For many of us, work from home is not that new of an experience but with the projection of a global COVID-19 pandemic, the unforeseen necessity and utilization of a home office has been a task. This year, giant companies, like Twitter have allowed work-from-home to its employees forever. Educational institutes including Harvard Business School have launched virtual classrooms and by the looks, they seem to take it further than just this. Although we see the work-from-home and online study to be incorporated fully now, it is not wrong to say that many companies were already working along these lines and the pandemic just catapulted us all into the futuristic approach.
Efficiency thrives in environments where imaginative contemplations blossom, diversions are minimized, and sound vibes stimulate us. Many modern office spaces are intended to maximize efficiency similarly, but our home offices also need these advancements.
The Perfect Home Office Setup
Regardless of whether you are going into business, you are a full-time employee working from home, or you work from your home office occasionally, you can profit by improving your home office for efficiency optimization utilizing these tips.
A dedicated office space
If you are looking to work from your home office for a longer period, you should look for a distinct space that might be a small room that can house a desk and technical equipment.
Most of you might not have a spare space to set up your office although you can convert your guest room into your office for now (as you wouldn’t be hosting any guests for a while). You can also convert rooms that do not get used all the time, like a laundry room, or a porch, into a dual-purpose space.
The basic purpose of this office space is to separate your professional and personal life. If you use your bedroom as your home office, after a while, it would seem like sleeping at your office desk because your work would always be peaking into your life all the time.
Privacy is the key
Once you dedicate a space for your office work, be mindful, and stimulate privacy so that you can concentrate on your work without any hindrance. You might want to politely ask your family members to respect your privacy during work hours.
On the off chance that you cannot find a dedicated workspace and have settled to work in the corner of any functioning room, consider adding a privacy screen or room divider.
Invest in yourself
Investing in your home office is in fact investing in yourself and your well-being. A professional and comfortable work environment ensures productivity and at the end of the day, that is what all of us thrive for.
Desk of your dreams
Work from home can be roughly translated into work from your desk and when you are going to spend a good amount of your day at one desk, you need to get it right. Your desk should ideally incorporate adjustable height so that you can sit when you want and then stretch your legs when you feel like it, just by pushing a button.
You also might want to get yourself a standing desk. A recent study suggests that standing for six hours a day instead of sitting at a desk for the same timeframe can result in a loss of almost six pounds a year.
Comfortability
While it might be tempting to just pull a dining room chair or a couch for your home office, do not make this mistake. Sitting for hours doing work without suitable support for your back is the number one cause of posture positions. You need to invest in an ergonomic office chair that supplies correct support when you are sitting for long hours. You should look for the following features in an ergonomic chair:
- 360-degree spin base
- Adjustable seat depth
- Adjustable armrest and backrest
- Adjustable height
- In-built lumbar support
Perfect spot
Seemingly unimportant, monitor placement can cause a lot of exhaustion and induces stress to a great degree. When installing a monitor in your home office, you need to find a perfect spot so that your eyes and neck feel at home too. This perfect spot varies for everyone and some of the tips to get it right are:
- Your monitor screen should at least be 20 inches away from your eyes.
- The top of the screen should either be below or at eye level. Your eyes should look slightly down when looking
- at the middle of the screen to keep your neck properly aligned.
- Your spine should always be in a neutral position.
Better Lighting, Better Lifestyle
While it is convenient to undermine the environmental effects on your work, it is also wrong. Your atmosphere has a significant impact on your mood in general and a better work environment results in better efficiency. People usually don’t care about setting up a good lighting system when making a home office although it is very important. An overhead lighting unit like a ceiling lamp works the best for home offices.
Moreover, make sure that your monitor’s brightness is neither too bright nor too dim so that you don’t get any eye strain. Although it is subjective, your monitor’s intensity should be a tad bit brighter than your room’s lighting, and the room’s lighting should be enough to read a document.
Great Internet Connection
One of the most important things for a smooth and productive workday is your internet connection. Now that, you need to be connected with the rest of your office team all the time and the video conferences can be summoned at any time, your internet connection should always be stable and its speed should be sufficient to send and receive large data. If your current internet provider does not suffice your needs, it is time to switch to an ISP that provides seamless and lag-free connectivity with blazing-fast internet speeds. Click here to check the best ISP you have been searching for a while.
Dedicated Storage Units
Varying largely from job to job, you might want accessories and stationery other than just a laptop. From pens and papers to box files, you might have to use everything and for all those who have no idea when they are going back to their original offices, it is very important to dedicate storage units. You can use a simple cubby system having small bins or maybe a plastic storage tub if you lack filing cabinets but the bottom line is to specify some storage units for the purpose.
Plan for Company
If you are a salesperson or a customer services representative, you might want to set up a space to entertain clients in your home office. For this matter, you should keep the environment professional and make sure that the pathway to your home office does not include for them to pass any personal space like a kitchen or bedroom.
Parting thoughts
A home office can be anywhere and anything you want – count this as your chance to work as you like. Comfort and presence of mind should be your priority but you can get as creative with your home office space as Don Draper in Madmen!
