Set up a comfortable Home office to reduce physical and mental impact

In this article I will tell you what physical and mental impact I’ve noticed my self over the last years working at home and what I have done against it. I will get you tips and ideas of how to create a better environment wherever you work.

Everything I mention here works for a small home office or for a large legacy office in the city. So feel free to follow the tips even when you are not able to work from home.

What, you don’t know Emma?

But don’t let us talk to much about the physical impact our job comes with. Let’s talk about how we can do things right so we don’t get the same problems like Emma.

Your desk is your workbench and you are sitting really much time in front of a desk. So what's needed?

Avoid working from an improvised desk like a kitchen or living room table. This works fine as exception for one or two days, but not over a long time. Also improvised tables mostly are small and don’t have the correct hight.

Your desk should be as big as possible, but it also should fit in your office or work corner. For me the optimal size is 1,60m x 0,80m which is enough space for a MacBook, two monitors and your daily stuff like a notebook, pencils and a big pot of coffee or tea.

In my opinion your desk should also be height adjustable. For agile developer the most important meeting is called “Daily Standup” so why don’t you lift up your desk and stand? Meetings and workshops are always a good opportunity to lift your desk up and stand tall for a moment.

This is good in two ways, the first one is obviously, it helps your spine and your legs to get out of a seated position. The second thing is that standing up is good for your blood flow and helps you to focus better on the meeting.

If you work from home then it’s always a good time to get a height adjustable and maybe a bigger table is you have only a small one.

What’s better than one monitor? Right, two monitors!

Developers need a lot of space on their desktop. Normally you have a lot of tools open at the same time. Like your IDE, a Browser, a Messenger, your Mail Client, a Terminal and so on. Switching between a Browser and a IDE on only a single monitor needs time, not much but a small bit. Now think of all the times you are switching between a Browser and an IDE in a single day! It’s a lot, isn't it?

To reduce the changes in which you loose the focus of the current task you should use two monitors. It’s alwasy better to use two, or even three, monitors. Reducing micro context switches, like searching for the right window, helps to reduce the mental load of your daily work.

But also size matters when it comes to monitors. Have you ever caught your self by leaning forward to the monitor because something is too small to read? Have you ever caught your self not sitting back after you had read the small detail? Then you should think about a bigger monitor!

When we are talking about monitors we also have to talk about lighting. Having a light only on the ceiling is not good for your eyes. I recommend a backlight behind your monitors, especially when you are sitting in front of a wall like me. It’s better for your eyes when the surrounding of your monitors is light to.

Normally you blink at a normal rate when you doing your daily stuff, but when people are focused to a monitor, then they naturally skip this blinking reflex. To avoid getting dry eyes you should force yourself to blink regularly.

When possible your desk should be placed near a window for two reasons. The first one is to get as much natural light as possible. The second is to have a look outside now and then. This forces your eyes to change the focus, which is helpful for healthy eyes.

Even if you have a heigth adjustable desk, you will still sit a lot. Get yourself a chair which is comfortable for you! Everyone is different, so you have to test chairs by your own and find one which fits you best, but have in mind that a good chair supports your spine and head.

Search for a comfortable chair and don’t by the first one you find, maybe there is a better one for you out there.

The human race was grown up in the nature between fresh air and a lot of plants. Having real plants in your office is good for air quality and they are also good for your mental health. It’s proven that looking at plants and the color green is helping people to calm down and relax.

You are already have plants in your office? Great! Get even more! You can not have enough plants around you!

If you are working in a big legacy office with many others then you can also get plants! Grab some of your colleagues and let them all become godparents for the office plants. Create a plan that specifies who will water the plants and when. It’s not tragic if you don’t have a green thumb, just talk with your colleagues, who already have experience, and let them give you some tips!

Static shocks! We all know and hate them! While standing up, sitting down or touching something you are getting a shock? It’s really annoying, but it’s also a sign that your air is much too dry.

Static shocks can be prevent by an indoor fountain, plants or an humidifier.
Is the humidity high enough the shocks will stop automatically.

After sitting 8 hours or longer a day your body screams, he needs some movement and compensation. Go to a gym, go running, swimming or something else. Your body needs at least 150 active minutes a week. Two days a week you should do something for your muscles, bones and your whole body in general.

For myself I go swimming three times a week. Two times 90 minutes after work and one day a week 60 minutes before my work day starts.

One last thing which is more for your colleagues and not directly for your self.

Get your self a good microphone! Nothing is worse than having meetings and one of your colleagues sounds like he is using one of the first telephones ever invented.

Create your self a better work environment! Do you miss something? Do you have any questions or remarks? Please feel free to contact me. I like to hear about your work environment.

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