Working from home offers many advantages, including the flexibility of setting your own schedule, saving time and money by eliminating your daily commute, and to keep you healthy by social distancing from other coworkers. To be most efficient, there are key areas to think about while establishing a home office. Separating your personal life and business life should be a goal of setting up any home office. Many people with a home office sometimes work more hours than they would in the normal forty-hour week job.
Determine your needs
Do you have a need for a large desk to spread out your paperwork?
Do you need computer blue light filter because you spend all day in front of a computer monitor?
Does your employer require you use specific equipment to complete your work?
Create a list of what items are must-haves and what would be nice to have.
Choose a dedicated space within your home
Ideally, your office should be in a quiet area that allows you some privacy. This is especially important if you share the house with a spouse, children, and pets.
You might find that a spare room with a door can reduce noise from the rest of the house if you will be on the phone frequently. It could make sense to choose a room near the front entrance of the house if you will be meeting with clients in your home office. You might need a dedicated studio that is separate from the rest of your home if you need space to spread out design or tech equipment. A locking door can save you embarrassment of unexpected guests during a webcam meeting.
Consider your furniture and lighting needs
Set up your home office so it has plenty of light, natural light from windows is always best, but may not be possible if using a basement. Natural light from windows and exposure to daylight can have positive impact on your physical and emotional well-being.
Working in a space with natural light can reduce headaches and eyestrain, allowing you to be more productive on a day-to-day basis and healthier in the long term. Ergonomics plays a role in maintaining a comfortable workspace, a desk, chair, and monitor at the proper heights and positions helps you to work a stress-free day.
Plants can make you more productive
A plant or two in your workspace as an added touch can improve your well-being. Natural plants can increase your productivity and make you happier while you work.
A dedicated phone can help with time management
Sharing a phone line between your home and business can be costly in many ways. A shared voicemail can sound unprofessional or confuse clients who expect a message specific to your customers and vendors. If you use the same landline for your home and work, you risk having a child or other family member answer the phone taking a message that hopefully gets to you in time.
Having a dedicated phone for your home office, whether a cell phone or a VoIP internet-based phone line can allow you to separate your work and personal life.
Controlling your smartphone:
It is easy to become distracted while working in your home office, this is especially true if you keep your personal phone within your office space.
It has been proven that having your personal phone accessible reduces productivity, especially if they are already prone to overusing a phone. This is the case even if your phone is on silent mode, phone chirping, binging, or vibrating can easily cause distraction.
You probably can’t afford those wasted hours if you’re self-employed, so you might occasionally need to use your devices for work, but your home office will be a more productive space if you have a dedicated spot where you store your smartphone, tablet, and other gadgets when they’re not in use.
Separate the professional from the personal
Keep your personal life from spilling over into your business life—similar to establishing a separate bank account for personal expenses and business expenses.
Store personal checks, mail, client records, and financial records in a dedicated spot in your office, rather than with personal documents. Trying to mix personal records and business files can become confusing. This also means having a television in your home office can be a conflict between being productive at work and enjoying your favorite show or movie. Keeping your eye on your kids as they watch TV, even though you may have a good intention to provide work-home work balance, can be very distracting and affect the quality of your work. Your children may feel you are not paying proper attention to their needs.
Have a Way to Keep Time
Stay productive if you get up and move around a bit throughout the day within your space. Brief mental break periods break up the workday and can improve your focus. It is very easy to forget about time when you are working from home. Before you know it, you have worked a twelve-hour workday and not even realize how much time has passed. Keeping a clock on the wall or desk that is highly visible helps to keep you in stride with time.
Tracking time will encourage you to break up your workday effectively, and it will help you maintain a normal and healthy work life balance. Working with a company like Executive Image Building Services allows a business owner to keep costs low by starting your business from a home office environment.
By: Ray Jackson