How you set up your home office can affect your productivity. A disorganised home office derails your productivity and creates mind-blocks.
Having a dedicated space in your home is the best way to separate personal life and business activities. You should set up your office in any spare room in your home, spare bedroom, study, dining room or possibly even your garage.
Make sure the room you choose to work in can be set up to promote a productive work environment, make sure it is quiet, maintained at a good temperature, and lots of natural light can enter the room.
Here are 5 tips to improve your productivity and organise your home office and keep a positive mood.
Invest in a Good Quality Chair
Your chair is one of the most important pieces of equipment in your office, as it is what will set the tone for your comfortability in your work environment. You should invest in an ergonomic and comfortable office chair, as having an ill fitted chair could cause back pain, or other injuries. So having a comfortable chair is key! Make sure you test the chair before buying it and invest in an adjustable chair that allows you to adjust your height and angle whilst sitting. So you can make sure you are sat in the most optimal position whilst working. Your sitting position should involve maintaining a straight back; feet flat on the floor and the top of your computer should be at eye level.
Have Good Lighting
Invest in good lighting. You should have your main room light, and an additional task light or desk lamp. This light should be brighter and should focus on your desk to facilitate reading, writing and other tasks in close quarters. Besides aiding your sight, light enhances your mood. That is the reason why it is better to set up your desk next to a window so that it is illuminate by natural light.
Ventilation is important for your mood, so make sure you often open your windows to allow a flow of fresh air to remove any staleness in the office.
Display a Wall Planner
A wall planner helps you to track your projects, document your progress and schedule your activities. On this planner, write down your yearly, monthly projects, or create your vision board. It is important to see the bigger picture while performing the small daily tasks. It allows you to prioritise your work and improve your time management. Additionally, plan your day by writing your tasks to help you keep focused on your tasks at hand.
You could also add some photos, family pictures, to make the area more pleasant and provide a personal feel.
Add plants in your office
Having plants in your home office can help improve your mood, as plants absorb humidity. Researchers have found that having plants in offices increase people productivity level by 15%; just try to having one or two small plants in your office to assess the benefits. The main benefits are longer concentration, improvement of air quality, and increased level of satisfaction.
The best plants to display in an office should be low pollen plant, which require low levels of sunlight, such as Jade Plant, Ketia Palms, and Mother in Law’s Tongue. So invest in a few plants in order to lower your stress level, and improve your wellbeing.
Invest in storage
Keep your office tidy and organised office increases your efficacy. If you have a messy office, the consequential work you produce could be also messy, unproductive and most importantly unprofessional.
Keep a minimalist workspace. File your documents using systems, which enable them to be easily found; use storage solutions such as folders, files, shelves or filling cabinet. Having documents in files will help you stay calm and focus.
Keep your desk clean and only leave your computer and a few files related to the task at hand. Having less clutter means fewer distractions.
Author Bio
Lisiane Ndong is the owner of Nkiha (formerly Lilie Design), which is a lifestyle brand offering handmade accessories and gifts. She is an entrepreneur who loves working in interior design and fashion. Having worked in the field of marketing in London for 4 years, Lisiane decided to pursue her passion for design by creating her own company. She is also passionate about personnel development, coaching and wellbeing.