Originally published March 9, 2022

It's 2024, and chances are you've experienced remote working. 

Whether you're your own boss or your company has sent you home, brought you back in-office, and sent you home again, over 40% of workers now either work from home full time or in a hybrid model. 

And for the most part, this shift has been really positive! We've already written about how working from home is ideal for creatives. But for those who've only just begun to experience remote work, there can be a learning curve. If you're not careful, a home office can have all the negatives of a conventional office. Especially if, like many of us, you don't have a dedicated office space in your home.

In place of interrupting coworkers and a noisy office, you get pets, family members, roommates, laundry, dishes, and other distractions.

In my quest for improved productivity, these are three hacks I've found to optimize my home office while not breaking the bank.

Fake an Office

What are the benefits of a dedicated room for an office? Mainly, it's a quiet, distraction-free area set aside for doing your job.

But if you're like me or many others, the closest thing you have to that is a desk in an unoccupied corner of your bedroom or the kitchen table. Without the dedicated workspace, you lose some of the benefits of working from home.

Unfortunately, bedrooms, living rooms, and dining rooms have one thing in common: they’re all shared spaces with foot traffic and daily tasks waiting to be done.

So how do you create an "office"?

(These tips also apply to home offices but are more necessary for people out in the open.)

• Quiet:

The first thing to do is invest in a good, comfortable pair of noise-canceling headphones. These are useful in an office environment, but especially at home. The more noise canceling, the better, so they can double duty as earplugs since music can distract you, and white noise can make you sleepy.

The comfortable part is crucial because you will wear them for long periods. So, foam earbud tips are handy!

• Reduce visual noise:

My desk has changed direction several times now. I've finally found my Goldilocks solution: I have my desk facing a wall.

My desk was facing the rest of my room the first time, which was a huge mistake. If there's one thing about homes, they tend to accumulate tasks. So, one moment, you're hard at work; the next, you've noticed how many clothes are on the floor, and before you know it, you're in the middle of a load of laundry.

And even if you don't give in to temptation, you'll be thinking about it.

Having to clean your entire space before you get any work done isn't feasible (or efficient) for most people. So turn your desk away from the mess. Consider investing in a room divider to keep your office separate.

• Stop interruptions:

This is the most difficult one since it's not really up to you, and it's tough for people with children or pets.

One thing that can help is clarifying when you need to work uninterrupted. For example, consider the classic "Do not disturb" sign on your door handle, barring emergencies.

Another tip is not to have the door in your line of sight. Even if the person entering the room doesn't speak to you, you still look up whenever the door opens.

The last tip is intentionally leaving your office space to interact with your home. It will make people less prone to barging in with a question or concern if they know you'll be out soon.

Practice Work Hygiene

I'm borrowing this from the concept of sleep hygiene. The basic idea is to have a dedicated space and a ritual so you unconsciously know it's time to do the task associated with those.

For sleep, this means going to bed at a specific time, not eating or watching TV in your bed, and maybe doing something like drinking tea or putting on white noise to signal to your brain it's time to sleep. And work hygiene follows the same concept.

Firstly, set specific work hours and stick to them. Working from home allows for more flexibility, but you still want to know roughly when you’re going to be getting in and when you’ll be done. Whether you are your own boss or your company has dedicated working hours, establish a regimen, including when to take breaks, to help your mind and body grow accustomed to that daily schedule. 

As for the rest of your workday, try to either avoid or make a habit of the following remote work tips: 

Don’t:

• Make your desk your workplace/dining table/vanity/craft table.

• Have things on your desk that aren't work-related.

• Take TV breaks at your desk.

• Scroll through social media when not on a break.

Do:

• Have a morning routine and start at roughly the same time every day.

• Drink coffee or tea at the beginning of a workday.

• Take regular breaks to avoid burnout. (Here's a related article about how breaks can boost productivity)

• Put on music (I'm partial to Boiler Room DJ mixes, but classical or ambient music is great too).

Spruce Up Your Work Space

Bare walls, harsh lighting, ugly desk. Nothing will make you want to get to work less than an unwelcoming desk area.

I'm not going to tell you how to decorate your home office. There are minimalists and maximalists, and I wouldn't dare offend one or the other. But I will ask you to do something to make your desk a place you feel comfortable, happy, and creative in.

This is one way to take advantage of a space just for you. You don't have to be an interior decorator, but here are some concrete ways to make your area more productive. 

Ideas for decorating a home office

1. Plants. There's so much science to back up the benefits of filling your space with plants.

Your air quality strongly correlates to your productivity, and plants are living, breathing air-cleaning machines.

Some studies show that just looking at plants increases your creativity.

Pothos plants are inexpensive and almost unkillable, even if you have a brown thumb. I have a few perched on top of my desk, and from personal experience, they improve my mood every time I look at them.

2. Colors. You’ve probably heard that different colors affect us psychologically. So why not harness that power?

If your job is stressful, try blue to calm yourself and lower your heart rate. If you struggle with energy, decorate with yellow to energize yourself. If your job requires a lot of creativity, use orange to stimulate your imagination.

This can mean painting the wall you look at the most, putting nick-nacks that color on your desk, or even just changing your desktop background.

3. Cover your bare walls. Pictures, posters, tapestry, really anything that you find pleasant to look at. Being able to rest your eyes and daydream will do wonders for your mental health and productivity.

You can even use color psychology with whatever art you put up!

Don't Forget to Enjoy!

Picture this: You've established your morning routine, set up the perfect home office, and formulated your working hours. You're accomplishing as many daily tasks, if not more, than you would in-office. But this time, you're not handcuffed to your desk. 

Remember, we were once stuck with the dreary break room and the questionably-cleaned shared microwave. Take advantage of remote work to boost your productivity and improve your mental health. 

This is when the benefits of working remotely come in.

Get some fresh air and take a short walk! Chat with a family member during your lunch break! Work half-day in a coffee shop!

Conclusion

Even with everything working from home offers, it can have some downsides. We can't all have fancy home office spaces. Still, you can do some simple things to make your workplace a welcoming area that lets you perform at the level you want to and establish a healthy work-life balance. 

If you want to take even more stress off your shoulders, People First Content can help! We provide custom, high-quality content for businesses who want to be able to focus on other things. Check out our blog packages today!

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