Workin’ From Home BOPMSS-Style
With the world making major shifts to a more flexible and remote work schedule, many people have been put into a situation where they have had to throw together a home office. In my opinion these three things are core to making yourself feel relaxed and ready for work each morning: Inspiration, Efficiency, and Comfort.
When building a place that inspires you, it’s important to take time to think about the aesthetic. It doesn’t matter if it’s a small corner desk or a fully built home office. Putting up some artwork and placing a few pieces of decor that resonate with your personality can go a long way in making you feel more in-tune and present.
Nothing is more frustrating than when you’re trying to quickly take down a note or find a document needed for your next meeting only to be lost in a mess of papers and pens. Setting up an efficient and simple organization system for your desk is key to not dreading sitting down at it each day. It’s quite easy to pick up a couple of file cabinets and some desk accessories to store pens, sticky notes, and papers in a place that at any time you can easily access and put away.
For me, comfort is the most important of all three. Just investing in a decent chair with back support and setting up your monitor and keyboard at an appropriate height and distance from yourself will radically help with reducing the strain on your neck and back that come with being bound to an office chair for hours a day. These things will slowly creep up on you and create agitation and cause burn out affecting your work, mood, and quality of life.
I know much of these may seem obvious to many people, but it’s shocking to see how many people still use the quickly thrown together desk/office from when they first began working from home. I would urge everyone to take some time and look at their desk and ask, “Is this a place I look forward to sit down at each morning?” If not, then I believe that making a few of the changes I outlined above are a great way to make that answer a yes, every day!
Contributed by Seth Littlejohn
Software Analyst, Business Operations and Program Management Support Services
