Having a mobile office sounds like a great idea — at least until it’s time to take your smartphone, notebook, tablet, digital camera, batteries, cables, memory cards and everything else along on a business trip. At that point, your gadget collection — which grows larger each year as new "must have" devices are released — begins to look more like a millstone than a portable productivity resource.

Yet it doesn’t have to be that way, says Randall M. Kessler, a Marietta, Ga., attorney who flies out of town at least twice a month to deliver family law lectures to attorneys, judges, accountants, financial advisors and others. Like other lawyers who spend a great deal of time on the road, Kessler understands that careful planning can make traveling with tech as worry-free as it was in the days of payphones and portable typewriters — only much more convenient and productive.

Juggling Phones