5 Tips for Setting Up a Productive Home Office
5 Tips for Setting Up a Productive Home Office
Working at home is beneficial for many reasons. You can take the time saved from the daily commute and use it to exercise, make your lunch, do household chores and most importantly spend time with your family. It's a trend that's growing across Australia. Many businesses are even letting their employees use a flexible work scheme and work from home a few times a week. However, anyone who has worked from home knows how hard it can be keeping work and home concerns separate and how easy it is to fall into the trap of being distracted and losing productivity. For this reason, we've put together some tips as a guide to help you set up a home office that is efficient and suits your personal requirements.
De-Clutter and Remove Distractions
The first step in creating a productive work space at home is to remove any distractions that exist as a reminder you’re at home. Traditionally your home is a place to relax and unwind, so ideally you should keep the two separated even if you work from home. Make your office space exclusive to your work, while leaving the rest of your home a place for leisure and relaxation.
De-clutter your space by removing all excess furniture and resolve to remove distractions such as your television and gaming console from the office, which will slice right into your productivity. By not getting too cosy and casual while working from home, you can keep productivity up, while maintaining your independence. Another trick we've learnt the hard way is not putting your work space near a sleeping space make sure you indicate to your body where areas for work are and where areas for sleeping are.
Realise your Technological Needs and Go Wireless
Be realistic with what you will need to properly work from home. This includes a suitable internet speed, a reliable scanner and printer and any other gadgets that you would usually use at work. While it’s ideal to have a fair knowledge of your equipment, be sure to have a reliable tech support contact that is located nearby. You never know when something may stop working and need repair, and by having prompt tech support on hand, you won’t lose productivity or miss any important deadlines.
As well as being convenient, going wireless at home will remove the clutter and hassle of wires running around the skirting board throughout the house. With the ever-growing speed of wifi, the need for bulky wiring is slowly but surely becoming a thing of the past. Save space and make your home office more aesthetically pleasing with a secure wireless network.
Also don't forget some sort of backup for your computer at home. While losing personal pieces of information can be frustrating, losing digital work items can cost you a lot of time and the business a lot of money. Luckily cloud storage solutions are used in most workplaces so you can automatically save all your work in the cloud and access it from home or the office.
Organise Your Space
Eliminate stress and stay focused by keeping an organised workspace that is clean and tidy. Maintain an analogue filing system in your office and use it! Whether you use a traditional filing cabinet or a less industrial alternative, file everything at the end of the day that’s on your desk to avoid clutter from building up. Having a routine at the end of each day just like you would at work is important to help you start the next day on a strong note.
If you don’t need to file it, throw it out! Hoarding useless documents is a quick way for a hectic workspace.
Ergonomics Is Important
source
If you work at your desk for most of the working day, it’s vital to have your health and safety in consideration. By referring to the above infographic, it’s clear that the most important factor to consider is your posture while working.
If you’re sitting for hours upon hours a day, it’s important to make sure that you aren’t putting any unnecessary strain on your neck or back by having bad posture. People often don't think about this but be sure to invest in a ergonomic chair that though it may seem expensive now, could save you the cost and unpleasantries of physical issues later down the track. People often disregard things that are normally the concerns of management in a workplace.
As the infographic suggests, be sure to take breaks from being stationary for long periods of time. You work from home now, you don’t have a boss breathing down your neck or other employees interrupting you, this means you can get caught up in your work so be sure to be liberal when it comes to giving yourself a 5 minute break every couple of hours.
Personalise Your Space
You work from home after all, so be sure to make your space your own. Emulating a traditional office can lead to the same daunting feeling of heading into work everyday that you ditched for the home office. Be creative with your décor and surround yourself in designs that inspire you.
Whether it be hanging paintings you like, personalised stationary, or inspirational quotes, make your office a reflection of how you do business.
Need Extra Space? Consider a Storage Unit Office
(True Detective, 2014)
If you need a personal office space to process invoices, store tools and equipment and work on proposals, you may want to follow the large number of Australian small business owners who are setting up small offices in storage units. These units are cheap to maintain and can spaciously house a functional office, perfect for the on-the-go business owner.
Here at Palmers Storage, we have had an influx of these small office spaces throughout our storage units, and we happily support business owners by providing them with affordable and private space for their professional needs.
If you are clearing out the spare room to make space for a personalised home office and need to safely store your belongings to make space, give Palmers Storage a call on 02 9742 6662 today for a solution that is best suited to your needs.