Working From Home - Office Set Up
I have found that to work well, I need a space that is set up to actually allow me to do my work. And yes, that does mean that part of that set up helps me to minimize distractions. And over the course of the past 2+ years my workspace has changed, morphed, and transitioned as my needs changed.
The most dangerous phrase in the language is, "We've always done it this way."
Just because something worked at one time does not mean that it will always work. Last year brought on some additional challenges that were not previously in play so that required the biggest change in my work space. As I was brain storming ways to make my workspace work for me I kept thinking about something my Dad has told me often.
'Using the right tool for the job makes the job easier.’
One previous work space
The set up below is one that I have had twice. The first time was back in the summer of 2019 and it was great then because it was temporary. I was able to get the work done as well as keep an eye and ear on the kids as they played outside. When I needed to I would move back into the office to take client calls or do video calls and then move back out again. As a temporary/seasonal set up it worked well. Once school started in September I went back to my office set up, all was good the kids were in school and Mr. Padawan was going into his office. We all had our space, and at the end of the work day, I didn't need to see my work stuff.
The spring and summer of 2020 meant that the little Padawans were home for school and summer vacation plus Mr. Padawan was also working from home.
This change meant that I moved out of the office and back to my previous temporary set up in the
living room. I lost a lot of real estate and I was down to just my laptop no extra monitor. This was again supposed to be a temporary set up, Mr. Padawan needed the office space more than I did because he had a larger number of phone and video calls.
As the summer progressed and we had a better understanding of what the 2020/2021 school year would look like, and that Mr. Padawan was not going back into the office soon, I knew we had to make another change.
New Work Space
My plans for next version of my workspace meant that I had to capitalize on a renewed energy I had once some of the uncertainty of the school year was removed. I needed to make a more effective home office, not just for myself but also for my two kids, and Mr. Padawan. That didn't mean we ran out to purchase more things right away.
My first step was more cleaning and decluttering, making sense of what I have so that I can purchase what I need but only if I need it. Often times, I find if I clean, I find I have the things and space that I need. Once I move back into the office I will once again have access to my additional monitor, no purchase required.
The second step was to determine where each person should have their workspace and if anyone needed to share space. We came up with three locations for the four of us.
- Mr. Padawan was moved to the basement, yes my software engineer is in the basement the jokes really wrote themselves. His desk that I had been using in the office was disassembled and moved downstairs.
- I upgraded the little Padawan's table to incorporate more storage space, and had them work on decluttering so that one child could use the new table for his school work during his remote weeks.
- Mr. Padawan built me a custom desk that would be put in the office. Additionally, my Mother-in-law had given us her old school desk, which we moved into the office for my other little Padawan to use for his remote school weeks. The placement of my desk in the office mean that I could keep an eye on both Padawans while I was doing my work.
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| To left and not in the picture is another desk for my little Padawan. And to the right as I look out that doorway,(not visible in the picture) is the other desk from the image above. |
I am pretty happy with this set up, and I have no doubt that I will continue to tweak it as needed, but I am not anticipating needing to make any major changes. Since those pictures have been taken the workspaces have gotten a bit messy, as life happens but I have mostly managed to maintain a clean-ish space.
One addition that I have made since then is that I have added lighting to the room, previously the office used lamps in various locations which wasn't fantastic for video calls. I have since had 6 LED recessed lights added, which makes a world of difference.
If you are looking for more tips I found a blog post by Gretchen Rubin titled "10 tools that make it easier to work from home” to be very helpful. It was written just about a year go but the tips are still solid.
https://gretchenrubin.com/2020/08/favorite-work-from-home-tools
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