Separation: A home office should have a distinctly separate space from where you do your day to day living. The physical separation helps you to transfer in and out of work. This does not have to be a totally separate room (a corner of a room may work) - but just demonstrates that working in bed or at the dining table just does not work in the longer term. Spare bedrooms, generous landings can double up as a study space if you do not have a separate room.


For those that need quiet to focus then the separation is critical. For those that struggle with the quiet there are services like Coffivity to mimic the noise of a coffee shop, which has been said to help with concentration.

Comfort - A comfortable desk and ergonomic chair - essential tools to avoid back, shoulder and physical health problems. Your desk needs to be at the correct height (740mm above the floor level), your screen at eye level and the chair needs to have lumbar and pelvic support- resulting in your back muscles being less stressed. Do some research into the correct sitting position - it may not feel "natural" to start with but your back and neck will thank you.

Think about the temperature of your work space. Too hot or too cold can cause a distraction so find a place where you can control the temperature and will not be exposed to the peaks of the temperature variation. Avoid sitting in direct sunlight as this may cause you to overheat as well as cause issues with glare on your screen. Open windows and doors to let fresh air in. Make sure you stand up and move around at least once every hour.

Nature: A view of the outdoors is ideal - or bring indoors in: Studies have noted that work spaces with plant life demonstrated 15% higher productivity than for spaces with no plants.

It has been found that interrupting a tedious, attention-demanding task with a 40-second "microbreak" — in which one simply looks at a computerized image of a green roof — improved focus as well as subsequent performance on the task. Views of nature make you feel more 'restorative' and perform better on tasks.

Try and keep blinds open and let fresh air in. Take walks and even use natural images as your screen savers.

Also get some plants near your desk!

My desk is set up on a landing space so I have separation for working but I am still connected with the bedrooms in the house for break out space for my micro breaks. I have a lovely view over the green roof of our ground floor extension, I also have two windows for cross ventilation so I can keep nice and cool. I have a fantastic Herman Miller office chair with lumber support and my screens are stacked on books to be the correct height. I have a spider plant and a palm directly to my side and I have lovely north light in the room.

I know I am very lucky to have this space but it is a space that takes little sprinklings of all the above to help me work for the short term from home.

So when thinking about how you may want to design 'working from home' into your project - think about how that balance works with the home. We know the landscape is shifting and the home work element will no doubt become a regular request for future projects.

Over the coming couple of weeks we will be exploring more about improving the connectivity and lighting in your home and also looking at clever ideas to help the separation of work and family life.

#Staystrong #Stayhome #Staysafe