How to design your home office for maximum focus and efficiency

These days, if you are lucky enough to have a job, and work from home, you need a home office.  Since many people have been working from home since March or April, it’s likely you’ve figured out how important it is to have a dedicated space that’s optimized for work.

In fact, when my husband and I were house hunting, we would use sites like this one – click here – that would allow us to search for bedrooms.  We would always add an additional bedroom because we knew we would need it for a home office.    It is also extremely likely that  even after the horrible pandemic is over,  many of us will continue working from home, even if in a part-time arrangement. 

A good chair

I learned the hard way – ie,  a lot of agonizing neck pain, that one cannot get by if your chair is not adequate ergonomically.  The pain in my neck crept up on me over the weeks until it got to the point that I had to sleep with an ice pack or a heating pad.  After doing a little bit of research, I decided taking the arms off my chair.  It took awhile for my body to readjust, but now I no longer have neck pain.  Now, what worked for me might not work for you, so you need to make sure you do your research.  There is a plethora of chairs available these days.  You can even get a gaming office chair!

Hydration

Listing hydration as a necessity for a home office might seem odd, but this is another lesson I learned the hard way.  Blurry vision from dry eyes, headache, and fatigue are just 3 of the symptoms I experienced because I wasn’t drinking enough water.  Or, I wouldn’t drink the water I had because it had become too warm.  Having a cup or thermos like one from luxehydration.com is a small luxury you will soon come to wonder how you lived without.

Outer Order, Inner Focus

I’m tweaking the philosophy “Outer order, inner calm”  from Gretchen Rubin.  For two weeks, commit to cleaning off your desk at the end of every work day.  Put away any stray papers.  Clean up any cups  and other dishes from the day.  If your desk has any dirt or crumbs give it a quick wipe.  Also clean off your computer’s desktop. Put any files in a designated folder or the trash.  Also clean up your downloads folder at the end of each day.  Too many times I have let my download folder become a black hole that stretched back years.  Trust me, cleaning up a folder with years worth of downloads is no pleasant task!