The perfect home office setup needs to strike the right balance between comfort, functionality, and aesthetics. With more and more people working from home, creating a workspace that is both inspiring and conducive to productivity has become crucial.
When designing your home office, consider using ergonomic furniture such as an adjustable desk and chair to promote good posture and reduce strain on your body. Adding elements of natural light can also improve mood and focus while incorporating plants can purify the air and add a touch of nature.
In terms of functionality, ensure your home office is equipped with all the necessary tools for work. This includes a reliable internet connection, sufficient storage space, and proper lighting. It’s also helpful to designate specific areas for different tasks, such as a quiet corner for focused work or
I have been working from home for 15 years, so hit the ground running with our battle-tested home office setup guide.
1. Create a Separate Working Space with a Lockable Door
Ideally, you should have a part of the house that is separated by a lockable door for exactly this reason.
Ideally, you should have a part of the house that is separated by a door, and the door is lockable. Working in corporations and across organizations and functions, 99% of people will not know you work from home. Home workers are considered less serious than those who drive into an office. So, there is no reason to broadcast that you work from home. Don’t talk about it; just get the job done. A dog barking or your child screaming gives the game away, and you will not be taken seriously after that.
Make sure you have a private room. We all know the phenomenon: You are on a conference call, and someone is working from home in the kitchen, where you can hear a crying baby or the wail of police sirens. You need a quiet, private room with no disruptions to maintain professionalism during meetings.
2. Declutter Your Workspace
The fact is you will spend an average of 1,976 hours per year in your home office, the same time you spend in bed or even in the rest of your house or outside the world. Make it nice, a place you want to go, not a dingy corner under the stairs.
Must-haves are natural light & fresh air; this is an important part of life and your work environment. Locking yourself up in your cellar or the tiny back room with no windows is the quick road to depression.
Light and air are more important than a lot of space. You do not need to take over the biggest room in the house as you mostly look at the screen, but having enough space to walk around a little is recommended.
Put a plant in the room and pictures on the wall, but not given the webcam.
3. Use Natural Light
If the sun shines, let it in. Do not choose your cellar as an office unless you have no other choice. Plenty of natural light will make you feel good during the day, and you will feel at peace with the world. My office was on the top floor of my house for many years, with huge skylight windows. This was amazing during spring, autumn, and winter. But at the peak of summer, it got hot, but it was worth it for the sunshine. In summer, it was so hot in my office that I was forced to present at our all-employee meetings and conference calls in my underwear. Thank god it was not with video. Sorry, everyone 🙂
4. Use Ambient Lighting
Perhaps I am just fussy, but I detest the fluorescent lights installed in most offices. I find them soul-destroying. I’m not too fond of bright artificial lighting anywhere except for a sports arena. Ambient lighting can turn a horrible office into a cozy space of productivity and joy. Tune your lights for a great place to work.
5. Get A Large Desk
Maybe it is just me, but when I see people working on a single laptop on a tiny desk, I wonder how efficient, productive, or comfortable it is.
Get a large desk with enough space for your equipment and for you to spread out with paper, pens, and other office equipment.
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6. Get A Great Chair
As mentioned previously, you will be spending nearly 2,000 hours sitting on your butt in this room. How much did you spend on your bed, the same amount on an office chair, and your back will thank you?
7. Use A Real Keyboard And Mouse
Most people imagine working remotely as sitting on their bed working on a laptop, as in the image below, but only 6% of people work remotely from their bedroom.
To be effective and productive, you need a proper keyboard and mouse. Connect them via Bluetooth, and you can hit the maximum number of words per minute without wasting time.
Even more importantly, use a real mouse, not the touchpad on your laptop. Nothing is more effective than a mouse, not a touchscreen, and certainly not a trackpad.
8. Get A Wireless Headset With A Mute Button
You can try to reduce the 2,000 hours per year you spend chained to your desk by investing in a wireless headset. As a remote worker, all of your conversations mean you are chained to your PC. With a wireless headset, you can get up and roam around your house and still have that conversation. It is better for your body, and I found that my voice and presence are much more effective when I am walking around and gesticulating when I talk.
Need a coffee during a meeting? Just get up, go to the kitchen, put yourself on mute, and make the coffee.
9. Get a Microphone
Are you tired of having a headset clamped to your head every day?
You can go one step further, get a decent-quality studio desktop microphone, run the sound through your speakers, and have all your conversations headset-free.
📋Top Tip: Professional Microphones on Amazon
This is how I do it most of the time unless it is a long meeting during which I know I need to walk around the house, in which case I use the headset.
10. Get Multiple Monitors
After working from home for so long, it annoys me to go into the office. I love the office for the people, face-to-face meetings, presentations, personal contact, and laughing. So, when I go into the office, I do nothing but people stuff.
Why?
Because when you go into the office, the only productivity tool you have is your laptop, with its tiny screen and touchpad mouse. It is such a backward step I literally leave the computer work until I get back home. Even email bores me on such a device.
Why?
Because at home, I have three huge monitors connected to my work machine, even two screens are five times better than one screen. Most laptops can support multiple monitor setups; simply buy the extra screens and plug them in. Then, you can have your email and Skype running on one screen and your Excel and PowerPoint running on another.
Combine that with a full-size keyboard and mouse, and you have productivity heaven.
11. Get The Right Software
Microsoft Office is still the king of the corporate working world. I have created thousands of PowerPoint presentations over the years, and they help get the message across visually. When it comes to Excel, you would not believe how even the world’s largest companies are still basically run on Excel.
Integrating Teams, Outlook, and Microsoft Exchange means you have the best way to schedule meetings, manage your calendar, and connect to conference calls with a single click.
12. Use The Cloud
Whether at home or in the office, having your key working documents in the cloud is always beneficial. I use OneDrive with Microsoft Office 365, and Dropbox is also an OK solution, but it is expensive. Instant document backup is accessible from everywhere; the cloud is your friend.
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Get a good project management tool. I recommend kanbantool.com , it helps me a lot to stay more productive.