Man working from home with laptop wearing shirt, tie and pajama pants
More and more people are working from home offices due to the pandemic. Hartz Homes recognizes that a lot of people are setting up these offices for the first time. If you are one of these novice home-workers, here are five tips that can help you get you get set up.
- Decide what you need
What you’ll need in your office will depend on the type of work you do. You might require both a small desk for your computer and a larger table or workspace for your artwork if you’re a graphic artist. A consultant might require additional space for file cabinets, or an area set aside for meeting with clients. A photographer might require an in-home studio or storage space for props and lighting equipment.
Create a detailed list of your needs for a home office and set up a space that meets those requirements before you arbitrarily claim a corner in one of your rooms and decide that it’s “good enough.”
- Pick a dedicated spot
Ideally, your office should be in a quiet area that allows you some privacy. This is especially important if you share the house with a spouse and/or child.
You might find that a spare room with a door can reduce noise from the rest of the house if you’ll be on the phone frequently. It could make sense to choose a room near the front entrance of the house if you’ll be hosting meetings in your home office. You might need a dedicated studio that’s separate from the rest of your home if you need space to spread out design or tech equipment.
- Get plenty of the right light
Set up your home office so it has plenty of light. You’ll do your best work if some of that includes natural light. (Warm light, such as from firelight, promotes relaxation. Cold light, such as daylight, improves productivity and alertness.)
Windows and exposure to daylight can also impact your physical and mental well-being. What’s more, working in a space with natural light can reduce headaches and eyestrain, allowing you to be more productive on a day-to-day basis and healthier in the long term.
- Don’t mix business and personal records
Keep your personal life from spilling over into your business life—and vice versa. Store personal checks, mail, client records, and financial records in a dedicated spot in your office, rather than with personal documents. Fully segmenting your business from your personal records can help at tax time, too.
- Have a way to track time
Research has found that you’ll be more productive if you get up and move around a bit throughout the day. These brief mental rest periods break up the workday and can improve your focus, but it’s easy to forget about time when you’re working from home. Before you know it, you have worked 14 hours for the third day in a row.
Workers in a home office are more likely to overwork than those in a traditional workspace. Have some way in place to track time in your office, whether it’s a clock on the wall or the alarm on your phone.
Tracking time will encourage you to break up your workday effectively, and it will help you maintain regular work hours and a healthy work-life balance.
Please check out these new home communities from Hartz Homes:
Armitage Pointe of Addison, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Bella Vista Townhomes of Bolingbrook, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Blue Bell Ridge of Bolingbrook, Illinois (Chicago area new construction)
Lago Vista of Lockport, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Leigh Creek of New Lenox, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Marquis Pointe of Montgomery, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Nantucket Lakes of New Lenox, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Park West of Manteno, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Playa Vista of Plainfield, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Shannon Estates of New Lenox, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Sky Harbor of New Lenox, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Whisper Creek of Mokena, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Hartz Homes has new home communities in:
Addison, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Aurora, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Bolingbrook, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Lockport, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
New Lenox (Chicago area new home construction)
Manteno, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Mokena, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)
Plainfield, Illinois (Chicago area new home construction)