From being more flexible with your schedule to cutting down commute time and cooking nice lunches in the comfort of your own kitchen, working from home has a number of benefits.
This is especially true in these current times when lockdown is still preventing many of us from traveling into the workplace at all. Having space at home to separate the professional from the personal is an overlooked and underappreciated privilege that not everyone has.
To help you make the most of this option to set up an office from which you can work when you’re at home, whether temporarily due to the current circumstances or because you want to set up or run your own business from a home office, we are here with some handy tips.
1. Choose Your Space
The whole point of setting up an office in which you can work from home is to have a dedicated space that helps you keep your professional work separate from your home life.
It’s important to choose a space that is going to add to, not detract from your productivity throughout the working day, so aim for a room that is quiet with a certain amount of privacy, i.e. somewhere that you won’t be disturbed by your toddler, partner, roommate, or mother.
If your type of work means that meetings will be taking place in your home office, it might be worth choosing a space near the front of the house, or with enough room for presentations.
2. What Will You Need?
Once you’ve chosen where to set up your home office, it’s time to turn your attention to what else you’ll need for your home office. This largely depends on your line of work and whether or not your employer has any preferences regarding the equipment you will be using.
For example, someone working in photography may require a studio space in which to take and develop photographs, style shoots, and store any props or lighting equipment. By comparison, a digital graphics designer will need a computer and potentially a few monitors.
3. Create a Nice Atmosphere
In addition to your job-specific essentials, what about the other tools or appliances that can make working from home more comfortable? It’s your space to do with what you will, so why not invest in something like a drinks refrigerator so you can enjoy cool drinks when you’re working all day, or to have something to offer your guests when you have meetings?
On a practical level, also think about lighting as this has a proven effect on your health and productivity levels when working from home or in an office space. This includes overhead lighting, standing lamps, or any table lamps. It’s best to use LED bulbs where possible.
There’s nothing more distracting than being too hot and stuffy when you’re trying to concentrate, so table fans might also be a smart addition to your home office.
4. Use a Dedicated Work Phone
How many times have you gone to check something on your phone for work, only to spend the next 15 minutes browsing and replying to other messages or emails?
With no boss to see you slacking, most people are guilty of a little bit of secret scrolling, so it’s worth having a separate phone for your home office. This allows you to stay in touch with your colleagues and make work-related calls whilst leaving your Facebook updates for later.
It will also reduce your phone bills and prevent customers or clients from being confused by the personal voicemail they reach when calling a professional workplace, as well as reducing the risk that someone other than you might reach the home phone first and answer it for you.
5. Use Tools To Help With Time Management
One of the things most people find difficult about working from home is how your days can easily be less structured and time can run away with you while you work without realizing it.
As such, it can be useful to employ a few time management tools that help you break up your day into manageable chunks. This could be as simple as having a clock installed on the wall so you can easily keep track of time, try these amazing creations from https://bestwallclock.com/ or setting alarms for 25-minute intervals.
Not only will you find that you’re more productive, but you’ll also simultaneously be less likely to overwork yourself which has its own health benefits.
