Your work environment affects both your mood and productivity. After all, we’re always affected by external factors, and this is where you’ll spend most of your working hours. While this sounds intimidating, it’s quite an opportunity and a blessing in disguise.
Here’s how you can use your home office design to help boost your productivity and make your remote work into a sustainable business model.
1. Light
Ambiance light can set the mood, and task light will provide you with the necessary visibility. For efficient office work, you need both. To get them, you need to consider a couple of options. First, you might want to get a desk lamp. Second, your room’s main fixture may need to be changed. Layered lighting is the smartest choice.
Natural light is also quite important for both productivity and motivation. Sure, some remote workers have a disturbed day-night cycle. Still, allowing enough light (and fresh air) in your home office is important to achieve maximum productivity.
Let’s be completely honest and admit that the main light source in your home office might come from the screen. While this sounds natural, it’s anything but. Other than just being bad for your eyes, it may damage your melatonin levels, thus disturbing your quality of sleep (and sleep patterns). So, get an app that adjusts the screen’s brightness to the time of the day.
2. Ergonomics
Comfort is important, not just for your health but your productivity, as well. Lower back pain can be caused by bad posture and inadequate chair. Focusing on the task is near impossible if your back hurts. In this scenario, you’ll probably be able to focus just on the pain.
The desk’s height affects the angle at which your eyes see the screen. Needless to say, this can be important for your eyesight. The same goes for your elbows. If you habitually keep them on the desk while typing, the angle at which you rest them on the desk surface matters quite a bit.
Some people prefer to work standing up. This is especially efficient with the interval working model. In this scenario, you could get a standing desk and a sofa/armchair in the back. Then, you work for 20 minutes and rest for 10 (on the sofa). Sure, this way, you lose 20 minutes every hour, but the 40 minutes you work are active. You would be surprised at how much more you’ll get done. Not to mention that it’s far better for your health.
3. Sound
Handling the acoustics of your home office is the most important thing you can do. First of all, the worst type of distractions is sound-based ones. While you are working from home, your family and roommates may be going on about their business. Sure, you can ask them to be more considerate, but it’s unfair to expect them to walk on eggshells in their home throughout the day.
Instead, you can try to make your room soundproof. Installing acoustical panels on your walls will make it harder for outside noises to penetrate the home office. It will work the other way around, so you don’t have to worry about disturbing others. While at it, you might want to work on the room acoustics. For instance, you can learn how is an echo produced and find a way to eliminate it as effectively as possible.
The cheapest and most straightforward solution is to get yourself a quality noise-canceling headset. This way, you’re isolating yourself from the outside world and have the privilege of focusing on the work. Ideally, nonetheless, you would do everything from this list:
- Talk to your friends and family
- Soundproof home office
- Get a quality headset
This way, you get a long-term solution to your problem.
4. Colors
Colors affect our mindset and motivation in more ways than we can imagine. They affect our mood, our appetite, and even our productivity. You can use this concept to your advantage and transform your room into a stimulative work environment. For this to work, you must understand the psychology of colors.
For starters, yellow is a color that inspires creativity. Red makes you more energetic and aggressive. Purple helps relax and calm you down. Now, depending on what type of work you’re in, you might choose a different palette. For instance, while someone in sales may want a red or orange environment, someone who dabbles in writing or design might want a yellow or green work environment.
Keep in mind that you’re not restricted to a monochrome office. Just make sure that you find a combination that works well together. Otherwise, you risk creating a visual distraction. Speaking of which…
5. Clutter
Clutter makes it harder for you to coordinate in your office and creates a powerful visual distraction. It’s not far-fetched to say that people work less efficiently in a messy environment. This is true even for people who claim they’re the most comfortable in a mess of their own making.
The first prerequisite to keeping your home office clean is making its maintenance a routine. Clean it at least twice weekly, even if these cleaning sessions don’t take more than 15 minutes each. Most importantly, ensure you have enough storage options in your home office.
Mess is sometimes caused by things you can’t remove or move elsewhere. Endless cables behind your computer and under the desk are one such example. The best way to handle this is through more efficient cable management. Use cable ties and cable clips to get this in order.
Wrap Up
One of the most important things to remember is that refreshing your home office occasionally might be a good idea. Don’t let things get too stale. There are always new trends, and we’re still learning how ergonomics, colors, and sounds affect productivity. Discoveries in this field may present new options. Also, remodeling your home office can be a great way to make your workplace more dynamic. Yes, this is possible even in a home setting.
Infographic provided by Shipping Container Rental Company, Container Alliance
