How To Put The “Home” In Home Office
It’s too easy to make a home office feel like a drab, impersonal workplace. Whether you’re working from home regularly or trying to set up a side business, your home office should feel like a colourful and inviting place to be rather than an extension of a nightmare cubicle farm.
With that said, it can be hard to know where to start when you’re setting up a home office that feels like a personal space, so without further ado, here’s how to put the “home” in the home office.
Don’t skimp on color
You might be tempted to make your home office space as bland and pastel-shade as possible to optimize productivity, but this would be a mistake. Adding a little color can transform the space and make it feel less bland.
Naturally, you should avoid clashing color combinations because that will just be distracting. However, there’s nothing wrong with bright or vivid colors; just ensure that any color scheme you build isn’t garish and off-putting and feels right to you.
Personalize the space
What better way to make a home office feel inviting and welcoming than to make it feel uniquely yours? Adding decorations and items that feel personal to you can give you the motivation to push through a complex or challenging workday.
You could display paintings you love, for example, or metal prints with photos of your family. The artwork and photos you display shouldn’t be too challenging or distracting; they should be exciting enough to make you think but not so compelling as to draw you away from your work.
Add lots of plants
The transformative effect that plants can have on a room is breathtaking. They add a sense of vibrancy and life to any space, and if you get plants with lots of different colors, you’re also adding to the color scheme of your home office, which is a bonus.
If you don’t feel like you’re going to be able to devote the time necessary to make more “difficult” plants flourish, then adding “easy” plants to the space – i.e., plants that don’t need too much care – is a great workaround.
Add a coffee maker
Plenty of workers worldwide simply can’t survive without their morning coffee (or two or three – no shame!), so why not cut out the middleman and add a coffee maker for your home office?
This will help you not to get distracted by leaving the office to make coffee while you’re in the middle of a tough assignment. It’ll also benefit from bringing the delicious smell of percolating coffee to your home office. If you’re not much of a coffee drinker, you could buy an air freshener with a coffee scent (or any scent you like!).
Keep everything in its place
When your home office starts to feel cluttered and difficult to navigate, it can be challenging to want to spend any time there. That’s why it’s vital to declutter your office regularly.
This doesn’t just involve getting rid of things you no longer need but also ensuring that everything you consistently use for work is stored in its right place. A little bit of chaos can be conducive to creativity, but if nothing is ever where you think it’s going to be, you’ll just end up frustrated every time you want to get something done.
Make sure your chair is comfortable
We simply cannot overstate the importance of having a comfortable chair for your home office. Since you’ll be spending much of your time in that chair, it should perfectly accommodate your body size and shape.
If you’re uncomfortable while you’re working, then not only will that lead to decreased productivity, but it will also cause both short-term and long-term health problems for you. Shelling out for a more expensive chair might seem like a needless extravagance, but you’re essentially planning for the future by doing so.
Make sure your home office is well-lit
nothing worse than working in a dingy, miserable office environment without adequate lighting. That’s why, if you’re building a home office, it’s essential to ensure sufficient light in the room.
Naturally (no pun intended), the best way to do this is to ensure that natural light can get in, which means keeping windows free of clutter. However, since this isn’t always possible, consider installing bright lighting or dimmer switches so you can control ambient light levels throughout the day. Your eyes will thank you for doing so!
Give yourself breaks
This isn’t so much a tip about building a home office as it is about operating within one. If you’re working throughout the day and not stopping, you’ll quickly notice that this has a detrimental effect on your health.
It’s essential to make sure that you build time for breaks into your schedule. During those breaks, try to exercise if you can; even a quick walk around the block can help alleviate some of the health issues that can arise from being sedentary all day. You may even want to buy an exercise machine and install it in your home office if you have the space!
