7 Tips for Maximizing the Efficiency of Your Home Office

Who didn’t ever dream of working from home on a cold and rainy morning instead of running out of the house to catch a bus or train, or being stuck in traffic trying to get to work on time? They say, “Be careful what you wish for” and 2020 proved it to us. While some offices are currently moving to a hybrid workflow or have gone completely offline, the number of people working remotely is high.

Anyone who has had the experience of working in a home office knows that this requires a lot of self-discipline. However, no matter how hard we try and no matter how positively we approach home working, we still do not always achieve the same efficiency as in the office. So where is the problem?

Let’s take a look at the top home office setup tips in this article to find out:

Desk – The Centerpiece Of The Home Office

The lucky ones are those who can put a full table in a separate room allocated for this. If you understand that you will have to work from home for a long time, and your housing does not include a separate workplace, then repurposing the space at home might be a good idea. The table itself plays a considerable role. The height of the countertop, which we usually take for granted, can be uncomfortable. We have different heights, so the most common figure of 74 cm is just an average standard. The ability to adjust the height of the tabletop can greatly increase the comfort of our work, especially if we are not of average height.

However, this is not the only advantage of an adjustable table. Spending several hours in a sitting position puts strain on the spine. The ability to raise the tabletop to the height required for standing work is an invaluable feature.

The Chair Is Not A One-Time Purchase

Don’t skimp on the seat. Use modern, functional models with flexible adjustment options and different modes. Adjustability and ergonomic properties are key criteria on which work comfort and productivity depend. It is best if it is a professional office chair or a gaming chair. In short: you can adjust the height, angle, and position of the armrests.

It is easy to neglect the correct position in front of the computer if there is no leader behind you and there are no colleagues around. Yes, you probably will need to make more space in your home to squeeze your new office into your living space. However, an irresponsible approach will lead to pain in the legs, knees, forearms, and wrists, muscle spasms, and, most importantly, pain in the back and neck.

Lighting

Among home office essentials, it is important to highlight the light source. To work comfortably and be as productive as possible in your home office, you need good lighting. The lighting should be soft and even. Very hard light will strain your eyes. Light walls reflect light well, making the lighting in the room more uniform, keep this in mind when choosing a room for a home office. Remember that the best lighting is natural daylight.

Of course, when there isn’t enough natural light in the working area, it’s necessary to provide additional light sources. Firstly, you require the diffused overhead light, which will illuminate not only the desktop but also the surrounding space. Secondly, to create comfortable workplace lighting, you will also need a source of local lighting: a table lamp, a sconce with a downward beam of light, etc.

Organize Your Storage

Try to organize your stationery neatly in your desk drawers and think about home office storage ideas in general. If your desk doesn’t have drawers or the existing ones don’t have enough, use the wall above your workspace for extra storage. Hang a couple of shelves, place small cardboard boxes and document holders – put all the necessary supplies in them, including printer paper. Use dividers, boxes, jars, and other things for this that will help you sort a variety of little things and keep them separate from each other.

Whiteboard For Notes And To-Do Sheets

A whiteboard is useful in any home office. It will not only help you remember important things but also serve as a visual inspiration, helping to increase productivity. For greater practicality, it is better to choose a board on which you can not only create priority lists, and attach pieces of paper and sticky notes but also write essential notes. It can be either a special office board on which you can write with markers or a slate-magnetic board (or maybe an entire wall).

Get Rid Of Personal Items

How appropriate is it to decorate the work area at home? It is one of the important questions in the topic of how to get organized. Even though this is a home office area, the general home decor rules apply to it. Of course, there is unlikely to be an opportunity to put trinkets, souvenirs, and other personal items on the shelves. Yes, and pictures of the place, most likely, too, will not be found. But it is quite possible to place a plant. This will dilute the strict work environment a bit and will not distract you from the process.

Programs And Tools You Will Use

Modern home office ideas focus not only on ergonomic furniture and well-organized storage but also on tools that help you work comfortably and efficiently. The most important thing is to take care of the current operating system and prepare your computer for work. Install the necessary workflow software to optimize your PC and improve your productivity:

Best office suites

If you work with text, spreadsheets, or databases, of course, the office suite is key. It is a cloud platform for efficiency. Try one of the best office suites like Microsoft Office 365 or Google Docs. Some of them provide access to the latest productivity apps while others let you edit files without converting them and work with other users online.

Video conferencing software

A video conferencing platform like Zoom allows you to organize a virtual meeting with other people through video, audio only or both. You can join such a video conference through a webcam on a computer, phone, or tablet.

Screen recorder software

Screen recorders allows you to capture any activity happening on your computer screen. If you need to create tutorials or any kind of explainer videos or record online conferences, live streams, and Zoom sessions, then you should click here to get tools like Movavi Screen Recorder or TalkHelper.

Antivirus software

When working remotely, it is difficult to provide the comprehensive level of protection against malware. However, all the same, on all devices from which you work with corporate data, you definitely need to install one of the reliable security solutions like Bitdefender or McAfee.

Conclusion

The home office is more of a necessity than a whim these days. Remote work has many benefits, but as you can see, it’s challenging. Endless lockdowns of varying degrees of severity have led to new housing requirements. After all, if earlier a city apartment was often considered only as a place for a more or less comfortable overnight stay, today it has become both a place to relax and a place to work.

It’s important to separate time for productive work and time for rest being in such a contradictory space for our brain as home. If working from home is new to you, let’s treat it like a project to be completed. Let’s create a more organized home, be consistent and enjoy the results of our work.

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