Home office. Two words. By definition this is an office space within your home. For the simplicity of this term it’s amazing how often people simply forget exactly what this means. The process of designing a home office is critical to its overall success. Critical? Yes my friend – the design of your home office can make or break your home office.
Why did you start your own business? The most common answers are financial freedom, better working environment and hating working in a cramped, stuffy office.
The most massive mistake most people make in setting up and designing their own home office space is to reproduce the exact same working conditions that used to drive them insane in their old 9 – 5 hellhole-of-a-job. Then you’ll be left wondering why you feel unhappy about working at home.
Your new home office is fitted with a small, cramped desk, an inadequate and uncomfortable chair. The lighting is artificial or just plain old sub-standard. There’s no decoration, no plants, it’s too warm etc etc. This sounds like the exact nightmare that most 9-5 Thank-God-It’s-Friday people fought to get away from. Yet they set up the exact same office space at home? Doesn’t that sound just a little bit crazy? Oddly enough people do that every single day.
Your home office space should be designed to not only be functional but also fun. Make it a playground as much as a working environment. Fill it with color, posters, pictures, plants or whatever makes you smile the most. Have your own mission statement and goals planted there in front of you to remind you of why you’re there. This is far better than the bland, pointless mission statement you had to stare at in your 9 – 5 job (and secretly hated and totally disagreed with each and every day).
Your computer, printer, fax and other devices should fit in around your office and not become the focus of it. This is what the corporate office space does – you should aim to do the exact opposite. Layout your home office in a style and plan that suits you most. There are no rules anymore. No office facilities person is gonna ask you to move something to the left, right or out of the way altogether. The amount of home office design ideas possible is only limited by what you can imagine and your basic budget.
You can place your home office in any number of different locations in your home – ranging from a bedroom based home office to a the basement home office layout. It’s all a matter of your own choice and just using your own office design ideas.
Let your imagination run wild and design your ideal home office space. Don’t conform. Don’t obey the rules. After all this office space is yours so do with it what you will. Break the mould of those old and stuffy home office designs.
