How the Layout of Your Home Office Affects Your Productivity
In this article, we take a look at how the layout of your home office can affect your productivity.
26/01/2020
Working from home certainly has its perks. For one, you’ll be saving precious time and money on transportation and you’ll be surrounded by a familiar and comfortable environment that encourages efficiency and productivity. Plus, you’ll have all your favorite snacks at hand, what more could you ask for?
Yes, working from home is great, but it also requires a lot of self-motivation, which is why your home office should be designed to inspire you to get up and get to work. That being said, let’s take a look at how the layout of your home office can affect your productivity.
Ergonomic Office Furniture Can Enhance Productivity
To enhance your workflow and make the time you spend working less stressful to your body, every item in your home office should be ergonomically designed to promote comfort, safety, and efficiency. From your desk and your keyboard to your filing cabinet and your chair, the goal of your office furniture and tools should be to support the different areas of your body that typically come into play with the work you do.
Because you’ll likely spend most of your time sitting, your office chair should be ergonomically designed to reduce the backache and neck strain that often results from staying seated for too long. There’s a wide variety of chairs out there on the market, but if you’re not sure where to look, click here where you can find the most suitable furniture that compliments the layout of your home office. The qualities that make a good office chair may vary from one person to another but generally, your chair needs to be fully adjustable to accommodate your specific body type while allowing for free movement. It should also have enough padding to properly support your back and neck during your long working hours.
Plants Can Boost Your Energy
Between the harsh lighting, the air conditioning, and all the digital devices commonly found in any workspace, we tend to lose our inherent connection with mother nature which affects our productivity in more ways than we realize. The easiest way to remedy that is by placing a few potted plants around your home office.
By renewing our connection with nature, plants can make us feel more relaxed and energized, which, as research shows, can improve office productivity by up to 15%. Moreover, plants increase oxygen flow throughout the workspace. As a result, this promotes creativity, enhances concentration, and improves memory retention.
Lighting Makes All the Difference
Good lighting is also essential for workspace productivity. A home office layout that maximizes natural light along with supplemental light helps reduce eyestrain, fatigue, and headaches, which, in turn, makes it much easier for you to focus and work efficiently. Ideally, you’ll want as much natural light in your working area as possible, but if there’s no daylight available, then a combination of general and task lighting will be required.
To prevent the eyestrain commonly associated with light glare, avoid placing your desktop computer or laptop directly below your overhead lighting or right in front of any light source.
An Organized Home Office is an Efficient Home Office
To maximize your office space and ensure that you have enough room to work comfortably and efficiently, you need to carefully consider your storage needs. The golden rule states that for maximum workspace productivity, there has to be a place for everything and everything has to be in its place.
Your desk is where you’ll likely spend the most time. This means that it has to be big enough to support all of your work-related items and devices while still leaving you with enough space to move around freely. Now, instead of getting a ridiculously large desk to fit all your work essentials, you can choose from the myriad of storage options available for workspace organization such as pencil cups, paper trays, business card holders, shelves, and filing cabinets.
Having enough storage space allows you to better keep track of the pending work, prevent the chaos of disorganized piles, and stop wasting time looking for misplaced items. All of which will ultimately optimize your workflow and enhance your productivity.
The best thing about having a home office is that you can make the space your own. So with the above points in mind, take a look at your home office and see how you improve the layout to create a more positive and productive work environment. Find out what inspires you and convert the room into the perfect space that will both motivate and inspire you to work while keeping you on track.