As a remote employee, you get to enjoy a lot of unique perks, such as no longer having to endure long commutes to and from work. But on the flip side, you end up bearing the responsibility of building a decent workspace inside your home, rather than relying on your employer to do that for you. To help you get started, here are a couple of things you need to make your home office more functional for you:
Comfortable Clothes
One of the biggest perks of working from home is that you can make your setup as comfortable as you want. This goes not only for your furniture, but for your clothes as well. You can say goodbye to heeled shoes, stiff blouses, and tight shapewear. Instead, you can simply wear pajamas during your workday, if you so wish.
But if working in your sleepwear feels too casual for you, don’t worry. You can always put on a good pair of leggings or footless tights and a cotton shirt instead. This ensemble is cozy without being sloppy, all without feeling restrictive or frumpy like formal office wear.
An Ergonomic Office Chair
If you have a remote desk job, you probably spend a lot of time sitting down. Unfortunately, sitting for long periods can cause a slew of health problems for you over time. These include, but aren’t limited to, bad posture and back pains. To prevent this, it only makes sense that you secure a good chair early on for your work-from-home setup.
However, it’s not enough to simply get a soft and comfy chair; it has to be ergonomic as well. Compared to a regular chair, an ergonomic office chair will provide you with proper lumbar support, helping you keep your body in a steady, upright position. This, in turn, lessens the stress on the neck, back, and hips. This ergonomic support can also prevent you from developing back problems, which are unfortunately quite common among people with sitting jobs.
A Standing Desk Converter
Aside from using an ergonomic chair, another way to offset the effects of prolonged periods of sitting is to stand up every so often. That said, why not take things a step further by accomplishing some of your work while standing? By alternating between sitting and standing at your desk throughout the day, you’ll be able to prevent many of the health problems associated with sitting for too long.
To make it more comfortable for you to work while standing, it’s best to invest in a height-adjustable desk, if possible. Should this be too expensive for you, a standing desk converter is an affordable and excellent alternative. Simply place the converter on top of your current desk, and that’s it!
A Pair of Noise-Canceling Headphones with a Built-In Microphone
Not all homes are suitable for work-from-home setups, as all kinds of distractions can pull your attention away from your tasks. You may find it hard to focus if you’re bothered by the honking of cars out on the street, for example. It can also be difficult to get anything done if your neighbors are playing loud music or if your family is going about their day-to-day activities.
While you may not be able to fully control your environment, you can still do something to mitigate the problem. Whenever you’re working, wear a pair of noise-canceling headphones or earphones to block out distracting noises. These headphones are especially handy during online calls and meetings. For one, you’ll find that incoming audio will sound clearer and fuller. For another, your voice won’t sound garbled due to ambient noise, ensuring that you can communicate effectively with your colleagues.
An All-in-One Printer
While most remote work is accomplished online, you may sometimes find yourself in situations where you’ll still need hard copies of certain documents. For instance, you may need to print out forms for certain applications. If working with paper makes it easier to organize your thoughts more effectively, then you may need to print files quite often. For such scenarios, having a printer on hand can make life a lot easier.
That said, you may also find yourself in the opposite situation, where you’ll need to digitize certain physical documents (such as invoices and receipts) for online application processes. While you may technically be able to scan certain documents using your phone’s camera, the result may not always look as clear as the output you can get from a flatbed scanner.
If you don’t have a lot of room in your home office and want to get both a printer and scanner, it makes more sense to invest in a printer that comes with a built-in scanner. That way, you can get the best of both worlds, all without taking up too much physical space.
A Paper Shredder
If you work with a lot of physical documents that contain sensitive data, a paper shredder is another must for your home office. After all, you wouldn’t want any confidential information—such as banking account names and numbers, home addresses and phone numbers, and other personal details—to fall into the wrong hands.
By using a paper shredder to finely cut up your documents, you can rest assured that they’ll be properly disposed of. Not only will the information be harder to read, but it will also make it difficult to put the document back together piece by piece. This will make it less likely for any sensitive data to be retrieved and used by malicious individuals.
To create a well-equipped workspace at home, you’ll need the right furniture and equipment first. While they may cost a lot upfront, they’ll definitely pay off in spades the longer you use them. You don’t have to buy everything on this list all at once, either. Instead, you can slowly build your ideal home office by buying each product one at a time. With these items in your home office, you’ll find that remote work will be much more enjoyable, and you’ll be much more productive, too.