Designing a Productive Home Office: Stress-Free Workspace Tips

We all want to be productive at work, right? But what if your workspace is also the space where you and your family live, relax, and exist together? Carving out a productive home office space can be tricky even for those workers who aren’t also parents – but work-from-home parents can find it extra-hard to create a home-based workspace separate from the demands of family life.

As someone who’s relied on a home office space since before the COVID pandemic made working from home trendy, I know how important it is to give careful thought to making your home office a space where you can maximize productivity. I also know how easy it is to get distracted when your office address and your home address are the same.

That’s why I’ve given a lot of thought over the years to how to set up a home office space where you can be at peak productivity, but also detach from work when the workday ends. Here are some of my fave tips for how to design a stress-free home-based workspace for enhanced mental clarity and maximum productivity.

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1. Use Appropriate Furniture

It may be hard to believe, but choosing the right furniture for your home workspace can make all the difference between a productive environment that’s conducive to work, and one where you just. can’t. get. anything. DONE.

At the very least, you want to make sure your furniture is conducive to actually accomplishing work. At the very least, you want to make sure you’re considering basic ergonomics: is your computer at an appropriate height for comfortable typing? Are the supplies you need within ready reach? Is your screen at a good height to avoid eye and neck strain? Is your back appropriately supported in a well-designed chair?

For example, certain furniture types, like Knightsbridge mental health rocking chairs and adjustable standing desks, directly influence your posture and comfort, thereby boosting your productivity. On the other hand, too-soft cushions or an uncomfortable angle in your chair can make work darn near impossible. Ditto for a workspace where your hands or eyes are at the wrong height relative to your keyboard and screen.

Things to consider when choosing your home office furniture:

At the very least, you want to make sure you have an ergonomic chair for your at-home office. Ergonomic office chairs are a sound choice, as this chair type can keep your back straight and posture upright for extended periods. This, in turn, can reduce the chances of you tensing your muscles or experiencing back pain.

Choosing a height-appropriate desk is also important. As a rule of thumb, you want your elbows to be at rest while you type. Your screen should also be at eye level, in order to help you avoid neck strain.

And don’t forget about your glasses or contacts, if you wear such things! I’ve had a bifocal prescription since I was a teen (thanks, astigmatism!), but had preferred contacts for years. However, I’ve found that a separate pair of workspace progressive glasses (think no-line trifocals) are actually more comfortable than my contacts for long stints of computer work.

2. Optimize Natural Lighting

Once you’ve got your furniture setup figured out, the next consideration is lighting. There’s nothing worse than trying to get stuff done in a dreary, poorly-lit workspace; such a setup is NOT conducive to being productive.

If at all possible, you want to choose a home office space with plenty of natural light. If you can, having a window in front of your desk (for both maximum daylight and the opportunity for nature-filled screen breaks for your eyes) is an ideal choice. Or if this isn’t an option, is there a space in your home where you have access to a skylight?

And if all else fails, consider ways you can bring more daylight into your home office space. This is especially important during winter months, when many people are prone to seasonal affective disorder (and even those of us who aren’t can get down in the dumps from too little sunshine!). My fave Christmas present two years ago was a full-spectrum floor lamp that I placed right next to my home workspace; it really helps to brighten up the dreary winter months.

As you think about lighting, one thing that’s worth avoiding is overhead fluorescent lighting. Bright, cool light can make your place feel sterile and harsh, which in turn can make you feel stressed and anxious. Warm, natural lighting is much better suited to keeping your stress levels low, your eyes relaxed, and your productivity levels high.

3. Keep Your Work Space Separate From Non-Work Space

This is a hard lesson to learn (and to put into practice), but a crucial one. I first learned it my senior year of college, when I made a physical barrier halfway across my tiny dorm room. On one side was workspace, where I did my homework and honors thesis. The other side, where my bed and clothes were, was strictly for rest and relaxation.

Add kids and a spouse into the mix, and keeping work space separate from non-work space becomes even more crucial. It is darn near impossible to get ANYTHING done when your kids and/or spouse are bugging you constantly; having a “work space” at home that is separate from them is a useful cue for THEM, as well as you, that boundaries exist between Work and Not At Work.

The more you can do to separate “work” from “non-work,” the easier it will be to kick into productive mode when the time comes. At the very least, you DON’T want your home office space to be a desk in the corner of your bedroom – that is a surefire recipe for disaster, as my college self eventually figured out (hence the physical barrier). Likewise, having ready access to games and social media on your “work” device makes for too many distractions from getting actual work done.

Practical tips for keeping “work zone” separate from “non-work zone”:

If the only space for your “home office” is a corner of the room where you also sleep, at least get a screen or room divider to cordon off your workspace.
DON’T do work on your bed, or lounging on the sofa (this is another lesson that college me had to learn the hard way, several times over).
Make sure that your workspace is far from pets, TV, kids, and other potential distractions.
If you only have a personal computer to use for your work, consider setting up separate profiles for “work” and “personal” (this is what I do on the computer where I blog, and also what my kids do on their laptops so that games and social media don’t sidetrack their homework efforts).

By keeping your “work” and “non-work” zones separate, you’ll be more easily able to transition your brain to “work mode” as soon as you enter your workspace. This, in turn, will automatically help to make your time at work more productive and less prone to distraction. And bonus, when you leave “work zone,” your body will be able to transition off of work mode more effectively!

4. Declutter Your Workspace

One final tip that can totally refresh your space is by getting rid of anything you no longer need, or (ahem she raises her #alwaysguilty hand) things that don’t really belong in your dedicated workspace!

If you’re like me, somehow Mama’s Workspace magically becomes the family dumping ground every time you turn your back. And if you’re NOT like me (though I do this, too), chances are you’ve still got tons of documents from the project you finished two months ago, receipts you need to file, and other junk you no longer need that’s cluttering your desk, bookshelves, and/or drawers. Clutter breeds distraction.

This can even be true of those cute decorative tchotchkes you were sure your home office couldn’t live without! Random clutter is still clutter, even if it’s cute.

Instead of letting all these distraction-magnets linger in your workspace, get them OUT of your work zone already! File those things you “might” need some day (one of my faves is a box I’ve labeled “toss by X date if no longer needed” with X being 6-12 months away). Give away or donate the extra tchotchkes, excess supplies, no-longer-needed resources, etc. These things do NOT need to be in your line of sight when you’re trying to work!

Then see if there are other things you can do to streamline your space. For example, if there are too many cords running across your desk, are any things that you can tuck out of the way, under or behind your workspace so they’re not in the way?

You’ve got this! A productive home office space IS within reach!

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