Making a Temporary Work from Home Setup a Permanent One

You have likely gotten used to your work from home setup the way it is. However, there is this lingering feeling of its temporary status that you cannot shake. That is because this was never intended to be your norm. As far as you were concerned, this work from home trend was going to begin, last for a short time, and then end. Your home office setup would not matter, as you would soon return to the office space that you were used to at your workplace.

However, that has not been the case and you now find yourself in a situation where what was supposed to stick around for a short time seems like something with no end in sight. So, the question becomes how do you set up your work from home station in a more permanent way? 

Note that this still applies to you if you are a hybrid work-from-home employee. While others may be situated at home almost indefinitely, you may find yourself in the office sometimes. However, it does not change the fact that many days ahead of you look like they are going to be spent working from home. If so, you also need to learn what you can do to make yourself more productive and comfortable in a remote context with work from home upgrade.

Make Physical Work Modifications to Your Home

One of the first and best things you can do is to have some work done on your work from home setup to make it more conducive to your working needs. For example, what if your living room becomes your living office? If so, you are going to need to strategize a living office design. Why is this? Well, working in this space is only half of the issue here.

At the end of the day, this living office is still your living room, so it needs to be designed in such a way that is both conducive to work and your personal life needs. Remember that one of the biggest mistakes you can make in the remote work context is to prioritize work and allow your personal life to fade away. Once this happens, whatever morale or enrichment you felt is going to slowly fizzle away, as you feel like your work is doing nothing but taking away from you.

The point is to try not to be too intense with the modifications as you make them. Home office shelving ideas are examples of things that you can try without going too far overboard. While shelves can help you to store equipment that you use to work, they are not too imposing in your living room.

Get Better Equipment

Since you were under the impression that this change was going to be temporary, you likely used a DIY office desk design for your home office needs. So, maybe you got your dresser, your treadmill, or even your ironing board, and you were using it as a desk for your work from home setup. It may have been effective for a short time, but as you use it longer, you realize that something is missing. Even your seating could be an issue here.

What was not a problem before may be starting to affect you know where issues such as back pains are concerned. You do not have the same ergonomic office chair that you do at your office, so your body is starting to take a beating. 

Another example is where monitors are concerned. Maybe you were using a dual monitor layout at your office period now you are looking at a single screen, and it may feel like you are getting less done. A monitor arm can help you at home where space is more restricted.

The only thing you can do here is to upgrade your equipment for your work from home setup. For people who work from bedrooms, it may mean they need a work desk in the bedrooms. A small apartment standing desk is highly attainable, so you do not need to worry if you don't have a lot of space where you live. 

Along with your home office standing desk, you need to investigate getting your hands on an ergonomic chair. You can get some of the best ergonomic chair designs without having to spend a lot of money doing so. When it is all said and done, this work from home upgrade should put you on the same level from an equipment standpoint as your office.

Revisit Your Positioning

This is yet another decision that you likely did not think about, as your remote work life was intended to be a temporary situation. The home office setup that you used to work with may be in a location that is becoming progressively inconvenient. This could be because of the lack of supportiveness the room you are using gives, or because of other people who may be in the house.

In this case, it may be good for you to think of moving your work from home setup from its current location. Some people have found that working outside has a lot of benefits for their productivity. Additionally, since you should be getting up to take effective breaktime at regular intervals as you work, outside provides a much better view and possibly even a greater walking area than inside would.

Telling people not to bother you as you work is one thing, but what about using a workspace that is a low-traffic location?

Setup a More Professional Background

Meetings have been one of the most challenging parts of the work from home scenario. Apart from frequent background noises and disruptions, people often find it hard to choose a place to sit and meet with others. You may be one of those people who meet in a completely different place than you work, because your background is not the most camera worthy. 

If this is true for you, then you can upgrade your work from home setup by putting in an arrangement that gives you a more professional look and feel. It could be as simple as having a bookcase put up behind you. Note that if this is impossible, you may want to consider simply using a green screen. For some meeting programs, it requires nothing more than having a green piece of cloth mounted directly behind you.

Others can support the green screen effect natively, allowing you to replace your actual background with something else electronically.