Home Office Decorating Ideas to Boost Your Productivity
As anyone who has worked as a freelancer or even as a regular employee who just happened to bring their projects home from the office, working from the comfort from your own home is an enviable position to be in. However, if the space is not designed for productivity or ingenuity or is too cluttered, you may have a hard time concentrating. Hence, this article is full of home office decorating ideas to inspire and help improve your work space.
Consider lunch breaks, for example. If you are working from a cubicle or any sort of office environment for that matter, taking a break from your work is only possible at designated time periods. Head for that sandwich during the work hours and you are bound to get some pretty nasty stink eyes from your coworkers or called out by your supervisor!
For those working from home, on the other hand, you can take a break literally whenever you feel like it and you will be fine! That said, getting too laid back in respect to your work assignments can mean missed deadlines and woe to you should you make that a regular occurrence. Stay focused and you will typically stay out of trouble.
Productivity is something that needs to be fostered and one of the best ways to do so is to create an environment that urges you to push forth and complete your daily tasks! For many, that involves working out of a home office.
Below are several ideas of how to create an environment to make the best of your working hours and get the job done before it eats away your entire day. Check out these home office decorating ideas and see if they inspire you to improve your home work setting.
Tidy Up Your Work Desk
Since your work desk is the most immediate spot in your house where work happens, ensuring it is not hopelessly cluttered or otherwise unusable (coffee spill, there is a fat cat on it, etc.) would be the first step towards making it home-office viable, so to speak. It is very hard to be productive when you have a hopelessly cluttered work space.
For instance…
Old pens that no longer work but might if you plow the paper with them vigorously enough – chuck them out.
Old papers that have been vigorously plowed through by ineffective pens – out, as well.
Computer acting up and you cannot fix it – smash it with an axe.
Printer’s out of toner and creates smudges on your paper – high kick.
The lamp’s out of order – send it to the trash heap.
Alright, jokes aside, anything that you do not need to actually do your work is only going to distract you and create unnecessary clutter, so removing them is an absolute must. Quality office furniture is no joke, and if you are set on kicking your productivity into high-gear, investing in a new desk or a chairs should be your top priority.
Mind the Lighting
As numerous studies show, the amount of light in your workspace can significantly impact your productivity.
So, if your room is not particularly well-lit, make sure to take steps towards bringing some natural light into it. More often than not, simply repositioning your work desk so that it is closer to a window is all you need to do, so do not be afraid to experiment with moving the furniture about!
Also, make sure the windows in your room are clean. It may sound simple, but dirt that silently accumulates on your window panes can do a pretty good job of obstructing the sunshine.
Add Greenery
Sometimes all you need to brighten up your day is a pretty flower in a colorful pot or a keepsake sitting in view of a special moment, person, place, or thing.
You see, a big part of being productive is not feeling cooped up and confined in your work environment and what better way to not feel cooped up than go outside and be one with nature!
Now, this will not always be possible, of course, so what you want to do is create a home-office environment that will come as close to the natural order of things as possible.
So, to recuperate what we had thus far- Only use the least amount of technology you need to get the job done, make your room well-lit (natural light preferably), and surround yourself with greenery!
(Another great thing about plants is that they will not place their paws on your keyboard and stick the tip of their tail into your nostrils until you sneeze.)
Organize a To-Do List Board
Since virtually any work environment needs some sort of a to-do list itinerary, organizing one for your home office is an absolute must!
To do this, you can make a board complete with pins and pieces of paper and then hang it on the wall. In this way, you will be able to keep track of your upcoming tasks, deadlines, daily schedules, and other notes without getting buried under a mountain of paper.
A neatly organized task board will make your work environment look more professional.
(If you want to take it a notch further, you can also invest in a red marker, stick a bunch of photos of shady-looking people on the board and then whoever comes to your home-office will think you are a secret agent. HA!)
Optimize Your Home Office Storage
Working at home means you should have a bunch of items either on your desk or in its vicinity pretty much all the time.
Now, to avoid clutter and all sorts of unfavorable situations stemming from it (Can not find your pens, your lamp starts acting up.), you can either assume a certain minimalist style of thinking or otherwise organize your storage so that it allows you to save space AND get rid of the excess items.
One of the best ways to approach this would be to buy a multipurpose piece of furniture with multiple compartments that can house items of various sizes. In this way, you can not only free up space on top of your desk but also keep your items close to you in case you need them.
(Tough chance, but still. We never really need those scotch tapes and pen caps we leave laying about.)
What’s more, this sort of IKEA-like furniture can be a great solution for its looks, as well. So, if you like modern designs and have a notable surplus of random items in your immediate working vicinity, obtaining a desk with a bunch of spacious drawers would be the way to go.
Use Sedate Scents
Or the ones that make you randy, whatever makes you happy.
An accent to help set whatever tone you are seeking is music. It can be loud, soft, grunge, or a gentle creek flowing in the background. It is your setting so set it up to whatever suits your needs.
If you find work fulfilling, however, and can find it within you to motivate yourself for another day of content writing … ehrm, we meant, whatever it is that you do at home, then you might want to get stocked on some scented candles or similar objects letting out sweet scents.
Generally speaking, sedate scents and aromas can do wonders to relax your body and clear your mind of random thoughts. Just imagine, if something is used in aroma centers and massage parlors to help relax patients or otherwise recipients of these magnificent treatments, what could it possibly do to your wee home office?
That is right! It can render you as relaxed as a panda falling off a tree in one of those Chinese zoos. And you do not have to walk around your house with a towel around your waist and scarcely a clothing object beneath! (That could as well made work more fun, though. Oh well.)
Experiment with Colors
Nothing can make your experience in an office as miserable as being forced to stare into a wall that is of a particularly boring color.
Also, for whatever reason, most offices across the workplace spectrum seem to feature roughly the same repetitive outline. Indeed, it is usually a bunch of zipping straight lines, with ordinary work desks that speak of seriousness and then everything’s grey, as well.
It can get quite clammy, sitting an entire day in such an environment. Now, since you are working from home, you have the freedom to paint your walls whichever color you want!
What’s more, you can paint your desk and surrounding objects such as shelves or the garbage pail in colors which spur one to take action and be happy, rather than think about work hours, productivity, and other not-so-fun aspects of being employed.
Another great thing about this approach would be that it doesn’t really cost anything. To start decorating your home-office in this way, you will need a couple of brushes, a couple of cans of paint and off you go!
A Goals-Related Vision Board
Sometimes, losing the sight of the goals you had set before yourself earlier on can be a pretty disheartening prospect. Not only can you start slacking off due to boredom and disillusionment, but you can also forget why you’re doing what you are doing in the first place!
To battle these vile sentiments, set up a unique sort of board, similar to a to-do list pane, and write down your long-term goals on it. Whether you are gathering money for going abroad for a month or you’re planning to buy a pedigree foal or something, having that mission always stare at you from the wall can help you get inspired when the crisis strikes!
Also, reminding yourself what it is all about will prompt you to take action and work harder towards achieving it here and now!
Oh, here’s an idea!
If you have got enough wall space to pull it off, you can hang both a to-do list AND your main mission list on it. That way, you can track your progress more easily and be on top of your errands and professional tasks.
Set Your Home-Office Next To a Window
Since we already elaborated on the advantages of having natural light in your apartment, we will not go into more detail about it in this here section.
Nay, in this here section, we are about to tell you to move your desk closer to a window.
Windows are great, aren’t they? Not only will they let the precious Sun rays through to your room so that it can be warm and well-lit, but they also can be opened to let in fresh air and also sometimes an Africanized bee, a killer wasp, an Asian giant hornet, a snake, or a thief.
But mostly air. Pleasant air carrying a jolly waft of flowers and the neighbor barbecuing a tasty meal.
The great thing about working close to a window is that you will feel closer to the outside world. Believe it or not, one of the worst aspects of an office work environment is the feeling you are cooped up in it. So, anything that can help you bypass that hurdle and make us feel closer to nature is more than welcome as an addition to our work environment.
Assume a Minimalist Mindset
This one might be the best tip thus far.
Getting all caught up in clutter and finding the solutions about what to do with it can be properly overwhelming at times.
Therefore, some folks tend to naturally gravitate towards a work environment with fewer items on their desk, less of the desk on their floor (meaning a smaller desk), and nothing at all on their walls, probably.
The idea behind this somewhat radical mindset is to get rid of everything you do not need – times 3. What you want to end up with is the bare minimum you require to perform your work tasks, nothing more, nothing less.
Also, ensuring that the items and pieces of furniture you do leave within your work environment be as small as possible is another important aspect of a minimalist mindset.
So, to wrap up this section here is the overall message o’ hope and motivation – Think small but, ehm, … do big! Work big! The early bird catches the worm. Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. Early birds catch th… eh, we already have this one.
Alright, that’s enough of motivation. Get back to work now!
All things considered, a home-bound work environment does not need to be complicated. Keep your clutter to a minimum, make sure the room is well-lit and well-aired!
