If you have a job that requires you to work from home, you might have considered setting up an office at home. While it is tricky to keep your personal and professional life separate—especially when you are working from home—it becomes quite possible if you designate a specific space for your work. Here, we’re sharing some top tips for setting up a home office so that you can be more productive at work.
Considerations for Setting up a Home Office
If you want to design the office space in the best manner, here are 7 top factors to consider:
- Determine What You Need in the Office
- Choose the Right Space
- Equip it with the Right Furniture
- Light up the Room
- Create Extra Storage Space
- Decorate the Home Office
- Invest in the Best Equipment
Let’s consider each of these tips in detail so you can come up with the best home office décor ideas.
1. Determine What You Need in the Office
First things first; let’s determine what your office absolutely cannot do without. A computer/laptop, a desk, a rotating chair, a filing cabinet, a printer/scanner, and a telephone are some of the key essentials that most people would list down. So, what’s on your list of essentials? Figure out what you absolutely must have to work comfortably and then move forward to the next tip.
2. Choose the Right Space
Once you know exactly what you need in your office, you’ll be able to find the perfect place to accommodate it within your home. While it is fairly easy to convert a corner of any room into a home office, privacy is a concern for most professionals working from home. As such, you might prefer to actually convert a spare room into an office instead of using dividers in an existing sitting room. The amount of space you’ll need also depends on the essentials you require. If you must incorporate several filing cabinets along with a desk and chair into the available space, you’ll have to choose the location for your home office accordingly.
3. Equip it with the Right Furniture
The general rule is:
The Right Furniture = Comfort + Functionality
This means that it’s not only about what looks good, but also about what feels good and is actually helping you be more productive at work. For instance, while beanbags can be a classy touch to a lounge, they might actually leave you with bad back pain after a day of work due to the incorrect sitting posture they offer. Prioritise your comfort when you design the office space. Ideally, go for an office chair with wheels that has multiple functions to adjust as per your comfort. The same goes for your desk. Choose a height that you’re comfortable with or find a desk with an adjustable height.
4. Light up the Room
Having adequate lighting remains the most important aspect of setting up a home office. This is because low lighting can result in lower levels of productivity, eyestrain, headaches, and a number of other concerns. If you have access to natural light, open up the windows or balcony in your office space for optimum light and brightness. If natural daylight is not an option, opt for warm rather than white lighting, as that is the closest to natural sunlight.
When you’re installing light fixtures in your home office, use a mix of both overhead and task lighting. Overhead lighting should brighten the entire room, while task lighting, such as table lamps or reading lights, can throw additional light over your worktable. Always position your lights in a way that they offer proper visibility for your computer screen. Avoid placing any lights behind the screen, as that will result in eyestrain and glare.
5. Create Extra Storage Space
A cluttered workspace will generally hinder your productivity. This is why you need to consider convenient storage options as part of your home office décor ideas. Install wall shelving for your books and files, or if you want to push the clutter out of sight, invest in a few filing cabinets. Using toilet paper tubes to sort out your wires and electricity connections is also one of the ways to make your space look more organised.
6. Decorate the Home Office
While you might want to keep distractions to a minimum, it is necessary to make your home office aesthetically pleasing. This will provide your line of sight with a pleasing view when you are fatigued and strained. Decorate your office with personal photographs and artwork, and keep the colour theme professional and neutral. Brown, grey, and white can be good colours to maintain a professional yet productive environment for your home office. There are also a number of indoor plants that are quite beneficial for your indoor environment and will add an essential touch of green and vibrancy to your office space.
7. Invest in the Best Equipment
So, you’ve decorated the office and set it up with comfortable furnishing. What’s left now is the technical equipment needed to perform your work efficiently. This can include a printer, a scanner, a fax machine, a desktop computer, a laptop, an external hard drive, a telephone, and so on. The choice of equipment will depend on the kind of tasks you perform on a daily basis. Set up the technical equipment and your office will be ready to use.
Setting up a home office is easy if you use the tips shared above and dedicate a specific area of your home for the purpose. However, what’s even more important while working from home is to dedicate fixed working hours daily. Otherwise, you might just end up working for 14 hours at a time without even realising that time has sped by so quickly. Hang a wall clock or better yet, set up an alarm that starts and ends your office hours so you can dedicate sufficient time to your family and friends outside of work and attain proper work-life balance.
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