7 secrets to successfully working from home

Now that working from home has become a permanent part of many professional lives, we're seeing a natural demand for quality home office space. With a high number of companies scaling back on commercial rents and providing employees with the opportunity to no longer be returning to their offices and cubicles full time – or limiting their return to the office obligations. 

A general acceptance of employees being able to use their home as their office and embrace technologies such as video conferencing, has provided a drastic shift on the Australian work-life balance.

While the rush-hour that would book-end a lot of our working days won’t be missed, careful thought needs to be given to what all this means for our home life. 

To successfully transition to this work-from-home phenomenon long term, it is recommened to identify space in your home that’s far from the hustle and bustle of family life and can still be used as a workspace.

Also, you'll likely want to be able to shut your door on work at the end of the day. If you’re working at the kitchen or dining room table, it will be a continual presence in your family life – and that’s not always healthy. Unless you're an Abode Peninsula real estate agent and you love what you do! 

As Covid drags on, a lot of buyers are now asking about workspaces in homes that are coming to market. We're now seeing a lot of buyers adding a home office or workspace to the "wish list" along side a good bathroom, kitchen or the number of bedrooms. 

If you’re thinking of selling in the near future, then creating a home-office will give you a distinct advantage over similar properties for sale on the Mornington Peninsula. Here are some tips on how to set up a great workspace; 

Find privacy or a quiet corner – You don’t need an entire room, or a city skyline view, to create a home/office. But it’s best to choose a space away from the busiest areas of your home if possible. This will help provide that ideal space to encourage productivity.  

Crank the Wi-Fi – You’ll need good internet access to cope with the demands of work. If you can’t run a CAT5 or CAT6 cable to your desk, use Wi-Fi extenders to deliver the data speeds you need. 

Invest in a good desk and chair – Don’t short change yourself on these. Your posture and wellbeing are at stake – and that’s no exaggeration. If your office is offering an ergonomic audit of your set-up, invite them in, when lockdown restrictions permit of course! Some employers will pay for what you need so it can't hurt to ask. Remember, you’ll likely be spending more than 30 hours a week at your desk so invest in a comfortable chair and a good desk set up. It is often recommended to check how high or low your monitor sits, there's lot of information online about the correct posture while working at a desk. Don't overlook the importance of keep your monitor height in a position that encourages proper posture. 

Light bulb moment – Lighting is crucial to productivity. Avoid natural light that throws glare onto your computer screen. Use window blinds to combat this challenge and add soft desk lighting where required.

Storage solutions – It is essential that you can keep your work papers safe from children and maybe your own desktop chaos. If you don’t keep everything reasonably neat, you’ll soon grow tired of your new home-office and constantly searching for that important document.  

Order office supplies – Don’t risk losing your concentration and productivity by making endless trips to different parts of the house or even the store for pens, paper and printer ink. Stock up on what you're likely to need and avoid this distraction. It's also worth investing in your own stock of the every day items you would use when back in the office.

Consider a second phone – If you’re finding it difficult to achieve a work/life balance, get a second phone – one for your private life and the other for work. Turn the work phone off when you're off the clock, just because you're working from home doesn't mean you necessarily need to work 24/7! 

The Abode Peninsula team have embraced working from home recently, we've found a balance between working in the office when able and being equally effective when working remotely from home. It helps to have a team that is experienced and dedicated, but most of all it helps to truly enjoy what you do for work. We hope that you found this advice useful, if you're considering selling, switching property managers or would simply like to discuss the current real estate market, feel free to get in touch any time.