ADHD-Friendly Home Office Design for Focus and Success

In this world of entertainment with hundreds of distractions, it is difficult for people to concentrate and focus. Considering that people with ADHD already have difficulty concentrating, the whole work-life becomes much more hectic.

However, the problem can be solved if you build an ADHD-friendly home office. The kind of office setup is a bit different compared to any conventional office, so make sure you follow all the steps mentioned below.

How to Build an ADHD-Friendly Home Office?

1. Keep the Desk Clean

The first step is to keep your ADHD home office clean and clear. This would instantly relax an ADHD brain and give it one less reason to procrastinate. If your desk is cluttered and dirty, an ADHD mind would instantly send a signal that the desk is way too dirty for work. Moreover, this practice is important not only for people suffering from ADHD issues but for non-ADHD brains as well.

2. Get an Ergonomic Desk

A conventional desk might do the job for non-ADHD people, but it would not be as comfortable to work with for people suffering from ADHD. A standing desk that has all the height-adjustable features is what you need in your ADHD home office setup to make your work life more comfortable. These desks allow you to set the height of the desk according to your eye level. Moreover, you also need to ensure that the size of the desk is enough to fit all your documents, so there is less clutter and better organization of documents and files.

3. Get an Ergonomic Chair

Once you get a standing desk at home, it is incomplete without an ergonomic chair. An ergonomic chair allows you to control its height, back, and headrest. Such chairs make you extremely comfortable in the office space, allowing you to work without losing attention due to back or shoulder pain. Moreover, make sure that your chair has caster wheels so it's easy to move around without needing to leave the desk.

4. Change the Lighting

Bad lighting affects not only the eyes but the cognitive ability and focus as well. For an ADHD office design, you need to make sure that the lighting is placed correctly, the brightness is enough to work comfortably, and the temperature of the light is ideal for work. The placement of the light should always be on the sides of the desk, whereas the brightness should be kept only as much as it is necessary for work. Moreover, using cooler lights might be beneficial for non-ADHD brains, but the ones that have ADHD issues are much more sensitive to light. It is extremely important that you keep a balance between warm and cool by using a temperature adjustable lamp or LED.

5. Get Good Quality Noise-Canceling Headphones

Your work from home equipment should include a good quality noise cancellation headphone, especially if you live in an environment with a lot of noise. People with ADHD mostly prefer to listen to music while working to get their focus away from their surroundings; however, this theory is not proven to help as there might be the possibility of getting distracted by the music itself. So, you can use the noise cancellation feature without music in case it’s too distracting.

6. Set up a Whiteboard

When you have all your goals written in front of you in your work from home office, it is easier to stay concentrated and keep yourself motivated. For that reason, keeping a whiteboard in your office is necessary. Once you enter your ADHD home office in the morning, the first thing you need to do is to write all the primary goals you want to achieve for the day. The goals will also help you keep track of the time and divide them into sub-goals for every working session.

7. Set a Timer

People with ADHD often experience time blindness, which means that it is difficult for them to keep track of the time. The problem can be solved or at least minimized using the Pomodoro technique. The technique states that a person should work for 25 minutes and take a 5-minute break before starting to work again. Considering the fact that a person with ADHD doesn't realize how much time has passed, they can use a desktop timer that rings every 25 minutes to alert them to take a 5-minute break.

8. Have Some Shelves and Storage

An ADHD office design must have shelves and storage to keep everything organized. However, make sure that the storage doesn't take up enough space to make the whole office look cluttered with furniture. If you have a bedroom office, allot a complete wall of your choice to your office desk. Now, make storage cabinets and open shelves above your office desk to save space and organize your files at the same time.

9. Odor

The odor of your focus room makes a huge impact on your overall productivity. The better your ADHD home office smells, the more motivated you will feel during working hours. A person with ADHD should define which scent makes him or her more comfortable and relaxed, as every scent might not be ideal for such people.

10. Get Some Notebooks

People with ADHD find it difficult to focus on a single task as their mind diverts them to think about other incomplete unnecessary tasks. So, instead of thinking about those tasks and losing your concentration at work, you can just write them down in the notebook for later. In this way, you can write everything that crosses your mind throughout the day and check your notebook after office hours to see what you missed.

Conclusion

An ADHD-friendly home office incorporates all the measures mentioned above. Applying all the steps mentioned in this article and getting all the ergonomic equipment would not only help you focus more but make you more satisfied with your work life as well. So, make the necessary adjustments and enjoy your work life.