Make Your Home Office Work For You

Though it can be tempting to work in your ducky pyjamas from the comfort of your bed.. Do not do this!

Your pyjamas and bed are for sleeping. To repeat, your pyjamas and bed are for sleeping!

You need to keep your work life and casual life separate even when working from home and if you don't draw a line that divide gets less and less clear and can lead to overworking and reduced productivity.

Working from a desk or a dedicated workspace will help keep this divide clear and help you focus more as your brain knows when relax time is over and when work time has begun.

Wake up at the time you usually would if you were going into the office and keep your usual office hours as this will help you to keep focused and productive when it counts.

It can be tempting to sleep in and work late, but you need to draw boundaries to make sure you are taking care of yourself mentally and physically.

Pretend like you are going to work. Get up, wash your face, brush your teeth, get dressed in nice clothes (leave those joggers in the wardrobe), make yourself a coffee and some breakfast and get to work!

This might seem obvious, but before you sit down to work, set out goals for what you want to accomplish today and make sure you get them done. Working from home still means working. This will give you a deadline and help keep you focused and on top of the things you need to do.

It can also be easy to forget to take breaks when you're working from home without the cues from your colleagues. Just one more e-mail, just one more phone call, just let me finish writing this article.. make sure you take breaks, drink plenty of water and take the time to have a decent lunch! That's right, a chocolate bar is not a meal! Set reminders in your calendar to help you keep this schedule.

It can also be good to schedule virtual breaks with your colleagues, take some time to have a chat on Skype or WhatsApp.

A standing desk could be cited as one of the most important things you will need.

Sitting disease is a new term coined for health issues that come from sitting too much. If you do a simple internet search it’s incredibly easy to find hundreds of articles, publications, and studies explaining why sitting is killing us, but before you brush us off as being too dramatic, studies have shown that excessive sitting increases the risk of obesity, and even death from cardiovascular diseases and cancer, the exact same risk factors associated with smoking! YIKES.

At home you usually end up sitting down for longer. Everything is within arm’s reach and you don't have cause to walk over to a colleague and ask them something. To maintain health and focus, every hour you should try to move a little, this could be some stretching, light exercise or even, if safe, taking a gentle walk outside.

To help you get started on moving more, here are a few suggestions on the easier ways to fit in some extra movement throughout your day:

Stand up every 20 minutes – whether you’re talking on the phone, or talking to a colleague, or just grabbing some water or tea. 

As more and more of us are being encouraged to work from home in order to delay the spread of COVID-19, it is important that your home office is a space of comfort and productivity. We have composed a list of tips from us to you on how to make your home office a haven of comfort and motivation.

Set reminders to move – whether on your phone or on your outlook calendar, set reminders to move every 20 minutes.

Working in total silence can actually be more distracting than you’d think.

Put some music on quietly in the background to help you focus. There are some great playlists on Spotify to help you stay focused through music.

Here are some of our favourites:

Maximum Concentration
Lo-Fi Beats
Feel Good Fridays
Listening to music can also help you move more, so get up and dance you’re at home anyway – zero judgment!

That temporary office solution you have set up is no longer going to cut it. So, if you are working from a kitchen table, a bed, a sofa, a coffee table, or the floor, it’s time to invest in a desk and set aside some space for yourself to work comfortably. Sitting or standing somewhere unsuitable for long periods is going to cause back and neck strain. It is time to invest in a smart solution to help keep yourself healthy and productive.

Here are some more tips to help get you through the next phase of working from home during the lockdown.

Yes, we are bringing this up again. It’s important that you buy a desk. I’ve seen people using a bedside table as a desk, and even one made from cardboard boxes! Make sure the desk you get is a good height and depth, depth is something people often forget but you must make sure that your computer screen is not too close to your eyes as this will cause eye strain and headaches!

If you can, you should definitely invest in a standing desk or a standing desk topper which you can sit on top of an already existing desk. Standing desks are becoming much cheaper with Ikea also selling good quality ones that are fully height adjustable.

Again, you can read out article, So you think you can stand?, for our best tips on standing with good form and also some words from myself, a former sceptic, when I first used a standing desk, here.

To go alongside your desk, you need a chair. Please don’t use a wooden dining chair you got from your kitchen table. You need to invest in a good office chair. That means a chair that is height adjustable and offers good back support. Your body and productivity will thank you for this!

You need to be able to help trigger your brain into and staying in work mode. Working from different spaces all the time like the kitchen table, then moving to the sofa, then to your bed is not a productive way to work.

You should set aside a space for working and make sure everyone in your house, including your children, know that when you are in this space, it’s work time. This will help to set ground rules but also help yourself too, as you know that when you are in this space you need to work.

Don’t do anything else in this space, don’t eat lunch, watch cute dog videos, or anything else. It is for work only.

Loneliness and feeling isolated are very common issues which arise when working from home.

You might be working from home alone, and although you may be chatting to your dog or cat which is fine (unless they start replying), you should try as much as possible to chat daily with your colleagues, friends or family.

Chatting with your colleagues daily will help keep you updated with everything that is happening in your workplace and can also spark new ideas and give you a fresh outlook on your week.

You can arrange after-work activities using an online video conferencing app such as Skype, so why not arrange a book club, quiz or game night once a week?
Don’t be afraid to reach out to your colleagues, friends or family if you need help or just someone to talk to.

As we are faced with the extended measures, setting up a proper workspace and settling in makes it a little bit easier to adjust to this new way of working.

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