Now more than ever, we are working remotely or from home. 2020 definitely pushed the boundaries of how businesses conduct themselves, and I’ve heard of some companies even tell their employees that they will move to a complete remote/work-from-home model!
Working from home has both its benefits and challenges. While it’s nice to not have to deal with the blasting office AC and long commutes to work, virtual meetings and the lack of set office hours can make for some unexpected difficulties. Most of all, trying to integrate your home and family life into your daily work routine can make or break your work-from-home experience.
While I have primarily been working onsite throughout 2020, I recently upgraded my home office space so I could start working from home 1 to 2 days a week. Today, I want to share with you my home office set up and work from home essentials.
1. Desk and Chair
I’ll admit – I was one of those people who thought that they could just work from their couch or bed and still be as productive as I was at work. How wrong was I!
Having an actual desk or table and a real chair to sit in is so important to both your health and productivity levels. There is no way to be ergonomically safe over time by working from your bed or couch. Also, by working in places that are meant to be more relaxing spaces from work, we can start to associate those areas with work stresses. This can make it more difficult to relax at the end of the day.
Having a desk and chair doesn’t have to be anything fancy. This is my desk and chair that I have – both available on Walmart.com and super easy to put together.
If you still don’t have a desk and chair to work at home with, see if your employer will allow you to take any of your old office supplies home. Your company might also have a program to help you get any office supplies you need to work from home. You never know if you don’t ask!
2. Computer Set Up
If you’re working from home, chances are that your employer already has provided you a laptop computer to do your job on. However, if you, like me, are used to having an extra monitor or 2 and a detached keyboard and mouse, abruptly changing to only a laptop can really kill your productivity.
While working on a laptop is do-able, having a detached wireless keyboard and mouse can make such a difference! This is the keyboard and mouse I use – it was under $20 at a local electronics store and works great. In addition to a keyboard and mouse, I bought a wrist-rest from Amazon. Since my chair doesn’t have arm rests, I find that having the keyboard and mouse pad wrist rest really helps with any kind of wrist pain I used to have before I started using it.
My external monitors are probably the most important part of my work from home set up. Truthfully, it’s one of the reasons I was still going onsite for so long – I didn’t want to give up my dual monitor set up at work and work straight off a laptop screen. However, a few weeks ago, I found some good quality monitors at Target that were on sale for $130 each. I bought them online for in-store pick up, and it’s probably one of my favorite purchases of 2020 so far! They are even better than the old hand-me-down monitors I received at work, and I actually prefer to work from home on them rather than working at my desk onsite.
3. Phone and Headphones
Working-from-home usually means attending virtual meetings and jumping on more phone calls than before. Having a good phone and a headset so you can go hands-free on your calls can really help you out during your work day.
If you previously had a desk phone at an office, you might now be relying on your personal cell phone to take calls for work. Most smartphones today are pretty great at calling, texting, managing your email, and keeping track of your calendar. While my company provides me a work phone, I really enjoy my personal phone, a OnePlus 6, and definitely recommend anything from the OnePlus brand if you’re looking to upgrade. They make great phones for a great price.
Just as important as a phone is a good quality headset, headphones, or earbuds with a mic. If you are still using your laptop speakers and mic as your primary audio for virtual meetings, do your teammates a favor and get a headset! Headsets reduce the amount of background noise that others will hear, and they make talking on the phone or in conference calls so much easier. I prefer and primarily use wireless earbuds, specifically the OnePlus Buds in White. They have great sound quality, battery life, and compatibility with my android phones. Best of all, they’re much cheaper than other wireless earbud competitors.
4. Planner & Other Stationary
If you’ve seen any of my recent planning and goal setting blog posts, you’ve probably seen quite a bit of my planner. I couldn’t function without the thing.
I use the Bullet Journal method of planning primarily, which, at its core, is just another way of reviewing/ managing your calendar and to-do lists. However, any planner method can work – you just have to find which one works best for you. There are tons of options, from desk calendars to pre-printed notebooks to digital apps and everything in between.
Having a system to manage your tasks and calendar can help you go so much farther than just working out of your inbox. When working from home, we can be so much more susceptible to small distractions – for example, taking care of the dog, cleaning the kitchen, and doing other chores around the house. Using a planner can help you stay on task and will help you make sure you don’t miss any small things that you need to get done for your job.
I’m definitely a stationary addict overall. I love pens, sticky notes, notecards, and anything else you could name at an office supplies store. Since I can no longer raid the pen cabinet at my office, the main stationary items I keep on hand in my desk drawers are my favorite multi-colored Paper Mate InkJoy Gel pens and lots of Post-it notes.
5. Wall Calendar & Cork Board
My love for planning extends beyond my ring-bound paper planner. I also have a monthly wall calendar that was actually a gift from my sister. It’s essentially a picture frame with glass that I can write on with dry-erase markers, inspired by this Pinterest pin. At the beginning of every month, I write down all my big appointments and deadlines that are coming up on it. I like that I can quickly look up at it whenever I need to reference what I have going on in a given week. It’s also another reminder of the appointments that I’ve committed to so I won’t forget them.
Next to my wall calendar is my cork board. I’ve kept a lot of memorabilia on it in the past, but now I primarily like to use it as a place to keep reminders. It’s nothing fancy, but it gets the job done!
I hope these tips and recommendations help you in improving your work from home set up! Working from home doesn’t mean that we have to give up all the small, unexpected luxuries that were at the office.
Investing in office supplies to supplement your home office can help increase your productivity, brighten your mood, or even better your health. Whether you need a more ergonomic chair or some new stationary to get organized, treat yourself to something that will help you better your work-from-home set up. Your future self (and maybe even your boss) will thank you for it!
What does your work from home set up look like?