Increase your productivity
One of the main perks of remote work is being able to organize your environment the way you like. While customizing your home office may seem like a piece of cake to some of you, others might not be aware of the endless possibilities involved in their professional scenario.
So, just because we think many people need to hear this, we’ll start this post with a very strong and benevolent message: Guys, you spend so much time in there, your home office is your own professional territory. You’re the undisputed kings and queens of this 80-300 square ft. kingdom, you’re the boss, so own it. Here are a few tips to help you create your dream work environment and increase your productivity!
The Basics
Lighting and Soundproofing are a Must
Good lighting rhymes with productivity and everyone has a different perception of what “optimal lighting” is. Treat your eyes to as much natural light as possible and manage the sun with light filtering shades to be comfortable throughout the day. If windows are scarce in your work kingdom, invest in lamps to complement the ceiling light you may already have. In all scenarios, keep in mind that you can always adjust the lighting depending on your eyes’ sensitivity to light.
About the sound: believe it or not, it’s possible to soundproof your office yourself. If you tend to get easily distracted by external sounds, here are a few tricks you can follow to improve the isolation of the room!
The Aesthetics
Create Prettiness -whatever it means to you-
A well decorated and personalized environment will make it easier to drag yourself from your kitchen to the office in the morning, even when your days’ workload isn’t so motivating. A neat, minimalist decor will also help you concentrate and be more productive!
The Ergonomics
When Office Furniture and Productivity Align
When it comes to customizing your workspace, an adaptable desk can really change your professional game. You can either buy a home office desk and be stuck with that version of your workstation for a long, long time, or start a simple DIY standing desk project -using tinktube and various surfaces as tubetinker Luke Kennedy did, for example-.
If that’s the choice you make, get ready to access a whole new world of possibilities!
Your Work Life, your Workstation
- Go from a regular desk to a standing desk, and back: you’ll be able to change the height of your desk or even build a desk with two sections (one higher than the other) so you can move around and switch from a sitting to a standing position easily.
- The size and the shape of your desk must be adapted to your limited and/or weirdly configured office? No problemo. You’ll be able to build an “L” shaped desk, a wall-mounted desk, a round desk, a square desk, even a star-shaped desk if you feel like it.
- Whether you’d rather work on a wood, metal, melamine or laminate surface, the choice is yours! Building your own desk does come with this kind of privilege.
- Organizing your work surface to fit your specific needs also has its perks. Make sure all your main work tools are easy to access by avoiding making surfaces too large. The location of frequently used devices (keyboard, phone, and mouse) should remain within the repetitive access (primary work zone).
- Need more space occasionally? If you build your own desk, you’ll be able to create an additional foldable shelf or retractable shelf-like drawer.
Adapt this project with the tinkpad!
Draw your project with this free printable tool which includes an isometric grid and our best tips to get started.
The Wheels
Your New Office Bestie
Imagine an office where everything rolls. A rolling desk, a rolling chair, a rolling freestanding shelving unit, a rolling free-standing whiteboard. Wouldn’t it be easy to change the layout of the room to welcome co-workers or clients for a meeting, to take a yoga break or just to clean the place? It would, and it’s all possible with wheels.
Creating rolling office equipment is easy if you build your own furniture: casters are easy to find in any hardware store and quick to install on most DIY projects too!
The Other Work Tools
People often forget about some other work tools that can also be customized to bring more happiness to an office 9 to 5.
- A footrest might make a big difference in your life when you spend a lot of time sitting on a chair, fixing a computer. If you build it yourself, you’ll have the opportunity to make it exactly how you want it: adjust the height, the dimensions, and choose the surface according to your preferences!
- Monitor holders are a big part of an office worker’s physical well-being. If your screens are too low or too far, you might find yourself constantly bending your head and neck towards them, which is officially a no-no posture according to the “2020 Contemporary Office Worker’s Ergonomics Trends” book (don’t look it up, I just invented it).
- Customized storage units for office supplies might be the type of DIY projects that will make the most difference in a home office worker’s life. Just imagine a shelving unit designed with your specific professional needs for storage in mind: compartments to store the exact number of files you have and enough shelves to put the kinds of supplies you use. And even better: the whole structure is built to fit the exact space available in the room, created to be adapted to the exact spot where it should. No loss of space, just smart, easily accessible, and entirely customized.
To recap, especially now that working from home is becoming an increasingly popular trend, creating yourself a work environment you’ll love will improve your quality of life and your motivation! Reclaim your work kingdom, my friends, and be creative!
