If you’re like most people on the planet, you’re probably spending a lot more time than usual in your home these days. What’s more, many employees already work remotely from their own homes fairly frequently. On the surface, there are many advantages to working from home. After all, remote workers can skip the commute, set their own itinerary, and work at their own pace. Yet, many home offices aren’t effective work spaces, and professionals may suffer a dip in productivity as a result. With that in mind, today we’ll examine four common problems with home offices so that you can identify and address them accordingly.
Noise Pollution
Home offices need to be private spaces. Period. It’s very easy for remote workers to get distracted by others in their house. As such, noise pollution from kids, significant others, roommates, and even neighbors can act to break concentration and ruin a day’s work. Do your best to ensure that your home office is sufficiently isolated and that you have items like noise-canceling headphones on hand to help you stay on the task at hand.
Tech Troubles
Ideally, home offices should afford professionals the chance to do basically everything they would normally do while at their place of work. This means that home offices need to be able to accommodate your tech needs. First and foremost, solid WiFi is a must. Beyond that, home offices may also require quality microphones and cameras for video conferencing. Additionally, some pros may even need a printer and/or a fax machine to handle their workload properly.
Cramped Conditions
Unless you are very well off, odds are you don’t have tons of free space to create the home office of your dreams. Still, way too many home offices turn out to be cramped, cluttered spaces that certainly aren’t conducive to good work. To combat this problem, make it a point to clean your desk area on a regular basis, and remove any furniture or fixtures that you don’t need. Don’t wait until spring to do cleaning –– especially if you notice a stale smell in the air!
Poor Lighting
It doesn’t matter if you’re writing a blog about a new type of ultrasonic mixer, or you’re troubleshooting software issues, sunlight can help boost your energy levels throughout the day. Of course, not every home office has access to lots of sunlight. If you can’t open windows and let in sunlight that way, consider investing in modern light bulbs that are both energy-efficient and sufficiently bright. This is a small purchase that can pay big dividends in the long run.