One of the most important aspects of working from home is to have a specific area of the house set aside in which you will not intrude upon the lives of other members of the household and allows you the ability to concentrate. Ideally, you will want to designate a specific area as a workstation which is void of any distractions such as the television, phone, etc. Your work area needs to be a stress-free zone that is going to offer solitude and quiet allowing you the ability to concentrate on work while at home. If there is not an empty room in your home, it is best to find why it is the area of the home and settle down there.
If you are easily distracted by outside noise such as traffic, dogs barking, or children playing, it is best to block that out with noise-canceling headphones. Various studies have shown that a soothing blend of music that is combined with soft nature sounds such as raindrops, waterfalls, or ocean waves help to activate the area of your brain that allows you to concentrate and calm yourself as well as lower the heart rate and blood pressure.
It is best that you go to your designated workplace on a regular basis so your mind will not wander and you’ll be able to increase your productivity and focus. It is absolutely essential that you block everything else out in the house this includes whatever goodies you have in the kitchen to household chores such as laundry and taking out the trash, focusing on these types of activities well compromise your overall productivity. You must maintain a work schedule and conclude these types of personal activities once you have finished with your daily work.
Additionally, you must set strict physical boundaries around your designated workspace and ensure that your housemates know that that area is off-limits during work hours. All members of the household must understand that that is your designated work area and when you are working you cannot be disturbed unless it is an emergency. In fact, you should only be in this specific area when you are working. Create a regular work schedule and stay out of that area when you are not working. It is best to try and maintain similar hours as you did when you work in an office to ensure you do not work too long in your home office.
When your workday comes to a close, it is important that you shut down that computer and any other work devices and turn the lights off in that area. When your work is out of sight is going to be out of mind which allows you to relax and recharge for the very next day.
When you are building a work area, you need to focus on making it specifically functional for your particular job. The workplace for a programmer and an audio designer are two different things. You have a limited budget, and you need to use it for the most important elements.
For example, an audio designer would focus on purchasing the most quality speakers and creating a surround system to test his work. However, a programmer doesn’t need any sound at all, but instead, they need multiple screens to divide their work in different areas so it’s easier to organize.
We’re telling you this because people have a habit of searching for “home workplace” on the internet and copying what someone else did, without thinking that the workplace they’re looking at is meant for a different profession.
Even this isn’t a deciding factor on its own. What you should do next is take a look at the design of your room, and then figure out how you can use the space most effectively. Maybe you don’t have a large enough of a wall for a large TV to use as an extra screen if you’re video editing a lot, but you can place multiple smaller monitors on both your left and right side. Being creative is key, not every setup works perfectly for each room.
There are a few technical aspects that you should consider as well. We cannot really list them all for each profession separately, but let’s talk about sound-designing since we already mentioned that example earlier.
If you live in a home that’s built without proper sound isolation, or the acoustics of the room are not like they should be, first you’ll need to focus on improving that before blowing tons of money on expensive speakers. The quality of the sound will be impacted by that even if you have the most expensive sound devices.
For video editing, for example, you can have the best IPS panel monitors that display accurate colors, but if the windows in your workroom are placed so the sun rays land directly at your screen, it doesn’t matter how expensive the monitors are, your vision will be impaired. Think about all of these little factors when building your perfect strategic workplace, they matter more than you think.
You shouldn’t feel discouraged to invest in your own workplace, because work becomes so much easier when you feel comfortable and cozy. Studies show that when you’re working in an environment that you’re used to, your productivity levels increase. This is probably because you can focus on what matters the most, instead of thinking about improving things such as a better chair or a wider deck.
Since the pandemic is expected to last throughout the next two or three years approximately, working from home is something that we need to get used to. You never know when the next lockdown might be, so getting things ready for when it happens is a smart decision.
All in all, you shouldn’t rush things, that’s the best advice that we can give you. Coming up with the perfect design for your workplace takes time. You can’t really know what works best for you until you find out what doesn’t. At the end of the day, investing in this is basically an investment that you’re going to earn back in the next couple of months, especially if your job is well-paid.
If you are considering a new fulfilling career in teaching read more from Tradewind Recruitment.
