The world is a very different place to what it was a year ago. With it now estimated that as many as 24% of people in the UK work exclusively from home, the need to make your personal environment conducive for productivity is greater than ever.
After all, while your surroundings might not be those you became accustomed to for the majority of your professional career, the standard of work needing to be produced is as high as ever. The best way to ensure that remains the case is to put effort into ensuring you’re as relaxed as possible in your not-so-new working environment.
Today, we’re going to run through some of the best steps you can take to ensure that remains the case. From setting up your desk to always making sure you have time to yourself, here are the best methods you can employ.
Photo Credits: Unsplash
Make Sure You Have Personal Space
While you might be used to being surrounded by people in an office, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll want the same thing at home. It’s more than likely you’ll be on closer terms with the people you’re living with, which means those chats at the water cooler (or fridge in this case) might last a little longer.
Equally, if you have kids it may be a struggle to get them to leave you alone for long enough to properly focus on what you’re doing. As such, it’s crucial you find a room in the house which is explicitly yours. Make it a no-go zone for everyone else during the day and lay these boundaries down hard to kids.
Remove All Distractions
Along a similar train of thought, you need to make sure there aren’t any potential distractions littered throughout your home. Calendar.com looked at some of the most common issues for the average home office. They found the chief offenders to be: Family members, emails, your mobile phone, noise and household chores
Some of these will be easier to remove than others. In the case of emails and your phone, pick a certain time in the working day to check both. With chores, hold off on them until either after work or the weekend.
Your family members will respect your decision if you tell them you need privacy for a long period of the day, while noise can be easily drowned out by headphones or ear plugs. There’s always a solution to a problem.
Photo Credits: Unsplash
Set Your Desk Up Properly
A poor desk setup is bound to see your productivity levels suffer. Cotswold go into detail about exactly how you should be setting your desk up to ensure both your body and mind remain alert. Their top tips include:
- Adjust your chair. Your chair ideally needs to be able to support your lower back. Adjust it to make sure that you have a firm base at the bottom of your spine, keeping you in an upright position.
- Screen at eye level. This is important in making sure your neck isn’t being strained throughout the day. If you’re using a laptop, it might make sense to place it on a stand then use a separate mouse to control the screen.
- Feet on the floor. Having your feet flat on the floor helps to create a solid base for the rest of your body to work from. You can use a footstool to achieve this.
- Keyboard right in front of you. Placing the keyboard directly in front of you helps create a healthy L-shape with your arms. This means no excess strain is being placed where it shouldn’t.
If you follow these basic snippets of advice, you should find your desk optimised to your working needs.
Make Time For A Break
Always be sure to find time for a break during your working day. Whether it’s just to browse the net, or to get out and do something active, it’s really important your brain gets the chance to shut off from work for at least a little bit each day.
This could be the perfect time to go and have a chat with the people you live with, or even play a video game if you know you have the willpower to pull yourself away after 30-60 minutes. Really, the choice is totally up to you.
Follow these tips and you’ll find your work environment is as relaxed and efficient as possible while you’re at home.
Author: Written by Cotswold
Photo Credits: Pixabay
