The perfect home office?

• Seamus Byrne
• 1 July 2009
• Page 1 of 2 : single page

Working from home is the fantasy office for many people stuck in the nine-to-five routine. Yet many people who live the home office dream find they struggle with productivity due to the distractions of everyday life. Can you ever win?

Whether you work from home full-time or on a semi-regular basis, putting some effort into setting up your home office can offer great benefits to your happiness and effectiveness while working there.

The physical environment

First things first. Before you can sit down at a computer and get to work, you need to have somewhere to sit.

Ergonomic concerns have been front and centre for decades and there is ample information online on screen viewing angles, seating height, foot and wrist positions and the rest. The basic principles to prioritise include a chair with adjustable height and good lumbar support, and keeping your feet flat, whether on the floor or on a footrest. Then make sure to position your keyboard and screen to suit your best seating position.

If you want to go specialist, maybe add a kneeling chair or Swiss ball to your office. When you can make some budget available, invest in a top-quality chair like something by Herman Miller. Your back will thank you for it.

You can also get an ergonomic desk with height-adjustable components. For real ergonomic impact, you can even buy a powered desk. This lets you work sitting or standing, changing positions at the touch of a button, and set each position to exactly the height that suits you. Prices range from $1225 for a small electric desk from Badbacks, and up to $2620 for a large desk with built-in desk level power from Australian workstation manufacturer AME System.

Some ergonomic choices can play into traditional home office desires, too. One excellent choice commonly overlooked is to move computer monitors onto swing arms instead of standard desk stands. This frees up valuable desk space plus offers a highly adjustable viewing position. Many LCD screens will already be compatible with mounting units, but check the specs before buying to be sure.

Tech choices

Buying a quality keyboard and mouse combination is a worthwhile investment. Microsoft excels in this space, offering a solid range of comfortable keyboards to suit a range of budgets - the Natural Ergonomic keyboard a particular standout. Logitech also does a good job in this category.

A big question when choosing monitors is how many to choose? Those who have spent time working with more than one screen on their desk will tell you they never want to go back. A number of studies in recent years support their claim, pointing to a 20-30% improvement in productivity when working on multiple screens. As LCD screen prices have plummeted, it's now possible to call this an investment in productivity rather than an extravagant luxury.

Even if you work with a laptop as your main system, an added monitor can improve your work while at the office desk. This can be set to simply take over from your laptop screen, or to run side-by-side as a second screen.

Using a laptop stand to raise your screen to an appropriate level on your desk is a must. Companies like Griffin do nice simple stands, while Logitech offers the Alto, a stand that has a USB hub built-in plus an included wireless keyboard.

Where space is a premium, it can be useful to go for ‘all-in-one' technologies to keep things compact. A multi-function printer is one of the easiest choices you can make, with the latest options offering many bells and whistles at a great price. The HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 Wireless All-In-One delivers print, copy, fax and scan for $499 with business-grade features like auto duplexing, fax receiving to a digital folder and wireless networking, so you can let it live untethered to any specific computer.

Your office also needs to be connected, and most internet service providers (ISPs) now offer ‘approved' modem/router hardware as part of the deal. If you have options, or want to enhance your setup, look to get the latest networking technologies onboard: Gigabit Ethernet (for a fast wired network within your office) and Wireless-N (fast wireless) technology. If you have older laptops or other devices that won't do Wireless-N, make sure your hub supports Wireless-B and -G, and then aim to upgrade to the higher speed in any new devices and computers you buy.

Voice over IP (VoIP) can be an excellent tool for a home office, keeping the need for added phone lines at bay. Many ISPs offer VoIP integrated into their broadband routers. You can also use a software service like Skype. For those regularly on the road, Skype has added benefits that standard VoIP struggles to match. By ordering SkypeIn numbers, you remain accessible on Skype wherever you are, from anywhere a client or colleague wants to reach you. You can even have multiple SkypeIn numbers so people in different cities or even countries can find you through a local contact number.

Skype also supports the new SpinVox voicemail to text service. Once activated, any voicemail received in your Skype account will be converted to text and delivered to your phone by SMS.

Finally, if diving under your desk to tinker with cables, settings and hardware configurations isn't really your idea of a productive afternoon, why not bring in an expert? Services like Geeks2U and Gizmo offer tech support as a home delivery service. With a home office an important part of your life, calling in the tech equivalent of a plumber now and then could be a solid investment.

Nuts and bolts

Electrical power should be as easy to access as possible, especially in the current landscape of computer hardware with chargers galore. Some power at floor level and some at desk level is a good idea, as is a spread of power access around the room.

Hand-in-hand with power is power failure protection, which should be another essential investment where critical data is regularly in use on your computers. A basic uninterruptable power supply (UPS) will buy you a few minutes to save and shut down your hardware during a blackout, and also protect your equipment from power surges and brownouts.

Storage has physical and digital contexts, and both come with the same basic answer: you can never have too much. Physically, having a good mix of drawers, shelves and trays can be essential. Just give everything a rightful place and you'll be set. Modular furniture stores like IKEA are ideal for home office storage options.