4 Useful Workplace Setting Ideas for Everyone Working From Home

Are you having doubts about how one can be productive while working from home? That doubt is pretty understandable since many people have difficulties focusing on what they do, especially in the absence of an authority figure physically monitoring them.

Well, that can change. If you have a convenient workplace setting at home, then there’ll be nothing holding you back. In fact, it is all about the workplace setting (most of the time) when it comes to boosting productivity when working remotely at home.

Remote working is becoming a common practice as each day passes, and more people are getting familiar with it. In fact, a quarter of the whole USA workers are working remotely. This makes it inevitable to come up with creative and practical solutions, especially as for how to be more productive in a home-office environment.

Are you also looking for tips to increase your productivity? Check out our article where we talk more about productivity.

Coming back to our point, here we listed useful performance-boosting workplace setting ideas for remote workers. Let’s get started!

Why is a Healthy Workplace in Home Important for Remote Workers?

Working from home is different from working from an office, for sure. Because your home is literally coded to your brain as a place to relax, chill, and perhaps have fun, it might be challenging at first to focus on working.

Typically, you would go to your office and work there all day long. The first thing you do when you get back home is to head to your bedroom and throw yourself into bed to relax and perhaps to take a nap. When you have such routines, your brain has no chance but to associate the bedroom with relaxation and chilling time.

So, it is pretty normal for you to get sleepy while you are trying to get some work done in your bedroom. This is the exact reason why it is not recommended to study in your bed.  Because the bed is for sleeping, and even though you want to use it for other purposes, it is not that easy to persuade your brain.

There are many different reasons why a healthy workplace in the home carries a vital value for you, which can be listed as follows:

• Your environment is directly related to your productivity.
• You will not have your manager or colleagues near you. You will need to create the motivating environment yourself.
• There can be many distractors at home or any other remote working space such as a coffee shop or a park.
• Your attention span matters more than ever in the home office environment.
• You will have more freedom than usual in the remote working environment, which can cause some trouble if not used efficiently.

This is why having a proper workplace setting at home is essential. You need an area where your all focus will be your work.

But, how do we do that?

How to Set Up Your Home Office to Boost Your Productivity?

If there is a problem, there has to be a solution. In fact, some say that being able to clearly state your problem means that you are halfway there to solve it.

We know the problem, so, let’s define it: Working remotely from home may impair your productivity.

But how about the solution? Well, the solution is, you need to know how to set up your home office to boost your productivity. If you perfectly set up your home office, the only thing different from a real office would be the lack of colleagues, which can be a positive factor in some cases.

You have to consider many different points while setting up your home office to get the maximum productivity out of remote jobs. These include health issues, boredom issues, and attention issues.

Let’s elaborate more on these issues to see what can be done to resolve them and get the best from the home office environment.

1. Have an Area “Just” For Working

We mentioned how some areas at home (like your bedroom) are not convenient to study or work because of the activities we associate with them. To eliminate the chances of your brain taking the lead due to some conditioned thoughts and behaviors, you need a place where you work, and only work.

We mean it. No eating, no sleeping, no watching TV. You need a place dedicated to work. While working in a room you don’t usually use can be a great option, not everyone has several rooms. In case you have an extra room, it would be best to make it your literal home office and not use it for anything else.

If you don’t have an extra room, you can still choose a specific area of your house to work. For example, you might want to choose your desk in the living room. Make sure that you always go for a specific seat on that table and work from there. This will allow your brain to think it’s focus time. Here are a few more tips to set the suitable space to work:

• Decorate the area with simple work-related items.
• Try to sit in a proper position.
• Have your water and other necessities near you.
• Have a convenient background in case of online meetings. 

2. Get Rid of Distractions

Distractors are the hell for every focus-related work, and as we mentioned earlier, they are pretty abundant in the home environment. Perhaps your TV is on, and you see your favorite show is on, or your doorbell rings. In such cases, it goes without saying that your attention will be divided. To avoid such incidents as much as possible, you might want to check out the following tips:

• Turn off your personal mobile devices (the ones you don’t need for working)
• Notify family members, apartment staff and friends about your work time and ask them not to disturb you.
• Remove any distracting objects or devices (colorful and noisy stuff) from your sight.
• Choose a silent environment.
• Dress up as if you were going to the office. This would prevent you from taking “little” naps during your working hours.
• Finish your chores before or after your work. You may get distracted by your dirty dishes and can’t stop thinking about them. 

3. Create a Schedule and Stick to It

Both a gift and a curse of remote working is flexibility. You will be able to follow your own timeline and work in any place you would like. That sounds awesome. However, if you are not good at time management, some issues may arise.

Besides, the distractors we mentioned above can block you from doing your work. It is necessary to stick to a schedule to eliminate the possibility of wasting your time on trivial stuff and neglecting your work. Here are some things you can do while creating your schedule:

• Create a morning routine and stick to it. The first couple of hours of your day has a significant impact on the rest of it.
• Always make your bed. It is the first task you complete in the day, and it will encourage you to complete the other ones.
• Create a checklist of the tasks you need to complete during the day, and put a checkmark on each of them. This will give you a sense of responsibility and encourage you to complete your tasks.
• Prioritize your tasks based on their degree of importance. Some may prefer to complete the small tasks first and then focus on the big ones. However, if you have time limits, you might want to complete the ones with closer deadlines first.

Remember to add break times to your schedule. But try not to overly extend these breaks.

4. Mind the Lighting

An aspect most people tend to overlook while working is the importance of lighting. Even though we evolved so much, we still have animal instincts where we tend to be awake in the daytime and sleep in the nighttime.

Naturally, you would want to sleep in a dark environment. Besides sleeping, there are other influences of lighting you might be missing. Here are a few tips on how to get the best out of lighting:

• Try to choose an area that gets sunlight. There are close alternatives, but nothing is as good as natural daylight!
• If you cannot have sunlight in your workspace, try to go for yellow light. It is known for being better for eye health and would not tire you, especially given that you’ll be looking at the screen for a long time.
• Avoid colorful and flashy lights. They might look pretty but can be harmful to your productivity in the long run.

Originally posted on November 21, 2021 @ 9:37 pm