Home Office Essentials

A home office should have furniture to make it look and feel like a real office to ensure that you are focused on the task at hand.

Whether you’re a student or self-employed, you should have at least a desk, chair, filing cabinet and essential stationery items.

Furniture can make your home office look professional and makes it easier to work. Having a desk and chairs will help you focus on your work as a student. If you are self-employed and plan on entertaining a potential client, additional chairs and a table will be required.

There are many different types of furniture available for home offices. You can buy ready-made furniture from a store or build your own furniture from scratch.

Whichever option you choose, make sure you have enough furniture to create a professional-looking office.

Home Office Considerations

A home office is a place where you can get your work done without any distractions. It’s also a place where you can stay focused and work from the comfort of your own home. The only thing that will be distracting you is the phone, but there are ways to keep it out of sight all day long.

In order to have a successful home office, there are some things that you need to consider first. You should first decide on what kind of furniture will be best for your needs and what kind of space you have available in your house. If it’s a small space, then it would be best to go for compact furniture that doesn’t take up too much space. If it’s a large space, you can go for more traditional furniture such as desks and chairs with armrests and tables with storage spaces underneath them.

What do I need in my home office?

Have you been working from home and have practically worked out of every space imaginable in the house, from the living room to bedroom, two couches to chairs? If the answer is yes, perhaps it’s time to invest in a more permanently located home office.

This new office will provide you with the workspace that is necessary to meet all of your needs. Along with allowing you to meet deadlines and produce quality work more efficiently, you can have additional free time and a place to relax.

When it comes to furniture for a home office space, there are a few must-haves. First, your office chair should be ergonomic and comfortable to allow you to work for any length of time without discomfort.

Secondly, you should invest in an office desk to give you a clear working space.

Third, you will need to have secure storage for all your paperwork.

Tips for Creating a Home Office in Your Garage

When working from home, it is imperative to create a separate space that is dedicated to being productive, away from the comforts and distractions of your personal life. One excellent place to set up an office is in your garage. You may find that there is a corner that you could clear out and set up comfortably to work in.

Tips

• Clean the space thoroughly before bringing in any office furniture. Get rid of cobwebs, dust and dirt.

• Paint the walls and ceiling a light colour, to brighten things up or possibly just the area you have sectioned off for your office.

• Ensure that you have good lighting. You may need an put a lamp in, if there is not otherwise sufficient lighting.

• Keep yourself comfortable with either a space heater or fan.

• Ensure that you have enough outlets to safely plug in all electrical items.

• Consider a dehumidifier, if necessary.

• If doing a full garage upgrade, insulate the walls.

You can use these tips to do as much or a little of a renovation to carve out your office space, as you want to.

Organising Your Home Office

One thing that is so easy to do, is to allow your office to become cluttered and disorderly, when you are extremely busy and short on time. However, it is incredibly important to your mental health and the productivity of your work, that you take the time to organise and sort out your office space. Working in a space that is too busy and cluttered can lead to you misplacing important notes or paperwork or becoming mentally bogged down from the mess.

Quick Tips for Office Organisation

1. One drawer at a time- to help you get more organised, take the time to organise one drawer a day, just to help slowly tackle the clutter.

2. Throw away 3 things- pick three unnecessary things that have found their way into your workspace and throw them out.

3. Keep desktop clear- try keeping your desktop clear of any unnecessary items for one week and just see how much better that makes you feel.

Just doing a few simple things like the tips above can help you better manage the mess and clutter that tends to build up in your home office. By working towards a mess-free work space you will feel more productive and creative.

What has the pandemic taught us about working from home?

The 2020/21 Covid-19 pandemic has taken the world by storm. We have all had to stay at home and keep ourselves and the people around us safe. We were all told to work from home if we can almost a year ago now and this order has generally divided the nation on remote work. Some say they absolutely love working from home and want it to be the new normal. Yet others are desperate to get back in the office declaring remote work much harder.

The first thing we have all learned from remote working is that some people really struggle with it. A lot of people have said they lose motivation and have become less productive. Some have also struggled hugely with IT issues, connectivity issues in certain areas of the UK and many have complained of not having space in their home for an office setup. Not having the right office equipment has made remote workers’ jobs more difficult.

But not everyone feels this way either. Some people have converted spare rooms into offices. Some have loved not having to commute long distances and have enjoyed having a break from busy trains or traffic.

We have also learned that working from home requires adjustments from companies. Generally, most companies have gone above and beyond to provide a good setup for home-workers and ensure that they have everything they need. These adjustments made have made a huge difference for remote workers and generally, the more assistance and support provided from companies has meant their team has successfully adapted to working from home and finding remote working less overwhelming. Some companies have held digital detox days for staff and are ensuring that they are carrying out frequent virtual meetings to check in with employees. Some people have said that they have experienced more communication from colleagues than before the pandemic.

The new work from home lifestyle has most definitely divided the nation but the pandemic has taught us that working from home is more possible than we ever thought.

Five Benefits of Keeping Your Home Office Clean and Tidy

There are several important benefits to keeping a clean workspace:

1. Good First Impression- anytime a customer, client or business associate were to visit or virtually view your workspace via a video call, it is important to present a clean, tidy and efficient environment.

2. Happiness and Productivity- a clean work environment is proven to be mood-boosting and improve focus, so that you are able to be as productive as possible.

3. Health- when you spend long hours in one space it creates a breeding ground for bacteria, keeping your home office clean helps keep you healthier.

4. Hazard Reduction- keeping a clean and tidy space ensures that trip hazards or obstacles that could impede movement are reduced. This will help keep you safer.

5. Organisation- when an office space is clean and tidy it makes finding things easier, aids organisation and decreases time wastage.

These benefits are well worth the effort into ensuring your workplace is clean, tidy and well-organised, so that you can be safer, happier and more productive.

What Colour Should You Have in Your Home Office?

It is commonly accepted that colours affect our mood and behaviour. Even the different hues or intensity levels (saturation) of any one colour can have different affects. So when choosing the colours in your home office you may want to keep this in mind and choose colours that are going to be best for your productivity and positivity.

Blue
The colour blue helps to stimulate the mind and help people stay focused.

Red
Red stimulates energy levels and evokes a sense of urgency. Too much red could make you feel anxious so it might be best when balanced with a more calming colour.

Yellow
The colour yellow evokes emotion and creativity. It helps to lift spirits and stimulate happiness.

Green
Green brings balance, calm and reassurance.

Orange
Combines the happiness of yellow and the high energy of red.

Purple
Combination of red’s energy and blue’s productivity and has commonly been associated with royalty and power.

A balanced combination of a couple of these colours could help evoke several different moods at once. One thing to keep in mind is that different cultures can have different feelings about certain colours so it is really down to figuring out which colours make you feel the best.

What is the Perfect Work/Rest Ratio for Maximum Productivity?

A recent study using a productivity app called DeskTime analysed the activity data of its 5.5 million daily logs and narrowed down the 10% of most productive workers to ascertain what the best work/rest ratio is. They found that the most productive employees engaged in work related tasks for 52 minutes then took a 17-minute break.

That 17-minute break is long enough for your brain to disengage long enough to help you feel refreshed and ready to dive back into work for another 52 minutes of productivity. That refreshing disengage is also not so long that you lose focus and derail, but gives you enough of a break that you do not slow yourself down with sloppy mistakes.

This method only works if during that 52 minutes of work you really jump in with both feet and commit to being as productive as possible. The other key is that during your “down time” you mentally disengage from work and do something non-work related like taking a walk around the block or having a quick coffee break with a co-worker.