It is also important to make sure space will enhance your work rather than work towards its detriment. Ensuring that you have a well-equipped and appropriately designed workspace at home will help you to separate work life from home life, and increase your physical and mental wellbeing when working from your home.
Here are some simple steps to take that can enhance your home workspace.
1. Maximizing Usable Space
Working from home poses many challenges, and can be incredibly difficult. Many of us are used to having ample storage space and a designated office to house work-related items. So when working from home, how can you ensure it is not chaotic and that your work is contained to its own space? By ensuring you are making the most of the space and creating storage space!
If your home office is located in an area that does not maximize space for top efficiency, you will find yourself struggling to decide where to put your work-related items. If you aren’t sure where to keep all your work-related items, a great idea is to install some new storage space that is designated solely for your work items, such as paperwork and files. Maximizing your usable space will make the process of working from home much easier and much more comfortable.
2. Choosing the Appropriate Location in your Home
While the kitchen table may seem like a great area to be working, trying to work in the hub of home activity can be loud, frustrating, and distracting. If you have kids playing a few feet away from you, a spouse watching loud TV, or listening to music and singing along, it may impede your ability to work, receive phone calls, attend online meetings, or simply concentrate effectively on your upcoming projects.
If you cannot find a place in your home that has a closed-door or can offer you your own space, you may need to get creative to give yourself the space you need to focus. If there is no room with a door available to convert, looking for an area and setting up your workspace with less traffic may be a great way to go. Instead, maybe convert a corner of your bedroom, or an area less used in the home.
The less traffic and distractions you have, the better chance you have to be focused and complete great work. If your home is an open concept, you can choose an area away from hallways or centers of activity, to allow for focus and concentration.
The area in which you set up your office is also important to ensure clients and co-workers won’t be seeing personal space or invading the privacy of the people who live in your home. While what is behind you in the office never used to be a concern, with the current global pandemic in-person office meetings, client consultations, and employee reviews are becoming a thing of the past. Most of your work will be conducted online.
As business is not being conducted face to face, the image you present is important and so are the things you allow people to see.
Ensure your coworkers and clients won’t be seeing your spouse cooking in the kitchen or viewing a child’s playroom, or family living room behind you busy with activity, as this can be highly distracting. These areas can be very active and also very personal, to the people viewing them while trying to focus on work.
When designing your office it is important to respect the privacy of the people in your home. You don’t want your camera to be facing a hallway that leads to a bathroom or bedroom, as your family may be caught in view of the camera during moments they would rather not be seen.
By choosing an appropriate space and background, you can immerse yourself in work from the comfort of your own home, and ensure success and productivity, free from distractions and (possibly) embarrassing moments for your family.
3. Choosing the Right Furniture for your Workspace
There are many furniture options available for a home office, depending on the space you have available, and the furniture you choose must help and not hinder you from working from home.
If you have a large room to be turned into an office, a traditional desk may be a great choice to make, but if you are working in the corner of a room, with limited space, a less traditional adjustable or standing desk can help to give you variations throughout your day, and help you feel less stagnant in your workspace.
Your desk space will be where you spend most of your time during the day, so it is important to make sure your furniture is well chosen and will help you to be functional.
While these are just some of the decisions to take into account, and many more items can enhance your workspace, these are a good place to start. Once you have chosen an appropriate workspace, you can fill it with furniture that will help you to stay organized and focused, and you will be able to decorate from there as you so choose.
Decorations are also important, as they can make you feel more relaxed and focus, you can add calendars to the walls, or set up plants to make you feel more at ease and relaxed. After you have chosen the appropriate space, the possibilities are endless, and you will soon find yourself working happily and comfortably from home.
The right equipment and furniture in your home office will make your days run smoothly, and make you happier at work. Don’t allow an inappropriately equipped and set up workspace to get in the way of your best work. Choose an appropriate space and build your dream office there, with nice storage, furniture, and decorations you can’t go wrong.
