How to make your home office an inspiring place to work
If you’re planning to run a business from home, then it’s important to ensure you have your own designated workspace.
A well set up office ensures that you can work without distraction or fuss. And importantly, it can also help ensure that you stay in the right mindset throughout the working day.
But you need to ensure that it’s the kind of environment that’s inspiring and invigorating, as a dull office can do more harm than good.
Light it up
There are practical and personal reasons why you should make sure that your home office gets a lot of light.
Natural light can be great for your mindset, helping you maintain a good energy level throughout the day (as lack of natural light can make us feel lethargic,) so using lighter window treatments and brighter colours to let the light bounce around the room is a good idea.
Desk lamps are always useful, too, however, as they can make sure that you’re not constantly looking at the blue light of the computer monitor alone, which can cause eyestrain when unchecked.
Forget the clutter
One of the necessities of a home office is that it can help you deal with distractions meaningfully. Getting rid of unwanted distractions can be crucial to your productivity and few distractions can be quite so destructive as clutter.
Aim for a minimalist design, keeping things at a relatively low-key colour palette, and make good use of accessories like desk organisers to help you cut the volume of items that might be otherwise lying around your desk.
This way it will be much easier to get your head down and do some work without your attention constantly being drawn away.
Surround yourself with images of inspiration
The right visual motivators can do a lot of good. We’ve all seen the black-framed motivational posters that have a picture and a matching caption, but you don’t have to necessarily choose something quite so cliched. You might get inspired with a more standard photo frame, bearing pictures of your loved ones, of important experiences, or even artwork that helps get you invigorated. Surround yourself with imagery that helps to pump you up and you will able to get to work with raised spirits.
Meaningful distraction can do a lot of good
Some types of distraction, like noise and clutter, are harmful as they can easily interrupt the flow of your work. Other distractions can allow you to take a quick break, reorganize your thoughts, and relax some tension out of your day when it’s needed.
Desk toys, especially puzzles, can be a great thing for just this. When you feel like the day is starting to get on top of you, you can turn off the monitor and play with a Rubik’s cube or cylinder puzzle to get your head back under control.
One of the benefits of working in a home office is that you get complete control over how it looks, how it’s organized, and how it’s used. With the tips above, you can make it a truly inspiring place to work.
Photo by Elsa Noblet
