for productivity at home

It's hard to stay productive when the lines between work and home are blurred. Having a NAS at home can help, by keeping your work files backed up and away from your personal devices so that you can switch off at the end of the day. They're also particularly helpful if you prefer to control your data, as they can perform as a private cloud that you can access from anywhere.