Finding your work/love balance

Now we've entered 2021, and a working from home lifestyle looks set to continue for the months ahead, it’s important to take some time to create a home-working environment that’ll help maintain productivity levels, while protecting your mental health over the coming weeks.

Create a dedicated work zone

For many people across the country, working from home has caused work-life balance to become blurred. Creating a distinction between the area you use for work, and the area you use for downtime is key.

If you don’t have a dedicated office or spare room, zoning your workspace can be done with a simple chair, slimline foldaway desk or rug. Physically stepping away from your workspace at the end of the day also builds a mental partition, helping you to switch off after a hard day’s work.

Tune into nature

While days remain short, it’s important to incorporate a biophilic approach to your home workstation. In our recent Office of the Future report, we asked respondents to choose the top factors that contribute to a positive working environment.

Given the benefits that nature plays in fostering positive mental health and wellbeing, it’s no surprise that 74% listed fresh air and 68% named lighting as key elements to include in the workplace.

Move your desk closer to a window so that you can absorb the natural light, add some planting to your desk, then crack open a window every now and again, which will help to oxygenate your space and improve productivity by up to 20%.

Add some colour and texture

Getting creative with your workstation is about more than building a pleasing aesthetic. Adding different colours, textures and materials to your home workspace stimulates creativity, boosts the atmosphere of the room while differentiating your workspace to the rest of your home. Installing a corkboard to the wall is a natural and sustainable feature that’s great to use to organise your day too.

Our number one tip at Peldon Rose, however, is to invest in a task chair, as many homeworkers are feeling the impact of not sitting correctly. Whether you implement one, or all of these low-cost, low-impact tips, it can help you to work from home effectively this winter.