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5 WAYS TO MAKE AN AWESOME HOME OFFICE
Today I am going to go over the HOME OFFICE and how to make yours awesome. I am not going to get into style of the office because there are endless possibilities of styles. You can have the clean modern contemporary style or the sophisticated formal library style.
Each and every person has a different work style and profession but more and more I find that people are working from home. With the internet age the connection to the main office is easier to accomplish than ever before. More companies have the option of going virtual, but not all of them do.
I feel the main reason a company resist is because they either don’t trust their employees to work hard or they don’t feel their employees know what they are doing. Then others like to give the impression of a professional office to those that visit on the rare occasion.
Ok so back to the topic today, How to create an awesome home office, you will love working in.
There are 5 main features that make a great office.
- The first is light.
- The second is a comfortable work area.
- The third is access to your necessary tools.
- The fourth is organization.
- The fifth is motivation.
Light is so important. Having quality light in your space will brighten your mood, create less stress and improve your creativity. When I was in college I rented a studio apartment in the basement of a much larger house. I had two very small windows that gave me little to no light. That combined with some other experiences there made for an awful place to study and learn. I had to get out of the space and spent a large amount of my time in the school studio or library, both of which had nice light.
When you’re deciding on whether to start working from home a lot of people who have basements immediately think that they should set up the office in the basement. Out of the way from everything. That might be nice for a little quiet time, but you will regret the basement feeling and you will find yourself getting out of there as much as possible to find other things that you have to take care of around the house. Creating excuses to leave.
If you can find a location that has a window and view to the outdoors. Some space that allows you to absorb the light. A combination of natural light and artificial light is the best in my opinion. Currently my office is located in a bedroom or was a bedroom on the main floor of our 2 story house. We don’t have a basement so that was not even a consideration at the time. We do have another formal dining room that we could have used for an office but the walls are open on both sides to a hall and the kitchen so we decided that it would be better to utilize the extra bedroom.
You may not have an extra bedroom and might just be setting up a traditional desk or possibly standup desk in your living room. If you are going to be spending a considerable time working at your desk, really think about the furniture placement and make your office a priority. Today we spend a lot of time on the computer and now we have mobile devices as well as laptops that are more portable.
Even though your mobile device and laptop move around that does not necessarily mean that you need to. I find that if you have a comfortable spot that you consistently use to work, you will be able to focus more and make the time you spend count. Once you leave the area, you are no longer working. It gives you the ability to shut off and rewind.
Imagine if you constantly had your work items on the dining room table. You sit down each evening for diner with your family and what are you thinking about? Focus on what is important at that moment. You have to let work go at some point, if even for a brief moment. I suggest that you separate your office from your relaxation and family bonding spaces.
Ok so that was a long aside note on the office. But light, yes light. Ensure that you have the proper amount of light to complete your tasks. You don’t want to strain your eyes by having lack of light. The typical bedroom or living room is not designed for working on tasks. You will really need to boost that light to higher levels to be comfortable.
If you have recessed lights, go to your hardware store and look for some bright LED bulbs that you can screw into the cans. They also have surface mounted LED’s that you can replace your fixtures with. Don’t skimp out on this step.
I like the G7 Power Reno LED 15 Watt (85W) 1100 Lumen BR30 Recessed Light Bulb, Dimmable 3000K Soft White Light
The second feature that makes an awesome home office is a comfortable work area. This one is a little hypocritical for me to discuss right now because I am sitting in a rock hard chair that might be an inch and a half too low cutting my forearms on the sharp edge of my desk while I write these notes. When I record the show I go to another room in our house and have a mini sound booth setup. But I record the show standing up with my mic on top of a tall dresser. So I understand that we all work with what we have, but ideally.
Ideally you would have an adjustable chair with ergonomic support and your monitor and keyboard at proper heights to keep from straining your neck. That is of course assuming that you work on a computer. So of you might draw or write by hand or who knows. Maybe you are building things. The key is to think about your comfort when making decisions. I think I might be eventually moving to a standing desk. Or at least a desk that will adjust up and down depending on the mood I’m in. When we are at home we often try to have style in everything around us. Make sure when you are selecting your furniture for your office that you look to comfort first then style. You will be very happy you did. And don’t worry there are plenty of ergonomic desks and chairs that don’t look like cubicles.
The Third is access to your necessary tools. And this is really unique to everyone and their profession. Most everyone in some form of business today needs a computer, possibly a printer, and definitely a phone. For my phone I use my cell phone, but I have a designated google voice number that will ring to my cell or even multiple phones and will take messages and send me a text with the transcribed message. It is a pretty cool feature and totally free from google. You don’t even have to pay for the number. You might want music, I personally can’t listen to music when I write, but I love to when I’m drawing. I would avoid having a TV in the room at all cost or at least disconnect the cable so you can use your tv for a second monitor if you want to have a conference call or something. We disconnected our cable from all our tv’s all two of them several years ago now. That was probably the best thing we did for our family. We really enjoy not having TV and were able to get so much more done without that distraction.
Along with the necessary tools is the fourth need of staying organized and having a place for everything. You might not have as much space at your home as you would at an office. Your personal things tend to start to overlap with your work things. Stay on top of it and be sure to keep your work space presentable as if you had a client stopping by. This will allow you to stay focused and not get bogged down feeling like you need to straighten up. Have a couple of shelves and drawers so you can put papers away and not clutter your desk area.
The Fifth and final is have something motivating in your office. Something that can keep you on track and focused. For me it is this little man. This small sculpture called ‘Boulder’ and it was sculpted by Frank Wright. Of course it’s a replica, but it is pretty interesting to me and for some reason it gets me motivated. You’ll quickly find out if working from home is right for you. If you find that you are getting distracted, maybe pack up the laptop and head over to the coffee shop for a couple of hours or go outside and take a short walk then get back to it. That is the advantage of working from home, you are in control of your day. Your day is as productive as you want to make it. If you love what you do, like I do, then working on it at home will come very easy to you.
So, just like I always do on each episode, I wanted to end with one final take away for you. Try something new with your work. Try to see if your employer will let you work from home for a couple of days a week. If they do really work hard those days and show them that you are capable of being productive. Start to design your own work schedule and life. The office is just a small part of it.
I wanted to end this episode with a quote from Robert Frost:
“The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.”
