Now that many of us are required to work from home, you might be wondering about the best way to set up your workspace. Not all of us will have a dedicated ‘home office’, of course, so this blog looks at the different ways you can use the space you have available to create your very own home office.
Here are our tips on setting a home office for remote work (whether that’s an actual office or just your kitchen table):
Find the quietest spot in your house
If you’re now working from home full time, as most of us are, it’s important to limit the number of noisy distractions. This is especially the case if you’re at home with young children, attention-seeking pets or noisy neighbours.
If it’s possible, you should try and find the quietest place you can escape to and work in peace. It’s also a bonus if this room has a table or desk already in it that you can use (but you can always do a bit of furniture shifting if required).
Select the comfiest chair you can
Most of us probably won’t have a desk chair at home and you most likely didn’t get a chance to steal one from the office before we were all told to work from home. Therefore, it’s all about making the best of a bad situation.
Test out all the options that you have at home and try to select the one that will best support your posture and limit any backache. This may mean fighting with your significant other to get your hands on it but it’ll be worth it, trust us.
Consider a standing desk
It can be hard to get enough movement in your day when you’re working from home, especially as we can only leave the house for exercise once a day at the moment. That’s why you should potentially consider a standing desk.
You don’t have to order one online, instead you can make your own standing desk from materials available at home! You can also try working in different places throughout the day to give yourself some variety.
Make sure everyone is set up to remote work properly
An important thing to note is that everyone in your company needs to be set up with whatever they need for remote working.
If you don’t feel you have everything you need for remote working, make sure to bring this up with your manager. If you are in a management position, it’s your responsibility to check in with your team and ensure they are fully equipped to do their job properly (as best they can in the unusual situation).
Get your hands on a monitor, mouse, keyboard
You might not have all the equipment you need for working from home on a regular basis. However, if you can, we would recommend getting your hands on a mouse, keyboard, monitor and anything else that is going to make your work life easier.
Move your indoor plants to your home office
Plants can really brighten up a home office and make you feel better. Research has also shown that they can reduce stress and increase productivity! House plants can definitely be incorporated into your home office to make it feel more like your usual office (which should also have plants by the way).
Some people even suggest talking to your plants, but maybe leave that until you’re quite a few weeks into remote working…
Keep things that inspire you nearby
It can be hard to find inspiration and boost productivity levels when you’re working remotely full time, especially because it’s harder to find that divide between home life and work life. One of the things that could really help is keeping inspiring things nearby.
This could be photos of family members that you can’t see at the moment, inspirational quotes that help get you motivated or even just decorations which make your home office a nice space to work.
Keep your pets nearby for company!
One final piece of advice for setting up your home office for remote work is that you should do it in a place where your pets will want to hang out. Without having your colleagues in your office, you will want some company. And pets make pretty good sounding boards if you need to have a quiet moan or let off some steam.
If you don’t have pets, or you do but your colleagues don’t, make sure to share photos of your furry friends on your Slack chat. This is a great way to keep people in good spirits!
We hope this guide to setting up your remote work office has been helpful! If you have any questions or concerns about adapting your team to working from home, you’re welcome to get in touch.
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