Make your home office both practical and stylish.
For many of us, our best effort is to find a little nook within our homes that looks good on screen when the reality is, below the camera it’s not quite so pretty! For example, is a well stocked curated book case taking the form of the backdrop, really enough to satisfy your need for order and comfort?
Let’s take a little time to explore what will make you both comfortable and inspired. The top 5 tips to make the home office hospitable again.
Clever charging stations.
Being ‘always on line’ takes power. With that often comes a spaghetti load of trailing electrical cables and crammed plug sockets. All too often, your mobile is a WiFi hotspot, your social connection which needs an umbilical cord attached to a free socket somewhere in a far away socket.
Having everything required to make your day productive, is to have things ‘within arms reach’, which means rearranging everything in the process.
Styling it up.
Investing in the aesthetics of your home office shouldn’t been see as a luxury, as our surroundings play a huge part in our well-being. Being confined to the same space 24-7 does little to stimulate creativity. Try adding some little pops of colour to co-ordinate or even contrast with your space. This injects a little dynamism to the space.
Stow it Away
In bygone days, we all bandied about the phrase ‘work-life balance’, meaning we could retreat to home for some quality time. Now for so many of us, the equilibrium has slanted to ‘work-work’ and the balance seems to have plummeted away from the paradise of our home sanctuary. When your working day is done, it’s important to remove work from your view.
Time for Play.
The shift sees work taking over our lives, leaving many parents feeling guilty about shunning the kids for work. The downtime that is never won back needs to be reclaimed.
Working from home before lock-down was deemed a bit of a luxury, set aside as a perk for the lucky few. Now however, it seems more like a custodial sentence. Take a break from the screen, have tea breaks in a different space, go into the garden with a hot mug of soup and feel the wind on your face. Devote half of your lunch break to fun with the kids.
Publish your schedule.
Make it known what your works hours actually are. On every email thread, tell your colleagues when they can find you at your screen and importantly when they can’t. Build in time for you and your family. Speak to HR and tell them you’ll be managing your well being, taking screen breaks and mindful moments. It’s worth also taking to the boss about what your achieved too, as effective communication is more important now then ever before.
Hey, how about one extra bonus tip?
Stay Human
Working from home has taken some adjustment for many of us, whilst we are connecting to the internet, we can be drawn into becoming isolated. Most people are now understanding just how much humanity matters. Many miss their colleagues; the collaboration and sparks of inspiration and even the office banter. It can sometimes be difficult to connect with others in your team, especially if you are less extrovert. After all, not all of us want to be on TV! Some of us prefer not to be in front of the camera.
Make an effort to connect to colleagues in your team, even reach out to colleagues and ask for tips on talking on screen. Let them know you value their help and you’ll be amazed being open prompts deeper connections. Remember, we are all real live people and nothing beats seeing a genuine smile and engaging in a real conversation.
We’ve blogged in the past about home office spaces, however, as many of us are hunkered in for the long haul, we thought it’s worth us shining a light on some little lifestyle changes that will help you to still love your home and bring balance to your life.
Interesting read? Why not take a look at more articles on work-life balance:
Devoting a bit of time to yourself is no longer self-indulgent; it’s important to take time for mindfulness, meditation, yoga!
In the year 2020 it’s propertied that almost half of the working population will be working from home. I guess technology means we can work from almost anywhere…
