Working from home is such a privilege, but depending on your environment, it can also be distracting. One way to solve this is by creating a home office space for yourself! Even if you don’t have a whole room to spare, you can implement some home office essentials into your space.
First and foremost is a good chair! This may seem trivial, but if you spend hours sitting down, you may as well make sure you are comfortable. An ergonomic chair should support your back, arms, legs and neck all at once. The partner of a good chair is a good desk. Your desk should be big enough for all your business activities but also adjusted to an appropriate height to protect your neck from craning. If you are so inclined, you can always adopt the “standing desk” approach in which you either don’t have a chair at all or you have a desk that can change heights to accommodate when you are either sitting or standing. This adjustable feature gives you the freedom to work in a way that suits your body and your tasks, putting you in control of your workspace.
Next on the list is another pairing, optional but recommended for a prime desk set-up. A combination of a laptop stand and a keyboard is an ideal way to protect your posture, you have way more control over the angle and positioning of your laptop when it is on a stand. A cordless keyboard allows you to sit more relaxed and not be hunched over your laptop. Adding an ergonomic mouse and pad is also a good idea, especially if you are doing any design work. An extra monitor is also helpful if you regularly work with multiple tabs or pages. You will save a lot of time having your work laid out instead of switching back and forth between pages.
Now, we move on to the space surrounding the desk! First up is your lighting. If you are sitting in darkness, your eyes strain much harder when looking at your computer screen. Instead, find yourself a light or lamp that you enjoy. Studies show that blue hued cool lighting is best for productivity, but whatever lighting you find will work. You can also improve your space with a small plant, a calendar, as well as a filing cabinet. While most of us go paperless now, it is a good idea to have physical copies of your very important documents, these can tuck nicely into your filing cabinet.
Last of all, and this may seem like a no-brainer, invest in a good internet connection. Your life will be made much easier if your internet can keep up with your work. If it is constantly crashing or buffering, this will become a point of frustration that you just don’t have to deal with!
I hope this short and sweet blog post has inspired you. Good luck with putting together your dreamy home office space!