Having a productive and efficient home office is important whether you’ve been working home for a few days or a few years so how do you know if your Home Office is working for you?
When you work from home, it is crucial that you have a space that suits your workday needs.
If you live with another person, they may be also working from home.
Having a home workspace that is yours exclusively is key to a successful remote work career.
We learned this the hard way during the pandemic.
Like myself, if your space is no longer working for you when you’re working from home, it may be time to move.
We’ve found that there are many other key aspects that you need to consider when making the most of your home office situation. These include:
- Privacy: As we mentioned earlier, you need to have a space that is yours to use exclusively in order to give your work the attention it requires. This usually means a room separate from your living space, ideally with a door separating the two.
- Location: Give yourself ample room to work. Think about traffic flow and any potential distractions.
- Lighting: Your home office needs plenty of light to reduce eye strain and headaches. Make sure to have a small lamp on your desk for additional lighting.
How do you know if your home office situation is no longer working for you? Here are just a few signs:
- Attention issues: You can’t concentrate or get easily distracted in your designated home workplace. This is especially bad if you need to speak with other people via phone or video chat. If you can’t give your Zoom meetings your full attention because of your workspace, it may be time to move.
- Decreased productivity: The amount of work you are getting done each day seems to be decreasing. This could be a sign that your work area is not efficient enough for you to work properly. Many experts argue that working from home decreases your productivity already, so imagine how not having a functional workspace would only make it worse.
- Stress: Your office area makes you stressed instead of inspired. Again, if this is the case and you can’t change it enough to improve the situation, it’s time to move.
My partner and I came to the conclusion that we had to move halfway through the pandemic when my freelance career took off and I started working nearly full-time from our dining table.
I noticed all three of the above signs, and my work suffered.
Our living space is open concept, so my desk is in the same room as our television.
This alone made me want to move, and my partner was ready as well.
We just had to figure out what we could afford.
After a lot of research, consulting tools like this handy online mortgage calculator and combing real estate sites constantly for listings.
We especially loved this calculator because of its loan repayment graphs, which we decided we will print out for reference and motivation once we finally buy a home.
If you’re working in your home office for the long run, there are many ways that you can make working from home enjoyable and comfortable.
Think about how your current home workspace affects your productivity at work.
Sometimes you may need to rethink your living situation and move in order to have a healthy, productive, and functional remote working environment.
If you found this article useful read these articles, 4 Tips for Moms to manage their Home and Work, 5 Ways to Upgrade Your Guest Bedroom and Transform your Basement into a Games Room for the Kids.
