6 Things to Consider When Creating Your Home Office

Your office is where you will spend most of your day, so making it a pleasant place to stay is crucial. When you are creating your office, it is important to understand that it is going to be as useful and comfortable as the things you decide to go with.

You would want to build a comfortable place that will enhance your productivity, which is why you need to consider a few things before designing your ultimate office.

In this article, we will go through some of the things you should consider when building your office.

1. Invest in Comfort

Since you will spend 8-9 hours, and if not more in your office each day, it is crucial that you accent the comfortability of your office. The first thing right from the start is your chair. In order to keep your body in the right position at all times and to avoid health issues, you need to invest in a spacious desk and ideally one with an electronically adjustable height and a high-quality comfortable, ergonomic chair.

Investing in a comfortable desk and chair will make a notable difference in your work life.

You need to pay attention to the back and arm support of your chair, as well as the material options. You can find basic chairs for around $50, but usually, they wouldn’t be as comfortable as more expensive chairs. You can find chairs that go as high as $1,000, and depending on the type of business and working hours you will spend on your chair it is good to have an idea in advance of the price you are willing to pay.

The same goes for desks, there is a wide range of options to choose from, I have actually recently completed a chuck of research, specifically on adjustable height standing chairs, check out my guide below.

The Best Standing Desks You Can Buy In Australia (2021)

If you are working from home, you need a good workspace setup that preserves your health and improves your productivity. I’ve put together a list that will help you choose the best sit-stand desk to buy in Australia. I’ve evaluated each desk over a number of factors.

ExpertEasyDarren Sherwood

2. A Second Monitor is Essential

You want to create an office where you will increase your productivity, and a second monitor will get the job done. An additional screen will make your job much easier, so you can finish your projects much faster. Switching between applications can be important, so use all available tools to make your job easier.

Buying a second monitor is not a significant investment and should be at the top of your wish list. Ideally if your buying from new then get identical monitors in order to avoid color difference since they have the same screen fidelity.

If I was buying from new now and was on a reasonable budget I'd probably get two 27inch monitors, I actually have a three monitor setup with a 30inch in the middle and two second hand 19inch ones that are rotated 90 degrees, it is perhaps a bit over the top.

3. Add some Green In Your Office

Live plants are very important in your office since they have the power to increase happiness and reduce stress. In fact, according to a recent study, green plants can increase your productivity by 15%, which is awesome.

However, live plants can turn into a nightmare to maintain if you choose the wrong type, you should choose plants that are easy to maintain and improve the air quality.

4. Make Sure Your Office is Neat and Tidy

A chaotic atmosphere will only decrease your productivity and increase your stress level. When you are designing your office, make sure you make it as simple and clean as possible.

Simple things like wire management can turn your office into an unpleasant place to be. Nobody would want to work in an office covered in jumbled cables and cords. Make sure you use zip ties or dedicated cable management products to tidy everything up and you will definitely appreciate it.

5. High-Speed Internet

What good is a home office without high speed internet? Make sure you have a fast connection. If your based in the USA and you want to learn more about internet options from home check out this resource. For readers in Australia, you'll probably know the NBN is normally the best or only option, the price vs customer service level is probably the main tradeoff.

There are certain things where price doesn’t have to be a deciding factor. For example, when choosing your internet connection for your office, you may want to go with a faster package. Since most of the things are done online, you have to have a stable internet connection, having a stable and fast internet connection will enable you to maintain a steady workflow.

6. Evenly Spread Wi-Fi across your home

Consistent Wi-Fi signal strength is important if you want to move around a bit with your laptop, so make sure you buy the right Wi-Fi setup. I own and recommend the TP-LINK deco products, they use a mesh network.

I currently only have two of the Deco M5 AC1300 rated model here is the most recent equivilent in their current range, you could consider a faster model, but your choice should depend on your NBN speed, unless your running some kind of LAN network games at your house or similar then I don't see much point getting Wi-Fi that is ridculously fast when your internet connection cannot keep up.

These are some of the things you should consider before building your office. There are no limitations, so you need to build something where you will be comfortable spending most of your day.