7 ways to make your home office work better for you
Home offices are being used more now than they ever have been. Over the last two years, many of us have been forced to start working from home. While this can feel like a chore, it is also a golden opportunity to set up an office space that works for you more than your real office ever did.
If you haven’t set one up yet or you feel the need to redo your current home office then you have come to the right place. Below you will find 7 tips that will help your home office work better for you.
#1 – Get a standing attachment to your desk
Standing desks are all the rage at the moment. They are supposed to be amazing for your legs and back. However, standing up for 8 hours a day isn’t possible for all of us. So, instead of committing to a full standing desk why not get a desk attachment that will allow you to stand for part of the day.
#2 – Get a good quality clock
When you are at home, you are responsible for your own timekeeping and you want to make sure that you have a reliable timepiece in your home office. A clock that stops or slows down can throw your whole day into chaos.
When we were creating our own home office we got our clock from https://bestwallclock.com/product-tag/%E2%99%9B/ – we ended up going with a high-end brand because we knew it would last for years and wouldn’t let us down when we needed it most.
#3 – Get a few plants
Studies have shown that not only do plants purify the air around us, but they also improve our mood and make us feel less lonely.
Both of these other benefits can be really useful when you work from home. You only really get the chance to talk to your colleagues over Zoom, so having a plant in the room to make you feel less lonely is a great idea. As for the mood boosting elements of owning plants, we think that is pretty self-explanatory.
#4 – Get a “do not disturb” sign
To have a successfully functioning home office you need to make sure that you set up some boundaries with the other people in your home. You have to explain to them that there are some times when you cannot be disturbed unless there is an emergency.
You can make this easier by setting up some kind of “do not disturb” sign on your office door. You could use an old fashioned sign. However, we like to use a strip of LED lights on our door. When we are busy we switch the lights to red and our family members know we are not to be disturbed.
#5 – Get more light in your office
Speaking of lights, is there enough light in your office?
We are often encouraged to get as much natural light as we can in a room. However, we are not always able to do much about that unless we spend a couple of $1000s moving the windows around the room.
You can hang mirrors in your home office to help the room seem lighter and bigger. You may also want to consider installing some lamps with warm bulbs in the room.
#6 – Get a distraction remover
If you struggle to get work done when your phone is going off next to you all day then you should consider putting something in your home office to get rid of this problem.
You could install a landline so that people can get hold of you if there’s an emergency. Or you could get a lockbox that you put your phone in until the end of the workday.
If you take away the distraction, it can’t affect you.
#7 – Get yourself a really good chair
Our final tip is to invest in your office chair. We remember being in a physical office and coming home with an aching back because our chair was cheap and not ergonomic. Now that we work from home, we don’t have to settle for that anymore.
We recommend getting yourself the best chair that you can afford. Remember that you will be spending at least 6 hours a day in this chair. See it as an investment in your future back health rather than just buying a chair.