How Your Home’s Design Can Affect Productivity

As a greater number of residents begin working from home, adapting their professional routines to their living space, interior designs are changing. The comforts and conveniences that we once incorporated into various rooms are being adapted to meet the needs of both personal and professional lives. Some seek to minimise the impact a professional role has on their home, while others seek to streamline both spaces, making them work in tandem.

While this distinction largely comes down to preference, there is the inescapable element of productivity. Many residents fail to realise that while they may feel comfortable working in various circumstances, opening their laptop at a kitchen table, their productivity is actually being impacted and that there are certain settings that will benefit and hinder their professional output.

Focus

Perhaps the most important consideration for those working remotely is the potential focus. While not every teleworking individual needs to recreate the confines of a traditional office cubicle within their living space, there are certain advantages to creating a focused and honed area for concentration.

Those who work in large open rooms that are not designed with professional endeavours in mind, such as the kitchen or living room, can find themselves easily distracted. Whereas those who create a focused space, one that allows them to concentrate on the task at hand, will see their productivity benefit.

For this reason, many are choosing to separate their office space entirely, dividing their professional life from their personal space. Some are converting spare rooms or attics, while others are investing in log cabins and external office spaces. These options allow for distraction-free spaces to be created, with the benefit of being able to close them off at the end of the day, ensuring that work responsibilities don’t seep into home comforts.

Facility

One of the benefits of shared office space is that the design tends to cater to all necessary tasks. There are storage units for documents, accessible printers, abundant office supplies, and meeting areas for hosting clients. If a home office space does not offer these, or similar features pertaining to a specific role, then remote working will not be as easy.

As such, a home that hosts professional work should offer the facilities required to support the role entirely. This means taking the plunge on certain purchases, such as a high-quality printer and storage cabinet, as well as an array of office supplies to ensure that some are always at hand.

Inspiration

Unlike the shared space of a central office, a home office can, and should, have a degree of personal inspiration. By incorporating designs that you personally find inspirational, such as exciting colours and prints, office spaces become more pleasant to spend time within and can even lead to a greater degree of productivity as spending time in the space is more greatly enjoyed.

Additionally, as a number of meetings now take place online and over video conference software, there is a degree of presentability. Working spaces are scrutinised by coworkers and managers, meaning that a presentable, even stylish home office space, can make a positive impression.