How To Set Up a Productive Home Office

(3 Essentials You Need To Cover)

TL;DR

• Choose the best location

• Get the right equipment

• Invest in the essential software

Remote work is on the rise, with more and more people looking for jobs that provide more flexibility than being confined to working in an office. This allows us to work where that’s most convenient and comfortable for us, helping us be more productive.

But where doactually we end up when we work remotely?

According to an article by Buffer, Hubstaff and Workform, we overwhelmingly tend to work from home

78% of us prefer the comfort of our own home!

If we think about it, this makes sense. It means there is no commute at all and it’s where we have the most control over our working environment.

But there’s more to a productive work environment at home than simply rolling out of bed and switching on our laptops. When working from home, there are certain considerations that need to be taken into account.

Why is a proper home office set up is important?

A lot of the time when we tell people we remotely work from home, they instantly envision us sitting with our laptop in bed in our pyjamas, or sprawled across the sofa in front of the TV.

Though this may be something we do from time to time, it’s not the most comfortable for an entire workday and certainly won’t be something we do on a day to day basis.

And we’re probably all aware that pyjamas don’t look great on a video call 😂. So little thought needs to be put into our work environments at home, to ensure we’re as productive as possible.

To begin with, we need to…..

Choose the Right Location

This might not seem like a big deal, but it plays a more important role than it might initially appear.

The first thing we’ll want to do is pick somewhere that’s away from distractions.

If there’ll be people around during your workday, you want to avoid common areas like the kitchen, as these will likely have the hustle and bustle of people using the facilities. The living room is another one that’s not ideal either, even if you’re home alone, there’s the obvious distraction of the TV.

We’ll want to choose somewhere quiet, away from the noise of the household, as this can be distracting and a lot of background noise is not ideal when on video calls — especially when talking to clients.

We want to pick somewhere with natural light. Lighting is important in helping us concentrate and helps prevent us getting a headache from looking at the screen. Preferably the room we choose will have blinds on the window, to reduce screen glare.

Bonus tip: Pick somewhere separate from where you’d spend time outside of work hours. It’s important to separate your home and work life and be able to feel like you’ve ‘left the office’ at the end of the workday.

The (Physical) Equipment We’ll Need

Now that we’ve picked where we’ll work, we now need the right equipment, things like a decent internet connection and laptop should (hopefully) go without saying.

But what else do we need?

For starters, a comfortable chair, we’ll be sitting for the majority of our day, and being uncomfortable will make a huge difference to our productivity.

A desk or table to work at, ideally, our chosen location will have one of these in. If not, it’s better to not have laptop on your lap the entire day, as we’ll end up looking down at the screen, which can cause neck problems.

Having a quality headset and microphone is essential. When on a video call with clients or colleagues, there’s nothing worse than not being able to hear people properly, or for your voice to be distorted when talking to others.

If you work on a laptop, it might be a good idea to get a monitor to accompany it. This is for two fundamental reasons:

1. Laptop screen sizes. These are generally fairly small, maxing out at 18 inches. The size can be a hinderance if we need multiple programs and windows open. The extra screen real-estate a monitor gives provides a better viewport for our work and helps us organise our apps more efficiently.

This is an example of my desktop set up, it makes it a lot easier to manage and organise everything when I’ve got two screens.

2. Screen positioning. We ideally want our screen to be at eye level, what we want to avoid is looking down at the screen. A monitor gives us more flexibility to find the ideal viewing position.

Having a pen and paper handy, is always a smart idea in case you need to write something down. Sometimes it can be simpler to write a quick note or idea down than making notes on our computers.

Finally,we want to have a plant in our home office. Why you say? Having plants around while working has been shown to increase productivity by 15%, as well as significantly increasing workplace satisfaction!

Bonus tip: for any equipment, where you can — go for ergonomic. Having an ergonomic chair for example, will help you be more comfortable and allow you to adjust it, it also means you will reduce the possibility of RSI or injury.

Essential Software

Each team is different and will require certain types of software. So we’ll make a short list of some of the essentials that every remote team should have.

To begin with, you want software to minimise distraction while you’re at work, you may have set your office away from the TV and those pesky other people that might be in your home. But that doesn’t stop you from checking your social media every 10 minutes or switching to Youtube to check the latest videos or our Steam accounts to play a little Binding of Isaac.

Some of us will have the willpower and avoid distractions.

For those of us that might not be able to do this, an app like Stay Focused letsus restrict the apps/websites during work hours, letting us concentrate on our work.

Now, have you ever found that when looking at a screen that it emanates slight blue light? Because we generally use our PC’s during the day, this helps our eyes from getting strained by reflecting the brightness we naturally see outside. If you, however, you’re a more nocturnal in your work habits, this can cause eye strain and headaches.

F.lux, is a fantastic free app that adjusts your screen lighting depending on the time of day, to minimize the potentially harmful effects of blue light from the screen. During the evenings for example it changes to a warmer glow.

Every remote team, needs a quality video calling app. It allows us to talk with colleagues and meet with clients from the comfort of our homes, and provide the personal/visual touch that phone calls can’t.

For the times when we want to ask a colleague a quick question, where a calling feels a bit too excessive, an instant messaging app helps you have conversations, in a way that’s less disruptive.

Lastly, email, everyone needs to have email. We use it for all other communication, with both colleagues and clients. (I’m hoping that this one mostly speaks for itself 😂)

Bonus tip: If you want to feel more connected to your team, use our app PukkaTeam (free 14 day trial!). It lets you see your team throuhgout the day, feel more connected, and makes contacting them super easier, with its quality, in-built video calling software we talked about.

Start getting your perfect home office set up!

Setting up a proper space to work from home doesn’t need to be hard work, it just takes a little forethought.

What are your tips for how to pick the best place to work from home? Let us know in the comments or share a picture of your workspace with us on Twitter!

Try our PukkaTeam FREE 14 day trial! And help make communication with your remote team, easy.