Remote work offers several benefits for employees, such as enhanced creativity, a less stressful work environment, improved goal setting, and daily monetary savings. Moreover, having a minimalist home office setup can compound these benefits and provide greater clarity of thought for working individuals. The way a person’s home office is arranged significantly impacts their productivity and professionalism during work hours. By following certain tips and tricks, it becomes easy to establish a minimalistic home office.
1. Select an ideal spot to set up the office
The location of one’s work desk and home office is vital from a productivity viewpoint. An imperfect location can create distractions for employees. An ideal work-from-home setup can create a calm, relaxed area that is perfect for building focus and clear thoughts. Before setting up the office, evaluate the noise levels in different spots across the home and choose a quiet and isolated zone. One must avoid setting up the home office in high-traffic rooms to properly separate work from typical home-based chaos.
2. Optimize lighting
The quality of lighting helps increase the aesthetics and visibility of a work desk. Ideally, the work spot selected must contain plenty of natural light. This can be made possible by having the desk placed near windows or a skylight. If there’s not enough sunlight, installing multiple well-defined light sources can be useful. Adjustable, articulating desk lamps or a screen bar lamp can help illuminate a home office adequately.
One must make sure that there are not too many reflective surfaces in their home office. Such surfaces give out distractive glare that can hamper the overall visibility of one’s desk.
3. Declutter the work desk
A minimalist desk setup includes a clutter-free workstation. It’s best to remove all the objects that will not be used frequently during work hours. In nearby storage drawers and cabinets, sort out objects into four main categories, namely— keep, store, bin, and donate. To reduce avoidable paperwork, one can digitize paper documents by scanning them into one’s computer.
4. Include a standing desk
In most offices, workers are seated for several hours while performing their professional duties. Sitting for a long time can have negative effects on one’s health. At least a minimal amount of movement during work hours is needed to avoid health issues. One can make their daily remote working a health-boosting activity by involving provisions for standing and walking around across the home office during their work hours. Opt for a standing desk.
5. Prioritize ergonomics
Every minute or second saved during one’s office hours plays a part in boosting their overall productivity. Optimizing the ergonomics of one’s home office further elevates the convenience aspect of working from home. Additionally, an ergonomic home office helps alleviate discomfort during office hours.
To begin with, select an ergonomic chair on which one would spend 8 or 9 hours working. While buying a chair, prioritize adjustability, comfort, and support. Also, try it before purchasing the chair for one’s work office. Additionally, certain other actions help to boost the ergonomics even further:
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Keep the monitor height optimal
If one is working on a desktop computer in their office setup at home, they can adjust the monitor height to reduce neck and shoulder strain. Purchasing a monitor arm with swivel, height, and tilt adjustment is a wise decision.
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Buy an ergonomic keyboard and mouse
Typing for long periods causes discomfort in one’s arms, wrists, shoulders, and back. Ergonomic keyboards and mouse units can alleviate much of this discomfort and make remote working even less of a chore. Using these devices also ensures that one’s posture is not compromised.
6. Settle on a color scheme
This may seem trivial on the surface, but the “wrong” colors can reduce the effectiveness of an office setup at home. Ideally, select a zone with minimal colors. A colorful, vibrant home office tends to be distracting for certain people. To avoid that, one can repaint their home office with pastels or light shades.
7. Create clean storage solutions
As implied earlier, the storage spaces in one’s workspace are just as vital as the work desk. Discard unused objects that are unused (or not as frequently) from the office storage cabinets. Such objects can be relegated to other cupboards or storage areas out of one’s minimalist home office setup.
8. Strategically position room furniture
Minimalist home office furniture presence and placement are just as vital as the design and setup of one’s work desk. Arranging the furniture strategically revolves around creating a sense of harmony in one’s work office. The tables and chairs in an office room need to be placed in a way that ingress and egress to and from the room is simplified for workers and their family members. Besides that, the furniture must not block out the various natural or artificial light sources.
One can extend the simplistic and minimalistic theme beyond their work desk and involve things like minimalist art pieces on their walls to improve the tranquility of their home office.
