Stuffy train journeys with standing room only, delayed arrival times, queues to get a £4 (if you’re lucky) coffee and long days under harsh lights, working late, UberEats dinner delivered to the office, late or cancelled trains getting you home at 8pm (again, if you’re lucky). You leave your house in the morning and it’s dark, you come home in the evening and it’s dark. This was our way of life for decades and we hardly gave it a second thought. It was stressful, tiring, draining and – in hindsight – an inefficient use of workers time.
Our homes were safe havens we were hardly able to spend time in. Kitchens going unused in the evenings, living rooms not being lived in, family dinners being missed or skipped. Get up, go to work, come home, quickly eat, sleep and repeat. We spent more time in the office with our co-workers than we did at home with our families. But 2020 has been the year we saw this habit of generations change completely.
Back in March, the good majority of us were sent home and very few have since returned. We have been working from home for most of the year now, and it’s been an arrangement many are satisfied with. We’ve seen a rise in productivity, an improvement in overall employee wellbeing, more time being spent with families, money and time saved on commuting, and so much more. The perks have well and truly outweighed the negatives.
And now with this new norm becoming a staple of our everyday working lives, it’s important for us to look ahead and ensure we create a future-proof home working environment that will work for us in the long term.
Location, location, location
Finding the right spot to set up your home office is imperative to it being a success. It’s important you pick an area of your house where distractions are minimal, there is plenty of natural light and you have room to spread out if you’re not strictly paperless.
Where you situate yourself also ties into your health and wellbeing. Avoiding harsh light and choosing an area of your home flooded with daylight helps keep eyes from straining and headaches ensuing as a result. Privacy and distance from distractions such as television, children, spouses also working from home making calls help keeps focus and productivity levels high.
Ensure you choose an area that feels tranquil and peaceful to you, where you think you will be able to focus and thrive in the same way you do at the office – you can achieve this in any way that works for you, such as painting the walls, investing in house plants or installing an air purifier. Anything that helps keep your stress down and your motivation up is a plus – and guess what? It’s your home, so you can add whatever you like to your new office.
It’s all in the ergonomics
Working from home may have many advantages over working from the office, but the office does have one thing many of us do not have at home – a good ergonomic set up. For the first few days or even weeks we may not notice the difference, but over time a poorly set up work station can have a very negative impact on our physical health, which can result in an array of other health issues if left untreated.
Ensure you have a good, comfortable but sturdy chair and that your laptop or monitor is at eye level. The arms of your chair should also be at the same height as your table, so that your arms are not straining, stretching of bending to use the mouse and keyboard.
Make sure you get up to stretch and walk around. Even better – invest in a sit-to-stand desk/desk addition so that you can work whilst standing throughout the day. Sit-to-stand desks are great for everyone, but especially for those with back issues. Just don’t spend any more than 20 minutes standing at a time.
Tech is key
Working from home wouldn’t be possible without good connectivity and digital infrastructure. Try to ensure you are situated in a spot close to the WiFi, or at least have a strong WiFi connection in whichever room you choose to set your office up in.
Invest in a monitor so that you can have two screens as most of us do in the office. This will help you to continue working effectively and efficiently. Get your hands on a wireless, soundless mouse so you don’t have to worry about cords, can take the mouse with you should you want to work elsewhere and the clicking from the mouse doesn’t annoy yourself or those around you. On the same note, a wireless keyboard will also go a long way to making your new work station feel like you’re still in the office.
Why not try some noise cancelling headphones? Many of us like to put our headphones in when we want to get stuck into a project that requires no distraction, but if listening to music or a podcast isn’t helping you feel creative or productive, noise cancelling headphones are a great way to block out of the background noise and help you focus on your work.
Structure your day
So many of us have been in the habit for years of coming in early, working through lunch, eating at our desks and staying late. And there is nothing wrong in doing that from time to time. But now we are working from home our work life balance is at risk. Work lines and home lines blur into one, and it’s harder to fully shut down and switch off.
Much like being at the office all day, it’s important we create a routine and introduce some structure. Get up at a set time every day, exercise if you want to, eat breakfast and get a coffee ready for the start of your day. Start at your normal time (9am for example) and work until lunch. Ensure you take your lunch break away from your desk – watch television, read a book, go for a run – whatever helps you replenish during your break. Most importantly, finish on time. We now have the luxury of not wasting precious home and family time on commuting. We can make those dinners that take longer but taste better, we can go for a walk after work before it gets dark, and we can spend so much more time relaxing, unwinding and rejuvenating.
Take advantage of this new way of life and all of its undeniable perks, because working from your home is here to stay.
