How to improve your homeworking experience

Posted on: 20th October 2020

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For many professionals, the shift to homeworking happened overnight. Now, with a hybrid office-home solution set to become the workplace of the future, it’s time to explore how to improve the homeworking experience for your long-term success and benefit.


How are you finding your homeworking experience right now? If you’re like the 67% of Americans who would like to continue working remotely post-pandemic, you’re probably enjoying the lack of commute, opportunity to spend more time with your family and greater sense of autonomy. However, as with a lot of professionals, you may also be grappling with irritations, such an uncomfortable chair, an unprofessional looking and feeling work environment and a lack of appropriate tech or software. And while these complaints may have been fine while the WFH situation was temporary, recent reports suggesting it could be here to stay may have you thinking again. If your home office is about to become a more permanent set-up, now’s the moment to start looking at longer-term solutions and to explore how you can upgrade your home working environment and experience.

Invest in your chair 
You want your home office to resemble a ‘proper office’ so you can work there indefinitely – and the right chair is a key part of achieving this. According to the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, adopting a healthy posture at your desk can prevent muscle strains in your back, neck and other joints. Speaking to Which?, Kirsty Angerer, economic consultant and member of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors, recommends checking six key factors before making a purchase, including the chair’s height, seat depth, ability to adjust the backrest, armrests, recliner option and castors.

Embrace structure to boost productivity
Keen to stay as productive as possible while working from home? Speaking to Time, Durham University’s Dr Thuy-vy Nguyen recommends putting in place a more structured daily schedule than usual. “Usually our time and the structure of our day are influenced by other people,” she says. “You’re going to experience your day as lacking the normal structures that you usually have. People might have a hard time dealing with it. So, one of the things that we found in our trying to understand solitude, is that time spent alone is better if it’s structured.”

Combat stress with an attitude change
It’s important to find ways to cope when the stresses of working from home get to you. Why not try ‘mindful productivity’? “It’s a portable state of mind that we bring to work tasks,” explains psychotherapist Bryan Robinson, professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina, writing for Forbes. “It involves bringing our full non-judgmental attention to body sensations, thoughts and feelings that arise while working or thinking about our completion of tasks. It is the intentional, moment-to-moment awareness of what’s happening inside and immediately around us with self-attuned compassion as we move through daily schedules and routines.”

Plug in and take off
Access to the right technology and software can make all the difference to your homeworking experience. Samuel Gibbs, consumer technology editor at the Guardian has written a definitive list of gear, which includes a fast laptop or PC and noise-cancelling headphones. When it comes to software, ensuring your antivirus protection is up to date is the most important thing you can do – to protect both yourself and the company you work for.

Adapting to the new normal
Remember – you are not alone. There are approximately 53 million freelancers in the US, contributing $715bn in earnings to the national economy. However, things can still feel strange and unknown. Combat any feelings of fear by accessing educational resources that can help you develop a better understanding of your industry and the ‘new world of work’. Working from home is here to stay – so by upskilling and being open to learn you’ll quickly be able to adapt and thrive.

Need homeworking support? Learn how we can help right here.

Topics in this article

  • Productivity

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