2020 has seen a significant rise in the number of individuals working from home. Initially, it was something that the pandemic had forced upon people but now it is being seen as an opportunity for companies to explore newer working patterns. 

Is Work From Home Here to Stay? 

For many companies, especially MNCs, work from home (WFM) has already been an integral part of their culture. Though it was not a mainstream practice, they used to allow their employees to login remotely from their homes. 

During the pandemic, companies across sectors realized that remote working can become a mainstream thing. Benefits like reduced office space requirements, employee commuting costs, improved employee productivity and other advantages of WFM have made companies brainstorm about implementing it on a wider scale. 

“While the office is here to stay, greater acceptance of remote working will pave way for a hybrid-working model in the coming future,” says Pawan Goyal, the chief business officer of Naukri.com.

In light of this changing trend, it is important to have a dedicated home working space to ensure your productivity is not compromised.

Work from Home, Then and Now? 

While many working professionals already had a specific area at their home that was dedicated to working, it was not really a serious workspace. 

Some of you may already have dedicated a room with a work desk, personal computer or cabinets to keep important files but it was not really on par with how things are at the office.

An office is a place where things are organized to perfection with specific areas allotted to do different activities. For example, there is a separate lunch area, conference room, coffee area, etc. Similarly, employees have dedicated desks with drawers and cabinets to store office files. While it might not be possible to implement all these elements at home, there is a lot that you can do to enhance the working area in your home. 

5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Work From Home Space

Starting from scratch is the best way to make optimum utilization of your workspace. That way you will not be limited by options in organizing your workspace. 

Here is what you can do:

Get a comfortable chair

If your work involves sitting at the desk for long hours, then having a comfortable chair is a must. Avoid using wooden chairs as they will not have a recline option. If you can order a chair that has soft cushions then that will be ideal. Otherwise, you can get a lumbar extension for your existing chairs. These are not expensive and will give the required support to your back. 

Organize your stationery 

If you have a drawer attached to your desk, organize all the stationary within the drawer. Place small boxes inside the drawer and keep loose things like erasers and pins inside them. Try to club all like objects together. If you do not have a drawer, you can consider keeping a box on your desk and organize the stationary inside it. 

One more important thing is to keep all the important things like pens and notebooks closer to your hands. On the other hand, the ones that are not important can be placed neatly inside the drawers or cabinets. This way you will have easy access to them. Always keep the things back in their place after using them. It will ensure your workspace stays clean and tidy. 

Keep your monitor at the right height

Most of you must be spending endless hours sitting in front of your laptop or computer. Your back and your neck should not strain while looking at the screen. Ideally, the monitor or screen of your personal computer should be at your eye level. You can get a cheap laptop stand online to adjust the height. Alternatively, you can also use a box or any other solid material as a base to adjust the height.

Be Creative with Space

Having a small workspace will not be a concern if you try being creative. For example, you can add hooks on the walls or doors to hang files or stick a chart paper to your wall to make a monthly calendar. If you still fall short of space to keep your files, pull out your airbags and suitcases and line them up beside your desk. You can keep the files inside the bags and take them out when you need them. This way you will not have to spend money on buying cabinets to keep the files. This is just one creative away, you can do much more!

Make it look appealing

Work has to be serious but it doesn’t mean your desk has to look boring. You can always add a vibrant touch to your office space by adding a flower vase, light stand, show-piece, picture frames or any other decorative items. If you still have enough space, you can even print inspirational quotes of your icons and paste it somewhere in your workspace.

The liberty of having a home workspace is that you can organize it the way you want. So try rearranging your desk every few weeks to make it look different. That will give a fresh look to your work area and make you feel good too! You should also take out 10 minutes every week to clean your desk. Doing these simple things mentioned above will ensure you get a more professional looking workspace and also enable you to be productive!