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Who Needs a Home Office Desk Set Up?
Let’s face it, before the pandemic most of us were working in office buildings that had a plethora of equipment to enable us to be at our best while we are on the job. With more people working from home things are getting a lot harder and it is becoming more challenging to separate home life and work life. Therefore, it’s important to find a good location in your home for a desk so that you can be at your best there too. This will ensure both mental and physical health of yourself, as many people will be working outside of the office for the long-term. Once you’ve decided it’s time to make the investment, you’ll want to understand how to set up your home office desk to ensure maximum efficiency and productivity.
Where You Should Set Up Your Home Office Desk
Working from home is less of a physical challenge and more of a mental challenge. Setting up a good system is best enabled by a desk. If available choose a separate room as a dedicated workspace, then you can close the door to keep business in and family, friends, and pets out. This room should be a place that can help minimize distractions such as the kitchen, laundry room, and Xbox noises. Ideally, it will have a closed-door so that if you have colleagues over for work it does not cause distraction from the rest of the home.
Importance of a Home Office Desk
Focus
Having a desk set up in a separate space in your home will enable you to focus on the tasks at hand. One little productivity hack is to structure your day into one-hour increments. Instead of having a goal for the day set a goal for these one-hour increments. You will likely notice that you are able get more done in one day than you have been able to do over the past several days. This structure is best suited when sitting at a desk so that you can focus on what’s important at the time.
Separation of work and home
Believe it or not, the dining room is the most popular room of the house to convert into a home office workspace. This is mainly because it is cheap and quick to do, and because the dining room is an area that is seldom used compared to the rest of the home. Another common workspace is the kitchen but the last thing you want to do is spill your lunch on your laptop or important documents. Lastly, having a separate room allows you to have a space dedicated to work time.
Ergonomics
Typical desk heights fall between 28 inches and 30 inches, which are designed to be ideal for people between the heights of 5’8” and 5’10”. However, plenty of desks are also available from 22 inches all the way up to 30 inches tall. An adjustable desk can help with the variances in work tasks as well as multiple people in your home using the desk. For example, the standard height of a desk is designed for someone who is writing, whereas for someone typing on a keyboard it should be a bit lower than the writing desk height. The height is very important because prolonged periods of bent wrists are an easy way to cause an injury.
Here is a simple test to determine if the desk will fit you for long-term comfort and enhanced ergonomics. Sitting in the position you normally use to work, rest your hands at your sides. Keeping your elbows at a 90-degree angle and upper arms in line with your torso, you should be able to rest your hands comfortably palm down on the desk. If you’re unsure what desk height is right for you, then try this with several desks at an office store and mark down the height of the desks that pass your test!
Lighting
It is very easy to underestimate the effects of your work environment on your ability to work. Home office lighting is an area people often don’t think about. Ideally, you would have sufficient indirect light to illuminate your workspace so you can easily read papers and see physical objects. Indirect lighting refers to lighting that is not in your direct field of view. It is not recommended to place a lamp right next to your monitor or laptop where you will end up competing for light sources and possible glare. If lamps are required, try placing them outside of your field of vision.
Overhead lighting, such as a ceiling lamp, is usually best. Additionally, natural light is quite pleasant but it is best if diffused with shades or curtains so it does not create a glare on your screen. To avoid the competing light sources challenge, try to orient the desk such that it is not directly in line with a window.
Lastly, make sure your monitor’s brightness is not too dim nor too bright. Both settings can cause eyestrain. A good rule of thumb is that your monitor light intensity should be just a little brighter than your ambient lighting, and that ambient lighting should be sufficient to read paper documents without additional light.
Ways to Set Up Your Home Office Desk
Sitting Desks
As mentioned in the ergonomic section above, finding the right desk for your home office is very important for your comfort, productivity, and general well-being. These are our top three favorite sitting desks for helping you to be most effective in your home office.
Best Value: Simple, Modern Style Desk With Drawer
The Cubiker Home Office Computer Desk provides a sleek, modern-style desk ideal for any modern home, and is great for apartments or houses in need of a space-saving desk. Designed for multiple purposes, it is well fitted for office work, a playroom for board games, living room for family use, and much, much more. The storage cube design provides you plenty of storage room for your books, working documents, stuff, and so on.
Best Ergonomics: Desk with Storage, Keyboard Tray, and Monitor Stand
The TOPSKY Computer Desk provides a great ergonomic design for maximizing any home office space. First, it has a keyboard slightly below the main desk area, which is optimal for typing. Next, the monitor is raised up off the main desk, which provides the correct height for the health of your eyes and neck. Lastly, it has two shelves for storage of books, documents, and your CPU.
Most Popular: L-Shaped Corner Desk
The Homfio L-Shaped Corner Desk is perfect for someone looking to maximize space in their home office with an industrial style desk. The office computer desk supplies massive space to lay 2-3 monitors, books, papers, documents, and plants on the spacious desktop. The L desk is designed with a reversible desktop, allowing you to switch both sides easily. The function also makes it possible to use two identical L desks to form a large U-shaped workspace! Lastly, it even comes with an added file storage holder and a free CPU stand.
Standup Desks
Although research is still in initial stages, it does appear that using a standing desk can have impressive benefits for health. Not only that, in our experience it helps with productivity throughout the day. Some studies have found a strong link between increased sitting time and early death, so at the very least standing can help mitigate against the detriments of sitting for too long!
Best Value: Standing Desk With Manual Height Adjustable
This stand-up desk converter transitions to the perfect height with an easy hand crank. The work space of this standing desk supplies large area for 2 monitors at a comfortable position, and comes in a bit more affordable than the other standing desks shown above.
Best Ergonomics: Large Height Adjustable Standing Desk Converter
This Rocelco Height Adjustable Standing Desk Converter gets placed on top of your regular desk, giving you a good hybrid setup. The keyboard tray extends and retracts while keeping a 4.5 inch spacing between keyboard tray and desktop, which helps keep your arms and wrists in an ergonomic position to prevent neck and back strain while sitting or standing.
Most Popular: Electric Adjustable Height Desk
The Vari Electric Standing Desk is height-adjustable for standing or sitting, and boasts more than enough space for multiple monitors, a laptop, and plenty of extra room for your keyboard, mouse, and papers. It is made of commercial-grade materials like heavy-duty laminate and steel, and it includes a stability crossbar to make this desk incredibly stable at any height. And amazingly, it assembles easily in 5 minutes without special or complicated tools.
Why you should setup a home office
When you’re home alone working it’s easy for negativity to creep in due to the isolation. Try to fill your mind with positive thoughts. Remember that everyone else is here with you and experienced the same challenges. A desk is one more way to feel connected to the office as we get through this pandemic together.
