Tip of the Week: Designing an Effective Work-from-Home Workstation

Working from home has made it clear to many that they weren’t prepared to do so—not by a long shot. In addition to the many other stresses that came with these challenging times, the lack of a sufficient and proper workspace has proved to have its impacts on the human body. To perhaps help remedy this, we wanted to offer a few considerations that might help a remote worker benefit ergonomically.

The Seat

While a comfortable chair will be important to have, there is such a thing as too comfortable. This means that the soothing lull of the bed or even the couch should be avoided. At the same time, most hard chairs won’t give you enough lower back or leg support. The best fix would be to invest in a desk chair intended for such purposes, but short of that, a pillow or rolled-up blanket can suffice.

In an ideal world, your chair would include armrests too, well, rest your arms on. Lacking that, using the tabletop without leaning or slouching would serve the same purpose.

In order to ensure your feet remain planted on the floor, it is also a good plan to keep a footrest nearby. When seated at your workstation, your legs should be bent at right angles at the knee and hip, stabilizing your position.

The Work Surface

Of course, you need a work surface in order to do work. Lacking a desk? Any place you can sit or stand somewhat comfortably will do, whether that’s a table or a countertop. All you need is the room to work comfortably.

The Devices

Modern devices give you a wide variety of options to work with. Need an additional display? Laptops can stream to another device as an external display. Dealing with a lot of distractions at home? Tune them out with some noise-canceling headphones with an integrated mic to keep you communicating with work. Incorporating these tools into your makeshift workstation will keep you ready to work productively.

Ready to talk to an IT professional about your office and team’s technology solutions? Give k_Street Consulting, LLC a call at (202) 640-2737 today.