Working from home is great – no commute, no dress code, no noisy co-workers, but staying productive may be a challenge. You might think that your kitchen table or desk tucked into a corner of a bedroom is a good place to get started on your home business journey, but you’ll need an office that supports your work as you grow.
You probably have experienced that working on the couch in your pyjamas was great, but until you realized it’s lunch time and you’ve barely accomplished anything on your to-do-list, or you’re feeling uninspired in your space. So, it’s time for a home office makeover! Create your own personal cave, where you can become effective and productive on your work.
Choose the right location/room
Your very first step should be choosing the right room or location. If you are fortunate enough to have several rooms to select, get the room that receives a lot of natural light and is spacious enough for you to have your privacy. You can also convert guest bedroom or space bedroom that is not in use into a dedicated home office space. Have guests that come over occasionally? You can remodel your guest room to serve dual purposes.
If you don’t have an entire room that can dedicate to home office, find a suitable corner in any part of your house. The space should be spacious enough for you to carry out your work without undue disturbances. Consider the unused corner in the family room or even balcony with a view. Think creatively, but with an eye on function. Don’t station your work in a normally noisy living room or in a passageway that sees a lot of movement. Working in a noisy space with the television tuned to loud reality shows may hamper your productivity considerably.
Search for lights
Lighting your home office is important design decision. Choose the place with the most natural light coming in and a view if possible. With sufficient sunlight pouring in, the room will be livelier and more vibrant, which spreads a positive vibe and offers an optimistic feeling to you.
You can position working desk to face the windows or in a location where your computer screen will not be affected, or place a translucent window shades or blinds can help reduce any glare without darkening your room. In facts, facing a window or a source of light might motivate you to work productively while enjoying the view outside. You can also maximise the light effects by installing mirrors and by keeping most of your walls a light colour.
Make it a point to install the right lights so that you have sufficient light during the night as well. For those long working night shifts, invest in a warm, high-beam lamp to keep your space and light and bright. Not sure where to start with the lightings? An overhead ceiling light will provide good general lighting, as well as a pair of open-top floor lamps placed in the corners of your room. Also, consider a desk light that provide shadow-free task lighting and extra light at nights.
Decent Desk and Comfortable Seating
Purchasing a big desk might sound like a good idea at first, but it might not be particularly conducive if you intend to work on it for long hours. Select a desk based on your room space and design, and practical enough for your computer and anything else necessary to do your work.
If you are looking for something simple, where you can get some writing and paperwork done, the no-frills flat surface top of a writing desk will meet your requirements. If you like to go for minimalist, consider laptop table that often comes with a sliding drawer for your keyboard, or a wall-mounted floating desk, which will bring elegance and leave your floor space free from clutter. To utilise a corner, you can choose a corner desk or an L-shaped desk.
Apart from the desk, you also need comfortable chairs to sit in. Make sure that you choose a colour, design and style of chair that blends well with your new desk. Opting for two contrasts can be a challenging task as they may or may not look good together. Most importantly, invest in a good quality chair that is comfortable and adjustable if possible. Your neck and back will thank you.
Shelving and Storage
No one likes the look of piled up documents on a tiny desk. Storage is often overlooked when designing a home office and can really affect your productivity. Invest in a fancy bookshelf or storage cabinet to store all your important documents, knowledge and tools you need to work.
You can choose several options of storage to sort your belonging which one you need to access the most or just occasionally. Cabinet can be an option to store more important stuff and to keep it from the dust, and of course organize it! For example, you might need some shelves to keep your favourite books, or need strong and secured cabinets to store your personal belongings. There might also be some spaces you need to place your printer/scanner as well as your file cabinet.
You can design your storage by considering your workflow – what comes in, where will it stay while being worked on, and where does it go when complete? Place your inbox on or next to your desk. Locate your current work and filing system nearby or within arm’s reach. And don’t forget your reference materials like manuals, catalogues, or reference books, you can locate a shelf near your desk to keep them close at hand.
Master Your Technology
Any office space is bound to have a lot of wires and cords, and unless you have planned well, this can end up looking quite ugly. Let’s take control of your technology with these simple tips.
Go wireless as much as you can! Try adding a wireless router and invest in both wireless printer and wireless mouse, you’ll reduce your wires by half. It would be very relaxing to the eye by eliminating the hideous look of wires and cables.
For the devices that need cables, get a wire manager and use a cord management system. Start by making sure your equipment is close to outlets and easy to access if you need to unplug. You can hide a power strip behind your desk and plug everything into that. Use a multi-plug extension that is safe and secure if you need to. Place your Wi-Fi in a location where you can get robust connectivity so that you can work smoothly without interruptions.
You can also encase cords on the desk in a fabric cord cover, and feed the cords into a desk grommet to lead any wires from your desk down below. Attach any visible wires to the underside of your desk or down along a desk leg and gather loose wires along the floor together with a simple cord tamer.
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