Tag: office

How can I make my home office look good?

How can I make my home office look good?

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in the early part of 2020, nobody could predict the impact it would have on our working lives. Nevertheless, it became clear very quickly that the traditional commute for town and city office workers would be put on hold. Thankfully, we have efficient and effective technology that permits many office-based jobs to be performed from home. Digital communication allows for teams to keep in touch in real time, even when miles apart.

Whether your home office was quickly put together thanks to the pandemic or you had such a facility already, you’ll have settled on a design that focuses on practicality. That’s great, as it’s the primary objective that an office is so equipped to get the job done efficiently. Yet there’s no need for an office to be merely practical; they can also be made to look great.

If you’re happy in your surroundings, you’ll achieve greater productivity than if working in a merely dull and miserable environment. Therefore, if you’re asking, “How can I make my home office look good?” we’ll look at steps you can take to make your work space look the part as well as remain practical and comfortable.

Practicality and comfort

The perfect home office design doesn’t exist, as that is influenced by personal taste to a large extent. You need it to be somewhere you can settle in and relax while still performing your role. Perhaps the main focus of any office design is on the desk and the chair. Click that link and you may be amazed at the variety of desk and chair designs that you can buy these days.

We like the minimalist look for a home office as it’s sleek and clean and takes up less space. Think simple yet stylish metal desks with a trendy mesh-backed chair. That sort of look is a great one for a home office, and those two items will form the central focus of your office design. Remember that we’re firmly into the digital age so think about going paperless. That way you won’t need large drawers or filing cabinets in your office, so less space will be needed.

Now that we have the desk and chair sorted – and presumably you already have your computer and telephone equipment in place – we want to look at non-essential items that brighten up the room.

Dress the walls and remove clutter

Do an internet search for office design trends and you’ll find plenty of inspiration. Think about the walls in your office. Is your office an entire room? If so, you could hang pictures that you enjoy for added decoration. Consider pictures that are your taste rather than the typical office ‘inspirational’ posters. Perhaps adorn the walls with family portraits or pictures relevant to a hobby or passion of yours.

Then there’s the matter of clutter. horizontal space attracts clutter, as an empty surface will simply encourage you to place things on it for convenience. We suggest that the only available surface is your desk and – as is the norm in many shared offices – you operate a clear desk policy whereby everything is put away at the close of play.

Think about the colour of the walls, too. You need an office to be a place of few distractions, so a bright colour is perhaps not the best choice. Think neutral colours such as cream or even matte white, and make sure also that you think about lighting. Hopefully, your office will feature a window, but if not, you’ll need to make sure you have enough light with which to work.

Keep it simple, stupid!

Keeping things simple is essential if you want a good-looking, practical and efficient office space. Make sure that everything you need – telephone, computer etc – is close to hand and that there’s nothing superfluous to requirements within your office space. We do recommend having a house plant or two in the office as greenery inspires calm and is good for us, so visit your local garden centre for an easy to maintain plant that will sit nicely in your office. You should have the idea by now – it’s all about simplicity, cleanliness and modern office design – so let’s finish with a few words about how the pandemic has had an influence on our working lives.

The lasting influence of the pandemic

When we think about what the pandemic has taught us it’s clear that for many people remote working is the future. This isn’t just great for those who dread the daily commute, but also for the environment. Fewer vehicles on the roads at the same time means less pollution, which can only be a good thing.

In the case of your home office, we’ve learnt that there’s plenty of scope for designing and equipping a beautiful, practical and stylish space that will a pleasure from which to work.

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How to build a great office space for your first business

How to build a great office space for your first business

If you’re going to be running a business, it’s worth investing in a dedicated space from which to do so. Working from the sofa is all well and good if you’re stuck – but for long-term productivity, an office may be essential. Let’s show you how to go about building a great office space for your first business.

Set a budget

Your first step should be to determine how much you can realistically spend on the project. Your budget should cover everything from one-off set-up costs, like the investment in furniture, to ongoing ones like rent and utility bills.

Choose the space

Your choice of space should be informed mostly by its location and price. You’ll need something that fits within your budget, but that’s also located somewhere that you and your staff can easily reach. If you pick somewhere that’s too far out of the way, you might struggle to attract the new staff your business needs as it grows.

Plan your office layout

Working out the layout of your office in advance will save you hassle later on. Certain kinds of business will need different kinds of office layout. If you need private rooms to meet clients confidentially, then make sure that they’re built in. If you need plenty of storage, then going for a closed-off floor plan might be optimal.

Determine the essentials

If the wiring situation in the office isn’t up to scratch, you’ll need to get a few electricians around to give you a quote to sort it out. The same applies to other utilities such as water. If these things are already up to the required standard, it might be worth spending a little more in the short-term.

Buy office furniture

An office without furniture isn’t really an office at all. Ideally, all of your office furniture should be supportive and conducive to long-term health. After all, if you’re going to have employees laid off with back or neck problems, then skimping on chairs might not be such a good idea. Look at the furniture which delivers the most bang for your buck. Often, you can find these items by looking at liquidation sales, or for dedicated office furniture suppliers.

Secure your office

Keeping your premises secure is a necessity, particularly if you’re storing high-value items on the premises. If your budget allows for it, you might employ an overnight security team to keep the premises secure when you’re not there. Locks, alarms, cameras and other technologies might also play a role in your security strategy.

As well as thinking about physical security, you might also think about what you might do about digital threats. While this effort will mostly consist of educating your workforce (and yourself), the investment in digital security technologies might help to keep your data protected. This might mean thinking about where your server room is going to go, and how it’s going to get the required airflow.

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Benefits of remote access for small businesses

Benefits of remote access for small businessescredit

With a small business, it’s important to note that remote access isn’t something that will only be beneficial for larger corporations. A lot of small businesses are finding that when they can access office files and resources remotely it provides a lot of benefits for the business as well as for employees. Supporting flexible and remote working is an obvious benefit, and by using remote access it means that the business will still be able to keep up to date and catch up, in this post-pandemic era. Remote access solutions are something that can benefit your small business, and they don’t have to be things that are expensive or out of your budget.

Illustration of remote working outdoors

Flexible office solutions

One of the big costs that a business will have is the office space that they occupy. With employees who work flexibly and work remotely the majority of the time, you can reduce the office space that you use, if you need one at all. If there are fewer workers that need a desk space, the cheaper or smaller place that you could rent for an office, if at all. As the site https://physicaladdress.com shows, you don’t have to have a physical office space to be able to get business mail, neither do you need to include a personal address on a business website. If you do decide to go down the route of getting rid of the physical office, then you have real flexibility as well as more adjustable office solutions.

Interview taking place over a conference call

Talent recruitment

If you work flexibly and run this across the whole of your small business, then it improves the talent pool that you can reach when it comes to recruitment. Normally, the talent pool for a business only extends to people who live in a commutable distance from the office. However, if you work flexibly and allow employees to work remotely, then it increases the geographical location of potential candidates. You can really choose the best people that apply, rather than having to choose the people that apply only because they live in the vicinity.

In a similar vein, you can also have continued access to existing staff. If they’re moving home to a different part of the country, they don’t have to leave working for you when remote access is implemented. Another benefit for business and the business budget.

Three people working remotely and collaboratively

Collaborative working and resource sharing

When you have a remote working business, you can work with colleagues on a collaborative basis, as well as externally with clients, third parties or suppliers. When you interact remotely, it helps to save time on travel, save money and improve productivity on the part of all involved.

Using remote access and accessing something in the cloud for document sharing means that you can share work with others, wherever they are in the world. As documented here, https://workplace.com/cloud-collaboration, cloud collaboration can be something that can really benefit business and be a good thing for employees too. You just need to think outside the box and it will help to make a difference to how your business works.

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Will standing desks ever replace chairs?

Will standing desks ever replace chairs? | H is for Home

As health and wellness become more important in offices around the world, standing desks are taking over for the many health benefits that they can have for those using them. Working at a sit-to-stand desk rather than a traditional desk and chair can reduce pain and stiffness, boost energy, and even help workers lose weight. And, the benefits for organisations are also huge, with offices that made the switch to standing desks reporting better productivity and teamwork. So, will standing desks ever replace chairs? Here are some reasons why they’re becoming more and more popular.

Silhouette image of a woman on a computer sitting at a desk

Sitting is really bad for your health

There’s a good reason why sitting is often referred to as the new smoking; sitting down for hours is simply terrible for your body. And, office workers who sit for at least eight hours a day have to deal with a 15% increase in their risk of premature death – if you’re sitting for 11 hours, that number jumps up to 40%!

Sitting at a desk means that you’re inactive, even if you type fast. And according to the BBC, inactivity leads to 3.5 million deaths every year; a statistic of which you probably don’t want to become a part. Sitting is also linked to an increased risk of several diseases including breast and colon cancer and diabetes. You’re also at a greater risk of developing kidney disease, heart disease and high blood pressure if you’re spending most of your day sitting down.

Silhouette image of a man on a computer sitting at a desk

Standing promotes better health

While sitting is not doing very well when it comes to what’s good for your health and prolonging your life, standing is the complete opposite. In fact, standing is clinically proven to improve your health, reduce your risk of disease and premature death and helps to increase physical activity. Indeed, time spent standing up has even been proven to be better at reducing some of the risks associated with sitting compared to doing an hour of exercise. Improve your health and prolong your life starting today with these height adjustable standing desks from friskadesk.com. FRISKA is a Scandinavian style furniture brand with a range of modern, sleek desks to choose from perfect for the workplace or home office. They make functional products with your health and well-being a priority.

Silhouette image of a man on a laptop slouching in an office chair

Sitting can be painful

If you’ve worked sitting at a desk for any length of time, then you’ll know that after a while, it can get really painful. When you’re sitting down, there’s up to 90% more pressure applied to your lower back compared to standing, and sitting for extended periods of time can lead to disk damage and reduced flexibility in your spine. And if your desk, keyboard and monitor height aren’t optimal for good posture and you’re using a regular chair rather than an ergonomic one, you might be craning your neck and hunching your shoulders too, which can lead to pain and headaches from muscle overextension.

Silhouette image of a woman doing back exercises sitting on an inflatable exercise ball

Standing reduces back pain

Back pain is a common complaint in offices; a big cause of it is sitting down all day. But on the other hand, standing periodically throughout the day can dramatically reduce any back pain that you experience. And, some research conducted on standing desks found that users also suffered from fewer headaches. However, while switching to an adjustable sit-stand desk is a great way to reduce some of the pain caused by sitting down for hours, if you work at a desk, it’s important to make sure that your desk, monitor and keyboard height are right for you. It’s also worth investing in an anti-fatigue mat, and alternate frequently between sitting and standing so you don’t end up with new aches and pains from standing up using a computer for too long.

Silhouette image of a woman with a take-away drink in her hands reclining in an office chair with her legs up on a desk

Sitting can lead to weight gain

Sitting is definitely not good for your waistline. In fact, obese people tend to sit for around two and a half hours more per day than people who are at an ideal weight. After sitting for just one hour, the production of Lipoprotein Lipase, a fat-burning enzyme, can decrease by as much as 90%. On the other hand, alternating between sitting and standing throughout the day can help you lose weight. When you go from sitting to standing, your heart actually beats ten times more per minute; if you stand for three hours per day, five days a week, you’ll burn around an extra 8lbs per year – that’s more than half a stone!

Healthy employees tend to be happy and more productive employees and so far, all the research around sitting is not looking good for your health and well-being. Along with the physical health benefits, using a standing desk can also engage your muscles to pump fresh blood to your brain, improving your mood and boosting creativity.

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