Working from home has been on the uprise since lockdown threw us into a steep learning curve of Zoom meetings and cloud based working. Many jobs are now advertised as hybrid where you're only required to go into the office one or two days per week and small business owners and sole traders no longer need to rent office space when they can easily hire a local meeting room for face to face meetings with clients and then complete their admin themselves at home or outsource to a virtual assistant such as myself.
So what is the ideal working environment for working from home? I've seen people working from their dining room table, kitchen islands and even ironing boards made into makeshift desks. Some people work from their spare room or have the loft converted into an office, some from a nook in their dining room or lounge. As long as you have enough space for what you need to do, have a good wifi connection and have peace and quiet for online meetings (so a door to shut out the family) all of these work.
Personally, I took a more holistic approach to where I was going to set up my office. We have a spare room where I could easily have set up base, there is a nice view out of the window but generally it didn't have a good 'feel', it wasn't the room to inspire me to get on and make things happen!

Instead I chose what we call our sun room, a small room that is adjacent to the kitchen and is our access to the garden. It has windows on three sides and the most amazing views over five fields to the horizon. There is a door that I can close and switch off from the rest of the house if I need to and french doors that I can open in Summer so I feel as if I'm almost working outside. I have filled the room with plants, hence the Monstera in my logo, bringing a touch of nature inside and I often have a calming or uplifting candle burning (Quiescent by The Botanical Candle Co. is one of my favourites), depending on the mood of the day.

There is always compromise though; we occasionally use this room for eating in Spring/Autumn when it's not quite eating out weather and for storing/preparing the toppings when the pizza oven is fired up on the patio. There is also the very important Christmas cake/pudding making afternoon that has now become tradition. For this reason, I've kept our old farmhouse table as my desk and have organised it so that my office can be 'put away', an oilcloth added and the room repurposed for our family's needs at the drop of a hat.

Now, I'm not suggesting you all rush out, hire a builder and have an extension built, we have to work with what we've got, however, when you're working in an office for 7-8 hours a day, whether it's at home or at 'work', it's worth considering what you can add to make your day better, even if it's just a screen saver of that holiday destination that you're working hard to pay for. A photo of your nearest and dearest, a plant to oxygenate your room, drinking coffee out of a beautiful mug or configuring your space so that you have a better view of the outside world; these can all add joy to your day.
Let me know in the comments of your top tips for creating your best working environment.
Comments