Home Office Fitouts and their Benefits
If you’re working from home, you may not pay much mind to this - if it’s your own personal space, you can work however you want, right? This is definitely not the case, and getting a home office fitted out will be a much bigger win than you realise - not only in terms of lifestyle and health, but it can also prove a great value-add from a property investment perspective.
Why Is A Good Home Office Important?
If you’ve been asked to work from home, it can be easy to get complacent - if you’re at home, you can work at your dining table, kitchen benchtop, couch, and more. It’s your house, after all.
However this can cause an awkward blend to occur between your personal and work experiences. Trying to work in an environment where you usually spend time relaxing or even sleeping can cause you to try and default to these behaviours. This in turn means that you end up being less productive on a subconscious level, which is hard to change.
These problems solve themselves if you have a dedicated space you use as a home office. Setting an area of your home that is purely for work will better help your brain shut off from other distractions around you, boosting your productivity.
As with a standard work office, it’s also important to make your home office a good work environment. This means introducing natural light, minimising cramped space, and being comfortable enough to work for potentially a few hours at a time.
What Makes A Good Home Office?
When it comes to home offices, you want to strike the right balance between being good enough to be able to sit for long periods, and being so comfy that you slack off from working and lose productivity.
There are many different elements that factor in to making a good home office:
1. Ensure Comfort - But Not Too Much
No one wants to sit in an uncomfortable office that leaves you with a sore neck and/or back for hours afterwards. To avoid this, be sure to get yourself a comfortable desk setup with the right furniture.
The two major fundamentals of a comfortable home office are a good desk and comfortable office chair. When it comes to the desk, you want one that is at an appropriate height that you can work with your arms at a comfortable level. Even investing in a hybrid sitting-standing desk is a possibility, allowing you the option of adjusting the height whenever you need to.
Regarding the chair, you should be looking for one with good support for your body - particularly your back. Having a chair that allows for good posture will allow you to work more effectively and be beneficial to your physical health.
2. Invest in Quality Equipment and Add Natural Lighting
You may not have access to equipment that is as powerful as in your regular work office. However, to avoid frustrations with technical limitations, investing in decent equipment for your home office is a good idea.
Along with a decent personal computer, having things like a good webcam and microphone setup for online meetings is a wise investment as well.
Whether it’s from a window or even a skylight, natural light is a great way to improve your home office and boost your productivity. A window in your workspace is the simplest way to do this, but it does a whole lot of good for making an effective home office.
With just a few touch-ups to your home office, you can turn it into a workspace to be proud of and productive in.
If you're running a business from your home office, then the cost of the fit-out may be tax-deductable. Furthermore, if you're unable to afford the fit-out costs up-front, then you can explore business financing options which will allow you to spread the cost over several months (which may also be tax-deductable).