Many mothers have welcomed the flexible remote working option as a way to manage their personal and professional lives. It allows women to carry on with their professional careers while still managing a family.
Designing a productive home office space is essential for maximising productivity and offering an efficient work-from-home experience. We have compiled a list of home office essentials to make sure this area provides you with everything you need to be efficient and productive.
An Ergonomic Chair
Your home office desk chair is crucial to your health. When designing ergonomic chairs, designers take into account the fact that many workplace chairs don't offer adequate support to keep you relaxed and in the proper position for extended amounts of time. There is a good reason why they are bigger and less appealing than a typical office chair.
By offering better support and comfort, ergonomic chairs address areas of known weakness and pain in the human body, which will increase a mother’s productivity.
Do some research before purchasing a chair and determine what your needs are. Everybody has distinct needs when it comes to a home office chair.
High-Speed Stable Internet
You’re probably thinking ‘Well, isn’t that an obvious one?’ Yes, but what we are referring to is the high-speed and stable part. Many employers will require that you have a fixed line fibre connection for stability purposes. High-speed cellular connections are not as stable as fibre internet.
People who are new to remote working forget about the higher level of speed required to do work tasks compared to everyday browsing and shopping online.
If you work from home, chances are you’re going to need to video conference with your colleagues and clients. If you code or design for a client, you will need to send and receive large files. All of these tasks require fast internet access. The last thing you want is for your video call to drop or your file download to take hours when it should take minutes.
It’s worth looking at the options your service provider can give you and upgrading to a faster package. If you can carry on uninterrupted with work, it will save you time and frustration.
Noise-Cancelling Earphones
Remote working comes with a host of potential distractions, especially if you have children at home. Noise-cancelling earphones will drown out distractions and create a sense of calm, so you can focus on what needs to be done. They will eliminate unnecessary noise during conference calls.
Another benefit is that you can stream your favourite playlist to keep you motivated and inspired throughout your work day.
Lighting
It is vital to have adequate lighting in your home office; it's a component of the work-from-home setup that's frequently disregarded. Most remote workers rely on the lighting already available in the room they have chosen to host their home office, or alternatively, they work in the dark relying on the illumination from their laptops. This is not ideal and causes eye strain, headaches, and a generally uncomfortable work environment.
Task lighting (like a desk lamp) helps; you can direct it to where you need it and create the right amount of light.
People react differently to different levels of light. Because of this, task lighting is extremely useful. You'll need to experiment, but try to have a well-lit workspace.
Plants!
Office greenery and productivity go hand in hand. Office plants enhance air quality, concentration, creativity, stress relief, and mood stabilisation. Plants can even aid your immune system, which is important when you are a busy, working mom.
According to a study by Kaitlyn Gillis and Birgitta Gatersleben, on the benefits of nature "plants can directly bring green, living nature into the indoor environment." It is said that having plants in your home office has the following advantages:
37% reduction in anxiety
44% reduction in office frustration
40% less chronic fatigue
58% reduction in reported depression
Fast Computer or Laptop
When working from home, a fast laptop or computer is essential for a number of reasons. It makes it possible to multitask well, move between tasks easily, and waste as little time as possible. It improves productivity and reduces frustration with speedy boot-up times and programme starts. Data processing is made easier when you are not waiting for a computer to load.
A fast laptop or computer improves efficiency, maximizes productivity, and makes working from home easier.
A Second Screen
A second screen is a valuable investment that boosts productivity, organisation, and collaboration when working from home. By providing users with more screen space for multitasking, it dramatically boosts productivity. With a second screen, you can have several programmes, files, or websites open at once, facilitating smooth transitions and effective working. It removes the requirement for frequent window changes, saving time, reducing distractions and and lowers the chance of missing crucial details
Furthermore, a second screen improves accessibility and organisation. While concentrating on your main job on one screen, you are able to keep reference materials, notes, or communication tools on the other.
By incorporating these home office essentials into your remote work setup, you can create a conducive environment that supports your professional success while integrating your responsibilities as a working mom.
Looking for remote work opportunities? Follow this link and register your updated CV with RecruitMyMom; select 'Candidate Sign Up' from the home page.
