Home office design depends largely on your circumstances – most of us can only dream of having an entire room to use as our ‘home office’.
However, wherever you find yourself working – even if it’s your kitchen table – you should try to get as comfortable, organized and child-protected as can be. Have things within easy reach – use a portable filing system or storage drawers – and do as much as you can on your computer…the paperless home office is a tidy home office! The idea is to adapt whatever you have – if you have a whole room, fine. If you have a little computer desk in the corner of your living room, adapt it and get yourself ’set up’ so you can work. If you ‘feel’ organized you will often be more productive.
Home Office Design and Your Health
Although your home office design needs to work around what you have, one thing that is often overlooked is your health.
You may leave the dreaded ‘office bugs’ behind, but if you do not take care of your posture and eyestrain, these may be replaced by back problems and headaches. Many ‘work at home’ pictures show you someone laid on their couch working on their laptop…ok…great, but this is no good ‘all’ the time! Try to work at a desk/table so that your eyes are level with the top of the monitor and ideally, your arms should be at about 90 degrees to the surface you are working on.
If you have space and can afford to, get a computer chair or ergonomic ‘kneeling chair’. For desktops, a wrist rest, monitor riser and decent lighting are also good ideas – in fact you may find that a ‘daylight lamp’ is particularly good. eBay is a good place to find items like this. If you find you are getting pain, stiffness or tingling in your lower back or shoulder area, this could be a sign that your home office space is causing you problems. These days there are many online videos which demonstrate the correct posture or set up of computers and home office furniture, for the best benefit to your health.