Image Credit: Alexa Williams

With so many people either choosing to work from home or having no say in the matter and simply needing to follow their workplace’s guidelines, and so many more setting up their own businesses from their spare rooms or basements, working from home has definitely gained momentum in recent times. Even if it is only a temporary way of working, it still means that more people than ever before are beginning to understand just what the benefits of remote working actually can be. 

Yet there is a problem; if you have never worked from home before, you might not have your office set up in quite the way you want it to be. This can make your workspace at home uncomfortable and perhaps even damage your productivity. In order to be as comfortable as possible, and therefore work as hard as you can, there are some essentials you are going to need. Read on to find out what they are. 

Office Stationery 

Although it’s becoming more and more important for offices to be paperless the reality of that idea is still some way off, and office stationery is crucial if you are going to be able to carry out all the tasks you need to do. Of course, the more stationery you have, the more chance there is of your office—and your desk in particular—becoming messy, and this is problematic, so you must try to keep everything tidy, no matter how much equipment you need around you. 

Regarding stationery, a few ideas of what you might need include the following:

  • Paper 
  • Pens/pencils 
  • Envelopes
  • Labels 
  • Binders 
  • Notepads
  • USB storage 

Going to Office Depot with an idea of what you might want to buy is a good idea; you’ll certainly find everything you need there. If you also have Office Depot coupons you can buy more, or save money on what you buy, and that’s a good start, too. 

A Good Chair 

You can’t just use any chair you find around the house to work from. An armchair is great for relaxing in, but it’s terrible for working from, since it won’t support your neck and you will have to sit in an unnatural position in order to use your laptop. The same is true of a dining or kitchen chair; these are too rigid, but will cause similar problems to those that an armchair would.

The best way to protect your spine and ensure your overall comfort is to invest in an ergonomically designed chair. These chairs will support your body so that even if you have to sit for a number of hours, you won’t hurt yourself. Remember though, getting up to move around every 30 minutes or so is a good idea to help your muscles stretch out and to prevent blood clots forming

A Webcam 

The popularity of online video calls and meetings has grown hugely, and it can be a useful tool for checking in with your team or for finding out more information about a project. However, in order to do this and not be distracted by poor-quality visuals, you should use an up-to-date webcam. Without a good webcam installed, you might easily miss some of the main points of any meeting, and be left with more questions than you started with. 

High-quality webcams can be expensive, but if you are going to be in online meetings on a regular basis and you want to be able to contribute both visually and audibly, it will be an investment worth making. 

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