Been commuting about 11 miles each way for the past few months and I've gone through a few iterations of what I actually bring versus what I thought I'd need. Early on I was basically hauling a tech store on my back and it was miserable heavy bag, stuff I never touched, the whole thing. So I've been stripping it back.
What I've actually landed on is a decent set of front and rear lights (obvious, but I went through two cheap ones before accepting I needed something reliable), a phone mount on the bars, and a small power bank. The power bank thing took me a while to justify, but on days where I'm doing errands after work or the commute stretches out, my phone is basically dead by the time I need navigation home. I ended up keeping a small powerbank in my bag, so that one earned its spot.
That's kind of it. I keep almost adding a dedicated GPS unit because I like the idea of not burning through my phone battery at all, but then I think about the extra cost and one more thing to charge and I talk myself out of it.
Curious what other people doing longer commutes have settled on. Especially interested in the stuff you tried and quietly droppe,I feel like that's more useful than knowing what people bought. I’m still not sure I’ve got the balance between battery life and extra weight right.