Every year, I create a quick YouTube video that features updates to my home office. The viewers on my channel seem to like how my office is set up as well as the hardware, software and functionality of it. My home office is a working office but also functions as a recording studio, and my “man cave”.
No two home offices are alike. A home office should be tailored to your needs, and aesthetics. In this episode of Business Computing Weekly, I share some tips on building a great home office without busting your budget.
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10 Tips For Your Home Office
#1 Privacy: Make sure that your home office space, no matter how small provides a quiet, distraction free place that you can do business. Your home office should minimize your distractions form the rest of the home.
#2: Function: Think carefully about how the home office will be used. Will it be shared? Will your home office be used for more than one purpose? Do you have a separate entrance to the home office?
#3: Light: Proper lighting is essential for a working home office. Nothing beats natural light during the day to reduce eye strain, as well as making work more enjoyable. Because we have a lot of overcast and gloomy weather in Indiana, I make use of Daylight (6500 kelvin) CFL bulbs in my ceiling fan lights and other lights.
#4: Power: This is very important. Since my home office is loaded with a variety of power hungry electronics, lights etc. I made sure to have the home office on its own breaker. It cost about $100 for a licensed electrician to make sure the office was receiving the right amount of power. He also installed several line conditioners.
#5: Hardware: Ah now to some fun stuff. PC or Mac? Desktop Vs. Laptop? Great questions really. I have all of the above. I basically have all of the above. I use an older Mac Pro for editing my audio, and creating short YouTube videos. I have a custom built PC as my primary workstation for working in MS Office, CRM and Accounting. At night the machine lets me play Battlefield 4, and Skyrim quite nicely. For a laptop I have a refurbished 15” Macbook Pro. I also have 2 Audio Technica ATR 2100 microphones, a Behringer Xeynx 1622USB mixer and a Behringer MSX 4600 compressor that I use to record my podcast. That’s not all of my gear but you get the picture.
#5A PC: Seriously I could do everything on my custom PC and it wouldn’t break a sweat. PC offers the greatest selection of productivity software, and entertainment options out there. I now steer clear of pre-built desktop PCs in favor of a custom pc build. I currently use Windows 7 Professional 64 bit as my workhorse OS. I have decided not to install Windows 8 at this time.
#5B Mac: I personally love Apple products, especially OS X. It really is a pleasure to use, and I feel quite productive on it. However, Macs lack great business productivity software for the most part. Microsoft does make a version of Office for Mac, and Intuit does make a version of QuickBooks. Neither offer the feature set that Windows has to offer. When I do purchase an Apple computer I always purchase a refurbished Mac.
#5C Laptop vs Desktop. Unless you need to have desktop PC, today’s laptops offer tremendous power and value. As well as being extremely thin and light (think MacBook Air or Ultrabook). For most people a powerful laptop makes an excellent replacement for a desktop pc. On the other hand, a desktop pc offers expandability, more performance for the money, more connectivity and easy upgradability.
#6 Ergonomics: I spend more time in my home office than I care to think about. I believe you should invest as much as possible in your office chair. Although some people swear by standing desks, I prefer a massive amount of desktop surface to house my 3 monitors, 2 keyboards, and well as my recording equipment. I happen to use 2 office Depot large folding tables in a L configuration. These work fine for me. What is important is the position of your equipment in relationship to your hands, arms and neck.
#7 Storage; Having adequate room to keep your books, paper and office supplies should be an important part of your home office design. In a pinch, inexpensive plastic storage bins will work. However I prefer inexpensive bookcases, and small portable filing cabinets that I locate under my desk.
#8 Atmosphere: You home office should be an inviting place to work and play. Your office should be a reflection of your taste, and decorated in a comfortable fashion. It should be free of children’s toys, pets and so on. If you have clients in make sure to keep things professional, and relevant to your work.
#9 Furniture: Keeping your home office free of unnecessary clutter is essential to productivity. Thankfully there is a great amount of multipurpose furnishing available to choose from. Office supply companies offer a wide variety of furniture collections to choose from, as well as associated chairs, desks, and filing cabinets’ personally like to visit used office furniture stores to purchase chairs and desks. I also have some Sauder office furniture.
#10 Experiment: Putting together a great home office doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. A number of items in my home office come from garage sales, factory outlets, and garage sales. By no means do I have the best of the best, however I make great use of what I have. Different combinations of lighting, furniture, artwork can change the entire character of your home office with little to no expense.
Links:
Home Office Tour 2014
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