Working at home is like living the dream, isn't it? You can wear anything you want (even pajamas), get up anytime, and pretty much be your own manager. However, it's not just a lack of discipline that can compromise your productivity - the way you organize your stuff can impact on your work more than you know.
With that in mind, here are some cool ways you can organize your home office for a more practical approach. Maybe not all of these tips apply to you, after all, we all have very different tastes and ways to make our brain work. So until you fully understand yourself, take whatever works from these tips and don’t be afraid to experiment!
Stay Minimal
Clutter is literally the worst thing to happen on your work space. Always keep unessential things hidden out of sight to help your mind focus on what matters - what's in front of you.
I really like this idea of keeping things close and simple. With the office setup below, you can keep the food close (important) and the coffee closer (extremely important). Also, it’s perfect if you don’t have a lot of room.
Or Let It Go
Like I said, there are some general ideas for your well being, but maybe what works for most people doesn't work for you. You can have something like a cutout board or corkboard that serves both as inspiration ideas and as reminders of important stuff. Personally, something that cluttered gives me chills, but maybe the clutter never bothered you anyway.
Stay Close to a Window
Some of us can get so focused we don't even see the sun, and that's not good for your mental health. Having your workplace close to a window with curtains is relatively easy to arrange, and it's great for not losing track of time while allowing the sun enter the room a bit. You’re not a vampire yet, and sunlight is good for you.
Stay Practical
When working, you want everything you need to be within reach and everything you don’t need out of the way. For example, let’s talk about everyone’s favorite first world problem: cables.
This set up is clean, minimalist, and practical. Plus, it gets rid of tangled cables and cords. You can even label your cords and cables using washi tape for an added bit of color and organization. Another great space saving trick is to use the edges of your table to stack some useful stuff or even decorations to lighten up the mood.
But let’s not forget about everyone’s favorite pastime: finding USB cables. I know you love spending those precious infuriating minutes trying to get the right one to fit, but here’s a famous life hack that will save you the trouble.
Doesn’t feel so good having nothing left to complain about, does it?
Get a Good Chair
You don’t need to get crazy here, we know not everyone can afford a beautiful comfy chair. But if there’s one thing you have to be willing to spend a little more with, it’s the chair. Nothing too fancy, like this one (I don’t get it). Just something simple and comfortable, that allows for good posture - remember you’re sitting the whole day.
Oh yeah, have you ever seen a drunk chair? Well, now you have.
Walk Around
You don’t need to go catching Pokemon to stay fit (obligatory Pokemon Go joke, check!) - it’s very likely that because you’re so used to your own home, you’ll feel very bored very quickly. When that feeling starts getting on your nerve, don’t hesitate: walk around. Go see how the fridge is doing all alone in the kitchen, open a window and say “hi” to the birds, do the Exorcist spider walk down the stairs, whatever. Just a few minutes, and you’re likely to be back on track.
BONUS TIP: Save Space with the Cloud
The times of stacking physical paper archives are gone for good. That doesn’t mean you will never use paper ever again - it’s still an essential tool - but you can save a lot of space and trouble by using free services to store all your work related archives online.
The very best I can recommend - both tools I use when writing articles: the set of tools provided by Google Drive (Docs and Sheets), and Evernote.
With Docs and Sheets, you can create, edit, comment, and share files completed stored in your Google account, which means you can access it anywhere, at anytime. You can also store important files for offline access, and it will be automatically updated if you lose internet access for any reason. Also, all the apps work on your mobile and integrates with Gmail. There’s also Hangouts, but come on, just use Skype. Don’t be weird.
Evernote is an app you can install on your PC, Android or Apple device, or just access directly online through the website. It’s documents are similar to Docs, the difference is that you have more ways of organizing them, like creating “notebooks” for every subject, using tags to filter what you need, creating handwritten notes, and there’s this awesome feature called Evernote Web Clipper that works along Chrome, which you can use to save entire articles, favorites and screen captures. Everything is automatically synced to your account, where you can save it for later reading or to use for presentations. And as if it couldn’t get any better: now Evernote supports attaching Google Drive files to it’s notes.
Finally
We all work in different ways. Personally, I need a quiet work environment with what I need within reach (since getting up breaks my concentration), and no one around me. But some people can work with loud music and actually prefer to have people nearby (that’s why there are apps that simulate being somewhere else).
And in case you’re curious, this is my setup at the moment:
Nothing special, but I love it!
You have to try differents things to understand how your brain works, so you can design the perfect home office around it. After all, this is supposed to be the perfect home office for you.
Share this post with your friends who work from home and check out our other design tips! And, if you have a home office you love, share it with us on Facebook or Twitter!
