Updates to Make Around the House for Remote Work
The coronavirus pandemic sparked a mass migration of employees into the remote work world. Practically overnight, tens of millions of workers found themselves doing their best to balance their personal and professional lives as they worked from home.
With remote work continuing to look like it’s here to stay, it’s important for employees to figure out how they can make the best of their work-from-home (WFH) situations. Here are a few suggestions for the best ways to set up your home for a productive and successful WFH career.
Find a Dedicated Space
The most important thing about a productive WFH lifestyle is finding a space to dedicate solely to your professional efforts. There isn’t a specific formula that you have to follow in choosing the space. For example, it could be a pre-existing office, a spare bedroom, or could come via finishing an area in the attic or the basement. It could even be a corner of your bedroom.
The important thing is that you find a space that works for you, and then you commit it to work and work alone. Dedicating a workspace naturally enables you to find greater success when working remotely. It gives you a physical area where you can plug in and focus on work and it allows you to unplug from your employment-related responsibilities when you’re finished.
In the same sense, as you utilize your home for multiple areas of your life, it’s equally important to keep your bedroom for sleeping, your living room for entertainment and relaxation, your kitchen for eating, and so on. This allows your mind to fully shift to the activity at hand depending on the space that you’re inhabiting at the moment.
Set Up for Productivity
Having a dedicated space is an essential first step for your WFH environment. However, if you want to find even greater success as you work from home, there are many other things that you can do to maximize your productivity and efficiency within that space. For example, you can:
- Think ergonomically: Make sure to populate your WFH office with a comfortable desk and a chair that you can sit in for 40 hours a week without trouble.
- Stay minimal: Filling your space with unnecessary stuff can lead to a cluttered and unorganized atmosphere, which can hamper your productivity and focus. Instead, try to maintain a minimalistic attitude in your home office.
- Set up proper lighting: Lighting, both natural and artificial, is crucial to long-term productivity. Ensure that your space is well lit and has access to natural light. You may even want to consider getting a light therapy lamp for when the days get shorter.
- Tend to the temperature: This is especially important if you’re working in an attic or a basement, as you want a comfortable atmosphere to help you focus.
- Get good hardware: Everything from a good computer, keyboard, and mouse to quality speakers and a second monitor can help your workspace hum along.
- Consider personal preferences: If you have personal interests, such as books, sculptures, paintings, or a particular design style, introduce them into your space to make it your own.
- Make sure everything has its place: As you populate your office, find a home for every item so that you can avoid clutter and keep everything organized.
- Go green: Adding a plant or two is a great way to introduce a sense of nature and tranquility to your home office.
- Set up a cleaning schedule: It’s easy to neglect cleaning your office if you don’t take the time to schedule cleaning it on a regular basis.
Remember Sustainability and Security
- Properly insulating the space to avoid excessive heating and cooling.
- Using LED light bulbs.
- Planting shade trees outside of the windows.
- Keeping your AC and furnace in peak condition.
In addition, with all of your valuable work equipment now adding to your home’s inherent value, it’s important to update locks, install cameras, and generally secure your home.
Updating Your Home for Remote Work
Pandemic aside, it seems that remote work is here to stay for many companies. This new commitment to long-term work-from-home operations has made it necessary for remote employees to consider how to convert a portion of their homefront into a permanent and productive work-from-home space.
From dedicating and decorating a home office space to securing it and making it operate sustainably, there are many different ways that you can update your home to accommodate remote work.
About the Author
Luke Smith is a writer and researcher turned blogger. Since finishing college he is trying his hand at being a freelance writer. He enjoys writing on a variety of topics but real estate topics are his favorite. When he isn't writing you can find him traveling, hiking, or gaming.
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