Quick links:
- Find a spot
- Get all essentials – in order
- Layer up your home office with greens
- Use focus colours
- Prioritise ergonomics
- Focus on your background
- Add useful distraction areas
- Do not mix it up
Home is a space which is associated with leisure and comfort. It has always been a place that you go back to after a hustling day of work. Typically designed for informal activities and interactions, home is something that makes you feel relaxed. But with the COVID- 19 pandemic spreading fast, your home is no more a space to just laze around! The home office culture have moved into our abodes, resulting in an obvious space transformation.
A survey conducted by SAP Concur suggests that 74% of Indians will continue to work from home more than they did before the pandemic began. This study signifies that the home office trend is fast catching up and is the new normal.
While it’s already been about six months of living this change, many of us still aren’t comfortable with this shift! So if you are one amongst this lot, this article is just what you need! Whether you are still in the process of fixing your work space or looking for a fresh change, we have some tips that can help you to totally transform your “at home-work desk”. Here’s presenting to you, the ultimate guide to set up your office at home.
1. Find a spot
The foremost step to set up your work space is to narrow down to a corner or side of the room. Make a check list to fix your spot. The space you chose must be:
– Big enough to accommodate your work desk
– Well lit (with natural and artificial light)
– Naturally ventilated
This step is crucial because if the space is not appropriate, you will not be comfortable. Choose a space that you like and clear it off all the existing furniture. The next is to bring in your work desk and set it up in a direction that allows ample space of movement to you. Do not arrange your seat in a congested space. Remember that you are going to use this space for a while, so be sure about it. Take a mental picture of it and imagine yourself working around that place. Map out the placement of your essentials and then let your work begin!
2. Get all essentials- in order
After you have moved in your table, it’s time to set up your desk. Gather all your essentials such as planner, pen, notepads, sticky notes, lamps, files, frames etc. to know how much space you need to keep them. Avoid keeping a lot of things on the desk. Instead, try having holders at the side of your table and keep some room for extras. Give everything a dedicated place on the table and try to maintain it. Be minimalistic and clean. Let your essentials be sleek and handy.
A small tip here is to leave your desk organised at the end of the day. This will help you to start afresh the next day and keep you focussed on things of prime importance.
3. Layer up your home office with greens
It is obvious to feel suffocated while working within four walls. Your mobility is restricted and you can’t feel connected to the outside world! While this may make you feel more exhausted; an easy way here to stay connected to the outdoors is to let them in. Bringing in some home plants can be really helpful.
When you have something in your vision that is natural, you feel refreshed and productive. While choosing the plants think about their maintenance and space suitability. You can choose to get full length plants for your room. If you do not have an entire room to work, then choose small table plants. The idea is to simply have greens in your workspace. Some indoor plants we recommend for your work desk are:
– Snake plant: your air purifier
– Bamboo plant: your lucky charm
-Aloe vera plant: your health genie
-Peace lily: a treat to your eye
You can look out for some cool indoor plants in our recommended home decor stores.
4. Use focus colours
Colours are a vital element of space interiors. They can fill up a space with positivity and creativity with their vibrance. A splash of colour always uplifts our mood. The family of cool colours i.e. blue, green and purple works best for office spaces. The colour blue is said to have increased one’s productivity and focus.
It is a calm and peaceful colour which represents balance. It also stands for something formal and which is why it preferred in most office spaces. You can also plan your furniture in accordance with the room’s colour scheme. If feasible, you can paint a wall blue in the room or otherwise simply get blue table accessories. The idea is just to enhance your work mood. If you are looking for a trendy colour change this year, check out this blog!
5. Prioritise ergonomics
Whether in the office or working from home, you must be vigilant about your sitting posture. Firstly, make sure you have a sturdy table and chair. Do not go for quick fixes or low quality buys. Order a hydraulic chair, adjust your seat height and align your vision with the computer screen.
While sitting keep your back straight and take enough cushion support to be comfortable. Also, do not be seated for a long time. Take breaks at regular intervals to walk around, lie down or simply relax. Keep exercising your eyes, legs and hands frequently. Do not stoop down your shoulders and maintain a good 20- 40 inches of distance between you and the computer screen. Here’s some help to decide what sitting posture suit you best.
Some essential advice here is when at home, do not work from your bed because you might end up straining your lower back. Always prefer working from your desk.
6. Focus on your background
Video calls are one of the dreaded meetings for many! The reason being that we do not think of our backgrounds when setting up our work space. A non-aesthetic background might not really matter to the other person, but it might bring your morale down. So to avoid this, arrange your work setup with a decent background of a blank wall. Avoid sitting with your back facing a door or window. This will help you avoid the unwanted entries of people and light into your call. If not a background, have some furniture like a book shelf, a glass wall, or a wardrobe as your work call background. The idea is simple; avoid backgrounds which allow movement.
7. Add useful distraction areas
Work from home may have put you under a lot of productive pressure, but it has also lent you some homely comfort. Make the most of this opportunity. Savour on some useful distractions. Shift your chair to the balcony or terrace for a while in the evening and get some fresh air. Or maybe read on a good book to take a little break. This will only enhance your work quality. Be with your pet for a while or maybe just cook a quick meal to have. Indulge yourself in little things that upbeat your mood but do not spend too much time doing it. Learn to strike a balance.
8. Do not mix it up
While working from home, the biggest mistake of all we do is to flood our desk with food and homely work. Even though your work desk has shifted to home, you must not carry your homely tasks to it. Every space holds a meaning to it and if you blend their functions, the whole plot of setting up your work desk goes missing. Do not eat, nap, drink or do anything that is non-work related on your work desk. Stay true to the function of every space. Likewise, do not work from anywhere in the house. Change your room once in a while if you feel like, but do not make a complete makeshift.
Working from home is a style that we are all exploring. Let’s be experimental and find out which space suits you the best!
We hope that these tips will make your work from home even more productive! Try them out and let us know how it went about for you……
If you need some ideas on a complete work from home space transformation, you can always reach out to us. Let us know about your work from home issues and we will have the perfect tailor-made solution to it.
