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More and more people are working from home. It’s not just about being able to work in your pyjamas (although that’s pretty great). In fact, there are many other advantages to working from home such as saving time commuting, saving money on travel and lunches away from the office, and having a greater sense of autonomy over your working together. Whether your job has changed to a work from home position or you’ve taken the plunge and gone freelance like me, working from home can be great but not everyone has the office space to do so. The good news is, despite what Instagram will have you think, you don’t need a fancy home office or even a spare room to work from home successfully. Let’s take a look at some of my top tips for working from home when you don’t have a home office.
The easiest option is to work from your living room. You don’t even need a table; just a comfy sofa and something to perch your laptop on. If your living room is big enough, you might want to create a cosy work corner with a small table and chair; which can be useful if you don’t want to feel as if you’re working in the same place you’re relaxing in. Either way, using your living room is a lot cheaper than decking out a whole home office, which you don’t really need.
Co-working spaces are a place where professionals can work in a collaborative environment with other people and businesses that share the same interests and goals. Co-working spaces are much cheaper than actually hiring a whole office (I’ve found rates usually are between £10-20 per day) and also provide an opportunity for people to interact and network with others, which is not possible when you’re working from home and is great for freelancers.
Co-working spaces provide many benefits such as easy access to equipment, community building, networking opportunities, cost savings and flexible work arrangements. Lots of spaces offer business training or monthly get-togethers to help you connect with local freelancers.
If you’re looking to work from home but don’t have the space to store everything you need (be that stock for a product-based business or simply clearing out items from your living room so you can work in there). Opting for a self-storage service like Now storage self-storage can be a great way to declutter when working from home and you can simply find a unit near you for either short term or long term storage; so it could be a great option if you’re moving house or waiting for a co-working space.
Of course, the easiest way to cut down on how much space you need when working from home is to go paperless. Do you need a whole filing cabinet when you could store everything digitally instead? Use Dropbox or Google Drive to store everything digitally and keep paper things to a minimum; HMRC is also encouraging people to go digital with their tax returns too so no need to work about bulky bookkeeping systems.
When working from home (especially without an office), it’s really important to divide your working life and relaxation.
We are living in a world where work has become the center of our lives. It can be difficult to balance work and life and that’s why it’s important to set clear boundaries between the two.
Make sure that your work schedule is reasonable so that there’s enough time to spend with friends, family, and loved ones outside of work hours; be strict and don’t open your laptop after a certain time or keep your working laptop and papers in another part of the room. Never take your laptop to bed either!
Working home can be a lot of fun and hopefully this post has given you some ideas on how to do so from the comfort of your living room!