We all aspire to have the perfect Home Office (some of us take it more seriously than others). Many people spend all day every day in their office, others casually use the office in the evenings & weekends as a way to escape reality.
This Zen Bible is intended to be a resource to help you to not only get the most out of your Home Office, but to also help you stay productive & healthy whilst you work there.
Manage your messy cables with Rain Gutters
Cables hanging down the back of your desk can really make a desk area or room feel messy. There’s just something about cables that’s almost impossible to make them look tidy. Well since we can’t make them look tidy, lets hide them with some nifty homemade cable management. This technique allows you to almost make your cables invisible using some Rain Gutters (total cost around $30).
Other ways to reduce Cable Clutter
- 8 Ways to Cut back on Computer Cables – 8 Simple tips to reduce your need to use computer cables in the first place
- Flickr Unclutter Group Photos – Hundreds of inspirational photos of how other people have managed cable problems & reduced clutter on their desk
Keep that Desk Tidy
A messy desk decreases your productivity, not only do you not have enough space to work properly but you end up worrying about the clutter (as if there’s thing there that you’ve left unfinished).
There a number of things that you need to do to achieve the absolute tidy desk:
- Remove paper altogether – this might seem hard at first but well worth it
- Have an in & out tray for new mail / bills
- Scan copies of bills into Evernote (Evernote can search text within images) then shred them
- Don’t eat at your desk, otherwise you’ll leave dishes everywhere
- Use your PC to take notes, once again Evernote comes in handy here as it syncs across multiple PC’s
- Get a corner computer desk to allow for more room & movement
Other ways to keep your Desk Tidy
- 10 Tips for Keeping your Office Desk Tidy – 10 Excellent tips to reduce desk clutter in a systematic fashion
- 3 Steps to a Permanently Clear Desk – Looking for an easier way to keep your desk tidy? This might be it
Organise your Desktop with Stardock Fences
No-one likes a messy Desktop, keep it organised with StarDock Fences, a free utility that allows you to group desktop items into groups. The nice thing about this application is that it remembers locations on multiple monitors (useful if you use a laptop with two monitors regularly).
Other ways to keep your Desktop Tidy
- A tidy desktop can lead to a faster Mac – Keep your Mac Desktop tidy as it can lead to slowdowns
- Turn your Desktop items on & off with shortcut keys – Make the problem go away temporarily
- Reduce your Desktop Clutter – Get rid of your Desktop & use folders instead
Set up more than one Monitor
Remember having dial up internet? Once you move to broadband you’d never ever wish to go back there. That’s what it’s like moving from one screen to two screens. Research conducted by Microsoft back in 2003 found that using dual monitors could potentially increase productivity anywhere between 9% – 50% (and that was before the days of 1650 x 1050 resolutions).
Other inspiration & methods to set up multiple monitors
Wallmount your Flat Screen Monitor
If you’re feeling adventurous you can mount your LCD Monitors on the wall, this is a great way to increase precious desk real estate. Naturally it works well with the Apple Cinema Displays or perhaps one of the new slim led LCD screens.
Secondary Laptop
Often if you’re traveling around you’ll have a laptop as well as your home PC/Mac. You can easily hook this secondary laptop up to your existing setup but first you need to make sure it fits properly into your desk & workflow. There’s a number of laptop stands for your desktop that allow the laptop to sit at the right ergonomic height.
Sync Computers with Synergy
If you’re running multiple PC’s or even a Mac & a PC together there’s a wonderful piece of software called Synergy that allows you to run one keyboard but control both systems (similar to a dual monitor setup).
Eliminate Wires with Wireless Hardware
One of the more expensive ways to desktop eliminate wires is to go completely wireless with your keyboard, mouse & speakers. The iMac also has a much smaller desktop footprint that your average PC system & only one power cable.
Backup Important Stuff with Mozy
Backing up a home office is something we often overlook. It takes time & patience and a regime to make sure you do it regularly. Many people back up onto an external drive, but what if your house catches fire? Then your backups are gone.
Mozy is a simple service that costs no more than $4.99 a month (15% off an annual subscription with our Mozy Coupon) for unlimited backups from a single computer. It backs up via the web when you’re not using your computer. It’s practically invisible.
Access Important files on the Road with Dropbox
Whilst a USB key is a good idea I’m always scared I’ll leave it somewhere. Instead I use Dropbox to keep my important files in a place that I can get them anywhere, anytime. For example, lets say your house burns down (again) & you’ve created an inventory of all your items for insurance. But, you’ve left the file on your PC. If that file had been left in your dropbox (or even backed up with Mozy) all would not be lost.
There’s plenty of other exciting things you can do with a DropBox, use it to catch computer thieves in the act or as an encrypted drive.
Get a Comfortable Chair
Chances are that you have a pretty comfortable bed, after all you do spend 8 hours a night in it. Well the same goes for your workspace, if you’re spending 8 hours in front of the computer then you’re going to want to get a comfortable chair (otherwise you’ll need a decent Chiropractor).
There’s a number of decent office chairs out there like the Herman Miller – Mirra or Aeron. However they will set you back around $1,000 (you can write it off against tax as long as you are using it exclusively for business purposes).
Buying the Right Desk
Getting the right desk is every bit as important as the chair. You need the right height & the right amount of space to feel comfortable. There’s a few things to consider when buying a desk:
- Do you want a corner desk that allows multiple workspaces or extra room for equipment (i.e. music producer)
- Do you need storage space or are you happy keeping the workspace clutter free?
- What are you actually going to be putting on the desk, if for example you’re mounting your screens on the wall you can get a narrower desk
- Wideness – if you’re planning on have dual monitors & a laptop you’ll need a decent width to fit everything on without impacting on your workspace
Organise with Gmail Folders
A cluttered email inbox is almost as bad as a cluttered desk. Utilise Gmail to consolidate your mail & remove more spam. Grab the Better Gmail 2 plugin & you can organise your labels like folders (utilising the Folders4Gmail GreaseMonkey option).
Use the folder name then the sub folder to name (i.e. storecrowd/blog, storecrowd is the main holding folder & blog the the sub folder). The excellent thing is that these folders are translated through to Thunderbird now if you use IMAP to sync things up. So you can work in Thunderbird in the office & still check email online without disrupting things.
Staying Healthy in the Home Office
When you’re working long hours in the office it’s important that you stay healthly, there’s plenty of things you should be doing:
- Drink plenty of Water – it’s easy to get dehydrated, this will make you less productive
- Take regular breaks – get up a do something at least every hour
- Walk around whilst on the phone – yes, every time you take a call (unless it’s a video call) get up & walk around
- Make time for Work & Play – it’s easy to end up working 12 hour days when working at home, make time to relax & do other things otherwise you’ll end up burning yourself out
- Exercise – try to do at least one form of exercise per day, getting a dog is great for this as you HAVE to walk it daily
Other ways to stay healthly in your home office
Zen in a Desk – Milk Desk
If you want something to aspire to take a quick look at the Milk Desk, I don’t think this desk could be messy even if you tried.
Work / Life Balance
If you need help balancing you work life with your home life then you’re not alone. It’s important to stay focused on work & not distracted by the things at home that wouldn’t normally exist in the workplace (i.e. Cable TV or Games).
- Get up at the same time your would normally get up in the morning
- Get dressed & ready for work like you normally would
- Make sure you have a clean, dedicated work environment that’s separated from “home” life
- Reduce your clutter & distractions (i.e. no TV switched on)
- Eat your meals away from your desk & make time for proper lunches
Other ways to keep a good Work / Life Balance at home
- 10 Tips to Easily work from Home
- 30 Tips for staying sane & productive at home
- 10 Positive tips to kills distractions in the Home Office
- Tips for Affiliate Marketers working from Home
Tax Time
That dreaded time comes around once every year, so do you know what you can claim & what you can’t claim? We’ve included some handy guides that should give you a bit more clarity on dealing with your home office Taxes. There’s software out there like TurboTax that can help ease the pain, but what are some of the fundamentals you need to know?
- Dealing with Taxes on your own
- What Home Office expenses can you deduct?
- How to file your financial documents in a filing cabinet
- 20 Tax Deductions for Freelancers
- 46 Tax Deductions Bloggers often overlook
- 101 Tax Deductions for Bloggers & Freelancers
- 101 Tax Deductions for Bloggers & Freelancers
Office Inspiration
Need some inspiration for you Home Office? Take a leaf out of someone else’s book with these inspiring offices:
- Top DIY Home Office projects
- 10 Seriously Cool Workplaces
- Creative Workplaces
- 12 Inspiring Offices
- Flickr – Office Views | Workplace Design
DIY & How to Home Office guides
Ready to get stuck in & design your own Home Office? Here’s our top picks to help you build the perfect Zen Office.