It’s been almost a year that a lot of us started working from home a lot more. If you’ve not set up a proper home office by now, you’re either a procrastinator extraordinaire, like yours truly, or you think your setup is pretty good.
If you’re looking for some tips on how to improve (or set up from the ground-up) your office, we reached out to furniture experts at D3 Home Modern Furniture from San Diego. Here’s what they suggest.
Get As Much Natural Light As Possible
If it’s productivity you’re after (and who isn’t in their home office), one of the less known, but very important factors, is natural light. If you can choose which room to set up your home office, consider south-facing windows – not only will you get plenty of light, it will also be more subtle – no annoying glare on your computer screen.
There are some studies which show that dim light and insufficient natural light cause drowsiness which reduces your productivity to a noticeable degree. When it comes to electric lights, you should certainly go for LED lights, as the choice of light temperature. Cool lights will prompt productivity, if you’re looking to give yourself some extra edge.
Use a Standing or a Transforming Desk
If you’ve groaned audibly when you read ‘standing desk’, I’m right there with you – the trend of standing up while working (for 8+ hours) really doesn’t appeal to me. However, I do have to agree that sitting for 8 hours (no matter how good a chair you have) isn’t an ideal prospect either.
Seeing how standing desks are a fairly new trend, the studies researching the health benefits and risks are not quite there yet. However, the anecdotal evidence suggests that productivity is significantly improved (allegedly due to better blood circulation).
The truth is probably somewhere in the middle – therefore a transforming desk may be the best solution. Basically, these desks are regular desks which can be extended into standing desks (manually or via a motor), giving you the best of both worlds.
Minimalism Is More than a Trend
Even if you’re not a fan of minimalism, it has been shown that a cluttered desk can be highly distracting and cost you some productivity. Think about your work day – things that you use every day should be easy to reach and can find itself on your desk. However, if it isn’t useful for your work day, you should put it away.
Another way you can boost your productivity is to organize your items based on their use case – put the items you use in combination together – you will spend less time looking for things (and putting them away again once you’re done with them).
Use Green Color
I’m not talking about plants (although plants can be useful for air quality and relaxation). No, I’m talking about green color everything – desk pad, cabinets, wall color, anything you can think of.
If you believe in Feng Shui and similar techniques, green is a color which most people associate with decisiveness and money. On the more scientifically-based hand, green is a soothing color, which should help you calm down and be more productive.
Don’t Forget to Feel Comfortable in Your Space
The bottom line of everything is that you will be spending your work days in this space – meaning that you should feel comfortable in your own space.
These recommendations might help guide you in making better choices, but how your space will look and feel should primarily be built around your own style and comfort.
