We are living in uncertain times, life is becoming more and more unpredictable. None of us can accurately foretell what will happen in the next hour, not to talk of days or months ahead.
The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated the majority of us to work directly from home space or home office. It has been life-altering for many of us.
Working from home space is not as rosy as it sounds. When we begin to start thinking about it, the thought of laying down on our bed and operating our computers may sound so good and easy.
The thought of converting a home space to our workplace may give many of us cold feet. We may start thinking that the task of working from home might be too overwhelming for us. There are series of unending questions that might keep crossing our minds.
We have some secrets to share in this article. Before we begin this journey together, bear in mind that working from home doesn’t necessarily have to be overwhelming and stressful.
Work is at the center of our lives. We need to work to be able to pay the bills and take care of many responsibilities.
In this article, we’ll discuss how to set up work from home space without it affecting our productivity and outputs. Often, the type of home office we choose will depend on our profession or the type of work we do.
The Perfect Home Office Set up
When planning to set up a workstation, we should always endeavor to make it a separate part of our home. A home office should ideally be distinct and separate from other parts of the home. Putting a label on the doorpost would make it easier for visitors and outsiders to easily recognize it’s a place of work.
The perfect workspace should offer comfort. Not just at the basic level, but it should offer a high level of comfort. We don’t expect a freelancer who is into content writing to set up a workspace in the basement of the house. Whereas the same basement darkroom might be the perfect workspace for a freelancer who’s into photography.
The perfect home office is a relative subject. What is perfect for some might not necessarily be perfect for others.
Choosing Your Workstation at Home
As earlier mentioned, your workspace is dependent on many factors, being a family man or woman might pose some serious challenges in getting your work done quickly and effectively.
Imagine working on the computer and your cute little daughter walks in through the door to tell you about what mummy has done to her😊. At that point, you have to stand up and attend to her needs.
The following tips might help us when trying to set up a workspace from home:
- Select a dedicated room out of the rooms you have available in your home. When the room is not in use, make sure to always lock it to keep pets and visitors out.
- Select a dedicated room that is far away from the kitchen or the living room. Make sure to pick a room that is far away from distracting noises.
- Make sure to pick a room that is large enough to accommodate you and your equipment.
- Try as much as possible not to work from multiple areas of the home. It is often better to work from one large area than work from multiple areas.
- If your kind of work generates noise and dust, the workstation should be outside the home. Better still, you can dedicate the garage to that sort of work.
- If the nature of your work requires you to invite clients into your home, select a room that leads directly outside.
- Pick a room that is well ventilated. Working in a well-ventilated area can increase productivity. But working in a poorly ventilated area can have the opposite effects. The effects of fatigue and reduced productivity might lead to frustration.
7 Recommended Workspace Options at Home
Choosing to work at home most times presents two main options; a person can either choose to work indoors or within the vicinity of the house, which means building a separate structure on the same property of land.
If you choose to work indoors, the following are some of the ideas you can try out.
A Carved out Corner
If you happen to live alone, carving out a corner as a home office for yourself should not be so difficult. You don’t have to contend with the problem of family members encroaching on your workspace.
Carving out a corner for yourself as a workspace is not expensive to set up. If you have a family living with you, you may not enjoy the same level of privacy that a corporate office provides.
To carve out a corner for the workspace, all you may need to do is to buy a second-hand desk and chair and put it in a corner of your living room. That sounds good, right?😃
You may be surprised to learn that a considerable amount of successful businesses today started from the corner of a living room!
Dining Room
Are you surprised about this option? You don’t need to be. When we think about the dining room, what comes through our minds? Food!
The dining room has proved to be a valuable part of our homes. Don’t get it twisted, you can also set it up as your workstation. For example, after dinner, you can quickly set it up by spreading documents on the table, if your work involves dealing with documents.
The main disadvantage of this selection of workspace is the total lack of privacy. We may easily get distracted by disturbing noises coming from the living room.
It is also not ideal for welcoming clients and customers if the nature of your job necessitates you to welcome them into your home.
Before using it though, make sure it is clean and suitable for use.
Spare Bedroom
It’s a popular choice for many of us. Picking an extra bedroom as a dedicated workstation is easy and convenient. This selected option has little or nothing to do about being married with kids or single.
If you so desire, you can even decide to make it a replica of your old office. To make it an ideal workspace, some little refurbishments might need to be done.
Since the bedroom is a private part of our home, you may find it pleasing to decorate it to your taste. A pleasant immediate environment can add to how productive our work would be.
If we’re converting a spare bedroom into a home office, we shouldn’t have a bed or a couch in the same room. Having a bed in our home office might encourage excessive sleep or rest. We don’t want to be found napping instead of working.
Modified Garage
Believe me, the garage is one of the best places we can convert to our workspace. All we need to do is to modify it to suit our needs and purpose.
It’s even better if the garage is fully connected to our home and has a different entrance. Most garages are big enough to accommodate us and our tools if we happen to use big equipment for work.
The main disadvantage of converting a garage into a workspace is the capital involved to accomplish such projects. You may need to furnish the garage with electricity, communication gadgets, and running water.
Converting a garage into a functioning workspace also comes at a cost, we may have to park our cars outside. We know what that means, cars get exposed to different elements of nature which damages it.
Are you ready to undertake the project of converting your garage into a home office? Prepare a budget and count the cost!
Basement
The basement is another good alternative, it affords you the needed space to accomplish your work. If your workspace is in the basement, there are some issues you would have to contend with.
A very serious challenge you might have converting your basement into the workspace is moisture. Moisture can easily destroy important documents and computer gadgets.
If you plan to convert your basement into a home office, make sure you have a proper storage facility.
Attic Room
The attic room can also be used as a workspace if the condition inside is favorable for use. If the condition inside the attic is not favorable, you can easily furnish it to suit your style of work.
The downside of using the attic room is the issue of proximity. The attic room might be on the 4th floor, going up and down with your computer and relevant documents can be very stressful.
Inviting clients and customers for a visit to the attic room may be near impossible, imagine taking your client to the topmost floor of your house building without a lift. That doesn’t sound good enough.
Another problem to contend with is temperature changes. Attics are well known to be infested with pests such as bats, rodents, and bugs. A lot of attics today are not equipped with the necessary amenities to make a standard home-office run successfully.
Separate Outside Structure
This is the most expensive alternative for having a home office. It involves building a separate structure on your property if you happen to have a large land area.
You might choose to construct a tool shed or a simple workshop. It is capital intensive, but it affords more space to carry out your job.
It is often a wise decision to construct such structures in the backyard so that the erected structure won’t block needed air ventilation into your main house.
If the type of work you do involves welcoming clients and customers, this option is the best. You don’t have to worry about strangers intruding into the privacy of your home. Parking issues for clients must be well addressed.
Out of the seven recommended options listed above, if you plan to establish manufacturing or a repair firm at home, building a separate structure on your property is the only acceptable option.
5 Important Tips For Setting Up Your Workspace at Home
Working from home presents many benefits. We’re better able to manage our time and save money. You don’t have to spend money commuting every day from one place to the other. You may even decide to work in pajamas all day long!😅
To work successfully from home, diligence and self-discipline are two important qualities to develop.
You should also try to always separate your professional life from your personal life. The best way to do this is to have a dedicated area in your home for work.
Let’s now identify the 5 important tips for setting up a home office:
Recognize What You Need
The first step is to recognize what you need to carry out your work. For example, if you are a graphic designer, your computer would most likely be needed. If you’re a freelance content writer, you will need your writing tools and a sketch note.
A law specialist may require a shelf to keep some essential law books. If you’re a photographer, a home-built studio might be necessary. Make a concise list of the needed materials and set up your home office with the list you made.
Select a Dedicated Area
Choosing a particular area of your home is the next step, this has been thoroughly discussed earlier in this article. Under normal circumstances, your workspace should be accessible, clean, quiet, and comfortable to work. You can choose out of the recommended 7 areas listed.
Assess the Light
Working in a poorly illuminated area can cause eye strain. A home office should be well illuminated. Eyestrain is a work-related hazard associated with working in a poorly lit area.
Before setting up a home office, you should ensure the selected room has a window for adequate light to illuminate the room. Daylight is known to boost productivity and alertness.
Apart from natural light, you can as well try to install some artificial light. Artificial lights are known to promote the relaxation of body muscles. Exposure to daylight has great effects on our physical and mental well-being.
Research has shown that having growing plants in the workplace can improve our mood and psychological state. Since sunlight helps plants to grow, we may as well get a budding plant to decorate our home office.
Get a Dedicated Phone for Home Office
Having a dedicated phone line for your home office is a great strategy to separate your personal life from work-related issues. It is often not wise to use the same cell phone for work and family matters.
On the financial aspect, your overhead cost might increase if you decide not to get a dedicated phone for work.
Dedicated phones for work also help clients and customers to get the relevant message specific to your job when leaving a voicemail. Imagine your child picking up a very important call from a client, it might leave the client confused.
Get a Place to Keep Your Gadgets
For a home office to run smoothly, it’s highly important to be well organized. Part of being organized involves arranging gadgets and equipment in the appropriate place.
To avoid distractions, consider having a place to keep your electronic gadgets.
Having your smartphone buzzing or vibrating might cause unnecessary distractions.
If you’re a freelancer working on an hourly contract, you don’t want to waste precious time surfing the web aimlessly instead of concentrating on the work at hand.
To achieve a high level of productivity in the home office, sources of distraction should be reduced to the barest minimum.
Keep the Business Life Separate From the Personal Life
It is important to separate our personal life from our business life. Separating these two areas of life doesn’t necessarily mean shuttling between two locations.
Working from the comfort of your home may make this very difficult especially if you have a large family living with you.
Balancing work and personal life is more of a psychological issue. If the distance from your office to your home is 2 hours drive, by not being careful, your private life can still spill into your work life.
The issue is not about distance. It is more about being mentally disciplined. When it is time to work, cut out every distraction.
When it is time to socialize with friends and family, make sure your job is not depriving you of the whole fun!
Take a Break
A study discovered that moving around after sitting for a relatively long period can boost productivity. After working for a long period in your new home office, take a short break to cool off.
This can help renew your energy for the work ahead. Don’t take undue advantage of working from home by not having a closing hour. Schedule your time and stick to it. It is very easy to lose track of time when working from home.
When working from your workspace at home, always try not to lose track of time.
20 Valuable Things to Set up a Home Office
When you are thinking about setting up your home office, you may not be able to fully determine all the essentials that would make your new office run smoothly. The following list can help you to get started!
1) Computer
Computers are a valuable asset for most of us that work from home today. Hardly can any business survive today without making use of the computer. Try as much as possible to get a computer that suits your needs.
If the kind of work you do involves paying visits to clients and customers in their respective homes and also planning to create a mobile office, getting a laptop might be the best option.
If you are a graphic designer, a computer with high storage capacity would be essential to work.
2) Desk
A good office desk is very essential. A desk is one of the few things that are very important to a workspace. As a matter of fact, there can’t be a home office without a desk.
We have some desks you can easily adjust to fit your needs. An example of such is the ApexDesk Elite Series.
A standard home office desk should be a priority when planning to set up a home office.
3) Office Chair
The type of chair you decide to purchase should not make your lower back ache after a period of working. Apart from comfort, you should also manage to get attractive furniture if you’ll be welcoming high-profile clients into your home office.
Comfort should be the topmost priority when deciding on the furniture to buy. A good ergonomic chair is of utmost importance because you’ll spend most of your time sitting in it.
There are some things you should consider before buying an ergonomic chair:
- Lumbar support: the lumbar part of the spine has a curvature that has to be maintained for proper functioning. Poor posture and low-quality chairs can slowly affect this curvature.
- Adjustable height and armrest: check whether the height and the armrest can be adjusted. Your feet should ideally be staying on the floor with the armrest at 90-degrees.
- Rocking chair: Using a rocking chair for your home office can improve mental and physical health. Rocking itself is a form of mild exercise, low back exercises can help to improve the condition of those with low back pain.
- Check the base of the chair: a pivot or swivel base chair is the best for a home office. It reduces strain on the lower back.
Getting a comfortable office chair can go a long way in determining how productive our work will be. A comfortable office chair should be a priority for anybody wanting to set up a home office.
4) File Cabinet
Getting a cabinet for your documents is also essential if you happen to deal with a lot of documents. And you may even go to the extent of creating a filing system to help you lay your hands on the exact document you need.
Realistically, the kind of furniture you are willing to purchase should depend on your budget and workspace.
5) A Large Monitor
A large monitor for your computer is very useful. If your work involves surfing the web and making a lot of research, it is advised you get a large monitor.
You can even decide to buy multiple monitors to keep tabs on several web pages at once. You should consider moving this into your high-priority list if your work has a lot to do with the use of a computer.
6) Printer
Your home office also needs a printer. Probably you haven’t made up your mind on the type to buy, we have different types of printers with different capabilities in the tech market.
If your kind of work requires you to print just black and white documents, it would be reasonable to opt for the low-budget printers. Whereas, if you print high-quality and colored documents, then you should go for high-tech printers.
7) High-Speed Internet Access
Our world is a global village, the reason being that we can all connect and interact with one another through the internet. There is virtually no business that can be successful without making use of the internet.
If your business even doesn’t directly make use of the internet, you would still need to have internet service in your home office to obtain reliable information relevant to your business.
Furthermore, to advertise your products and services, internet access is required. Ensure to add the cost of internet access to your budget when planning to set up a home office.
8) Speakerphone
A speakerphone is an important device to have while working in the home office. If your job requires you to receive a lot of phone calls while working during a typical workday, you can decide to buy a speakerphone to receive calls hands-free.
9) An uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
Electricity can suddenly go out when you’re working in your home office, essential files can be lost if not saved before the power failure.
A UPS device provides ample time to properly save your work and shut down your computers.
If you’re living in countries where the electricity supply is not stable or constant, UPS should be among the top priority gadgets you should have for your office.
10) A Surge Protector
A surge protector might look insignificant, but it is very important for a home workspace. A high power surge can damage computers and electronic gadgets. A standard home office should have a surge protector to protect all electrical appliances.
11) Network Router
A network router is not always required to set up a home office. It may be necessary if you have many computers that need internet access. A wireless router might be necessary if you have a few computers in different parts of your home.
12) Fire-Safe Box
We don’t pray for fire outbreaks to occur, but they happen at times due to human negligence. To protect your most important documents, it is very vital to install a fire-safe box in your home office. Even in the case of a fire outbreak, you know your most important documents are safe.
13) Comfortable Keyboard
Getting a comfortable keyboard is crucial for productivity. If you’re using a PC, you might consider using Logitech K350 wireless keyboard. It’s very comfortable for typing and getting your work done. For any type of keyboard you are buying, make sure it has a numeric keypad.
14) Mouse
If you’re using a laptop and you care about speed and precision, buying a high-quality mouse will make your work a whole lot easier. The right type of mouse should be lightweight and comfortable to use. It should also be able to work with Windows and Mac.
15) Noise-cancelling Headphones with Microphone
If your job requires you to make a lot of video conferencing calls with clients or with your professional colleagues. You might consider buying a high-quality pair of headphones with a good microphone.
If you are not on a tight budget, our most preferred choice is Apple Airpods Pro. If it happens you are on a very tight budget, you may consider buying Panasonic noise cancelling earbuds.
16) Water Bottle
When we are deeply engrossed in the work at hand, we may at times forget to stay hydrated. It’s important to have a water bottle at our side when we’re working at our home office.
To prevent frequent trips to the kitchen from our workspace, a water bottle is essential to stay hydrated.
17) Coffee Mug
To stay active while working in our workspace, a coffee might likely do the trick of supplying us with the needed energy. If you are planning to buy one, make sure to buy the type that can at least keep your coffee warm for an hour or thereabouts.
Make sure to also buy a coffee mug that looks elegant and attractive while on a conference call😉
18) Air Freshener or Scented Candle
We all love to place air fresheners in the corners of our homes. The scent it produces feels so refreshing. If you have a home office or planning to set one up, you might decide to buy this for your office.
19) Cables
Having a lot of cables on the floor of your workspace can make the home office look rough and untidy. The cables might even make your trip inadvertently trip while walking.
It is important to have a way of connecting so many cables at our home office. To deal with cables messing with your workspace, you can decide to go for an under desk cable management tray. It prevents the messy hanging of wires.
20) Mouse Pad
If your work requires you to work for long hours on the computer, making use of the mouse for long hours can be very painful. The wrist is usually most affected.
We consider it to be an important part of the home office setup. It goes a long way to protect your wrist from computer-related work hazards. The good thing is that mouse pads are budget-friendly.
5 Tips to Keep You Focused While Working
Maintain a Routine
It might be difficult to maintain a routine while working from home because, in reality, there is no one putting you on your toes. Self-discipline is important. Make it a routine to wake up at the same time every day. By doing this, you’ll be able to accomplish your work.
Start early in the morning
It’s a fact that most of us are more productive in the morning than at other times of the day. For this reason, we should start early to get the best out of the day. You don’t wanna start work at the time of lunch break.
Go out and exercise
Make it a habit to take a break from work to exercise and to stretch your muscles and joints. You need a dose of fresh air and sunlight to keep you fully grounded for work.
Communicate with your employers
If you happen to work with a sort of company, make sure you effectively communicate with your employers to fully understand what exactly they want you to do. If you work independently, clearly understand the needs of your clients and customers.
Take care of your health
Working from your home office for long hours each day can take a toll on your physical and mental health. Clearly understand how your body works, when you feel something is not right with your body, don’t delay, book an appointment with your healthcare provider.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most appropriate way to set up a home office?
To set up a home office, you must decide the part of your home you want to convert into a workspace. Think about a place where you can be less distracted.
What do you need for a home office?
You need a workspace, a computer, and a stable internet connection. Other things would largely depend on the type of work you do.
How to work from home?
Your type of work must not be location-tied. You must be able to work remotely. If you work with a company, you can ask your employers if they can permit you to work remotely from home.
What does the acronym WFH stand for?
It means Work From Home.
Conclusion
Working from home is one of the trends that is becoming increasingly important and popular by the day. Changing circumstances are forcing many chief executives and employers to see the wisdom and benefits in allowing their employees to work remotely.
I sincerely hope you’ve found this article guide very helpful. As we work from home, let’s all remember to take a break when necessary, eat healthy meals and snacks, and enough sleep.
