The coronavirus has most people working from home for the foreseeable future, making a functional home office suddenly more important than ever. Your home office will be where you spend the most amount of your time during working hours, which means having a comfortable situation you love very valuable to your productivity.
There’s a lot to creating a functional home office, from selecting the right chair to having the right lighting.
In this article, we’ll cover the three main components to setting up a functional home office so you can thrive while working from home.
Find The Right Space
The first thing you need to do is to determine where the best space is for your home office. Do you have a dedicated room for an office or a spare bedroom you can convert into an office space?
An entirely separate room will give you the most amount of quiet and privacy. However, if you can’t dedicate or convert another room into an office, your next best option is to get creative.
Look for unused corners or nooks in your house like under the stairs that can be used to place a desk. If you can, separate your workspace from your bedroom to respect dedicated spaces for rest and for work.
Once you’ve found that perfect spot, consider adding a room divider for more privacy and to separate your work area from the rest of the house to help minimize distractions. You might also consider creating or purchasing a product similar to Vitra’s Alcove Desk.
Select The Right Desk, Chair, and Monitor
Invest in quality ergonomic furniture. Your employer might be willing to purchase quality office furniture for you as repetitive strain injuries (RSI) caused by poor posture can put your employer on the line for paying worker’s comp.
You must purchase the right chair and a quality desk to avoid aches and pains, particularly if you sit at the computer all day.
Studies have shown that workers who are on the computer all day have fewer back problems and RSI related injuries when alternating between sitting and standing throughout the workday (as opposed to just sitting or just standing).
Three of the most reputable office furniture companies are Herman Miller, Knoll Inc and Vitra. If you’re on a budget, look out for some reputable knock-offs of their products. When purchasing an office chair, use the following checklist:
- Built-in lumbar support
- Adjustable backrest
- Adjustable armrest (so your elbows at a 90* in alignment with the body)
- Adjustable seat depth
- Adjustable height (so your feet are flat on the ground and knees at 90*)
- Swivel base
As far as desks are concerned, most desks are built to a standard height of 29-30 inches. If you can, purchase a height-adjustable desk that goes lower than 29 inches. A lower desk puts your computer monitor at a lower height. Generally speaking, the larger your monitor, the lower your desk should be.
When purchasing a desk, consider the monitor you’re using and use the following checklist:
- Adjustable height
- Eyes can sit 25-30% below the top of the computer monitor
- Computer screen 20 inches away from the eyes
- Plenty of storage if there’s no other storage in the room or space
- Built-in cable management
If you find that your monitor is still sitting too high, a monitor arm can help increase the flexibility of your monitor’s height.
Another important component of your workstation is your actual computer monitor. Search for a monitor with a high sharpness rating that supports HDMI 2.x, DisplayPort, or USB-C. High sharpness monitors will be labeled QWXGA, QHD, WQHD, or 4k UHD.
Create a Functional Space
An important part of productivity is staying organized. We all know how easy it is for papers to pile up at work or get lost. As you work from home, pay attention to the things that pile up on your desk and the things you end up misplacing. Invest in bins, shelves, and other stationary tools to help you stay organized.
If you can’t dedicate an entire room to your home office, think vertically. Create shelving above your workspace and get creative with the way you store things.
Another aspect of a functional workspace is good lighting. Indirect lighting such as light coming from a window or ceiling is the best type of lighting to reduce eye strain. If you find a window is causing a glare on your monitor, install sheer curtains to diffuse the light as a glare on your monitor can cause eye strain.
A functional home office can be set up in any part of the house. While having a dedicated workspace is nice, it’s not crucial to your home office setup. What matters is an ergonomic chair, a good desk, and functional design–good lighting, storage to park all your items, and a sense of privacy.
