Last updated on
Work at home? Does your home office make you productive? These three essentials will turn your work space into a productive powerhouse.
Is the future truly remote? These interesting statistics answer that question: 86% of employees report increased productivity when working from home, 82% report lower stress levels with remote work, and 68% of millennials cite the option of working from home as very attractive to taking up a job role, according to a 2017 survey.
Considering with the insane level of traffic seen in several big cities currently, a lot of people think working from home is a good deal. Besides, it helps in achieving a good work-life balance and improve overall performance of workers.
Not everyone gets the opportunity to work from home even if they want to. However, if you have such a golden chance to work from home more than one day per working week, then you need to pay attention to the following tips to improve your home office setup.
What's Inside
Use Separate Spaces for Your Bedroom and Workplace
Even if the implication of this is that you’d have to work in the kitchen, it is unarguably the best way to be productive while working from home. Allocating a specific portion of your home as a working space, and sticking to it heightens your focus and ultimately helps you separate a relaxed environment, i.e. your bedroom from a potentially stressful environment (i.e. your workspace.)
You can even add a few personalized materials like a neck pillow or a personalized desk mat to add a little bit of aesthetic to your desk or workspace.
Truly, your workspace might not be used for work purposes alone (e.g. if you use your kitchen as a workspace, it doesn’t mean you won’t cook or eat there), but reinforce the idea in your mind of that space being for work.
Invest in Adequate Lighting
Ever noticed that good lighting increases your energy and increases your desire to be productive? Indeed adequate lighting is important enough to cause an energy surge and as such, ensure your workspace has an abundance of light.
You could tweak this requirement in a modest workspace by choosing somewhere close to a window, but if unable to find such a space, invest in lots of light – as it will make you feel awake and alert at all times.
What kind of light is best used in this instance? A combination of the colors white and yellow is often cited as magical in causing increased alertness, and it’s preferable for your lighting to be close to white so as to mimic the natural sunlight.
Do You Like Your Working Space?
It is harder to be productive from a place that fills you with dread, uneasiness or any other negative emotion. Thus, it is pertinent that you like the workspace from which you’d be carrying out most of your tasks.
When you feel good while working, it sets you up for immense productivity – so why should you choose a space that distracts you so much? It makes a lot of sense to consider the presence/absence of potential working space while searching for a rental apartment or a property to buy, and a top experienced real estate agent should be able to find you a property that suits your remote work needs. If you would be buying a property, however, you need to consider the financial implications of such a decision.
Working from home provides a potent push when trying to attain a work-life balance. Putting in intentional efforts to create a personified home office to suit your needs is one way to make your remote work experience not just productive, but also truly enjoyable.
