Who here is working from home?
Considering recent events, I’m sure it’s harder to find someone who isn’t working from home as opposed to someone who is. I mean, with a pandemic currently raging across the world, fostering a climate in which even the briefest of close contact may risk contagion, working at an outside physical office seems a pretty unwise decision. All over the world, nations have been establishing strict SOPs to curb the spread of the disease – among them, of course, being the crackdown on physical employee office attendances, leaving most workers to instead bring their work to the home.
However, while working from home may initially seem like an ideal scenario – no more jostling through crowded public transports, the ability to work comfortably in your own home – there are some downsides to work from home culture that definitely dampens some of the appeal. Work-life balances have surely taken a hit, but on top of it all, who can muster the motivation to work when your comfy bed or sofa is just a room or two away? So what a lot of people really need in these trying WFH times is a space in the home to foster motivation and productivity to work – a home office, if you will.
A nice home office can be incredibly simple to design – you don’t necessarily have to have any background in design, or even in the field of office management (or bidang pengurusan pejabat in Malay). So if you often feel yourself flagging during a dull work from home day, here are some tips to making your very own home office!
1. Decide your ideal aesthetic
Aesthetics might seem like the farthest thing from your mind when it comes to designing a home office – but trust me; it matters.
Your environment can have a significant impact on your mood and therefore ability to do work. The issue that often arises with productivity at home is that your home is often designed to be cosy; and such saps your energy to work by instead instilling feelings of comfort and relaxation. However, it is also important to note that different room aesthetics can have different impacts on different people – for example, some people opt for a minimalist style because the sterile environment imitates their usual work environment, while others prefer a more open, airy feel for maximum productivity. Therefore, it is up to you to decide what aesthetics work best for your productivity, to ensure the best working environment for your home office.
2. Establish a location in your home for it
The location of your home office in your home itself is also crucial to it’s effectiveness. Most people tend to focus best when they’re away from outside disturbances, so it becomes quite important for you to find a space in your home that minimizes any disruptions to your work. This might be simple if you’re living alone, but if you have a family or roommate staying with you – especially if young kids are somehow involved – it’s better to establish a space of your own wherein you can work without their interference. You could therefore design a small corner in your bedroom for your home office, or establish a rarely-used room away from the noise of your housemates and ask them politely not to enter during your ‘work hours’. This can help ensure that all outside interferences are minimized, and therefore may improve your focus.
There are various ways you could go about creating your own home office, and this is hardly a comprehensive list of tips. Regardless, it is ultimately up to you to decide how you wish to design your own office, and tailor it according to all your productivity needs.
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