If you are, by any chance, fortunate enough to have a job that is administered from home, then you can easily find yourself in a situation to be displeased with your working space. Fortunately, it is still your apartment, so it may and should be adjusted to fit your needs. There are several key factors upon which you should build your plan to improve functionality. With this in mind, here are some basic guidelines to help you in the process.
Space
Concerning this aspect, it is of utmost importance to have enough room to function without problems. The best thing possible is to single out one whole room, and turn it into your office. If it is possible, choose the one with the best lighting, for you will need plenty of that, in order to function properly. Huge windows are a great benefit, for there is no better light than the natural one. In addition, mind the climate of your city. Adequate air conditioning system is a must-have, for it will keep you warm during winter and cooled during summer. It is known that outer temperature can affect your productivity, decreasing it drastically, and you wish to avoid this.
Utilities
When it comes to this, two things you should take into consideration. Furniture and utilities, including electronic devices such as a computer, printer and scanner, should be reliable, yet pleasant for the eye. If it is low-graded, it doesn’t matter if it is stunning in view, and vice versa. Sufficient storage space is also required, but not too much, for you may be lost in it, and it might happen that you search for an important document for quite some time. A solution for this can be to obtain a couple of shelves, or to take advantage of modern technology. Whichever document you may, scan to electronic form, and with numerous services such as Dropbox, Cloud or Google drive, you may store it safely online, without worrying that your systems’ crash will erase all the data.
Chair
This item must be viewed separately. It is maybe the most important thing in your office, for you will be spending maybe hours in a sitting position, and according to renowned Sydney-based office fitout professionals, we learned that somewhere near 90% of adults experience back pain at some point in their life, while 50% of working population are experiencing this menace every year. It is allowed to spare money on everything, but the chair. It needs to be suited for you, adjustable and reliable. Also, it can be found in wide plethora of colors, designs and materials, so it won’t be trouble to find the one that suits you best. But no matter how good your chair is, avoid sitting for prolonged period of time, for it can damage your health.
With everything said taken into consideration, the best advice anyone can give you is to follow your idea, and make your dream office real. Keep in mind though that this is your office now, rather than part of your apartment, so don’t fall into trap and just redecorate room.
Lillian,
These are some great points to ensure you are most effective while working from home. I also believe that this space should be respected and during times of work you should treat our home office just like any other job. You should have set hours so that you can separate personal from professional. Thanks for sharing.
Nathaniel,
thanks for your support. Home office is the office for people who work from home, so it should be treated accordingly.
Enjoy!
Hi Lillian and AD,
Nice tips indeed to turn our rooms into a productive home office, especially for bloggers and those of us working from home. 🙂
Oh yes…nothing works better than natural light, fresh air, and a good work place. I am glad we have all of those at our home, including a WorkStation too now, along with a comfortable chair, which is SO essential as you need for sit long, if you are writing. I agree about the tools too, though it depends on how of those you really use, like I rarely use anything from this list nor the services, but worth considering.
Thanks for sharing this with us. Have a nice week ahead, both of you 🙂
BTW – I notice nice changes on your blog too AD, after @frugalnate:disqus ‘s blog. But I see the main “C” missing on the name of you blog, right on top from “Creative Sol Vibration” – or am I wrong somewhere 🙂
I’m glad you found the article helpful. Any kind of support is welcome, especially when it comes from a fellow blogger :).
Thanks