A Guide to Creating an Optimal Remote Workspace from Scratch

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Working remotely can lead you on a downward spiral of demotivation if your workspace isn’t encouraging, healthy and well-equipped, so that you can do the work that you’ve been hired to do. Critically-acclaimed collaboration tools and excellent skills are far less effective if your workspace is none of these things.

I use the term “workspace” loosely, because we all have different types of workspaces depending on what we do for a living and our individual temperaments. Some of us have more than one workspace, and some of us have a different one everyday (i.e. those that require less equipment and work from cafés and bars).

In order to create a remote workspace that’s right for you, one that keeps you happy and motivated as well as boosts your creativity, you first need to ask yourself these questions:

Equipment: What Type of Work Do You Actually Do?

Your equipment largely depends on what you do, which can range from a simple 11” laptop to a much larger 27” desktop (and we’re only talking about computers here!). But that doesn’t mean that some roles are restrictive; quite often we assume that more (or bigger) equipment is better, when in fact, less is usually more.

First, consider what equipment you actually need.

Standing desk? Full desk? Just a table in a café? Minimising (especially Wi-Fi-enabled devices if you’re addicted to checking emails) can certainly improve your productivity, if not enable you to work outside whenever you feel like it. Amazon, or even our very own SitePoint shop has a huge inventory of mobile desks, fold-up tablet stands and so on.

Gadgets like these are more than suitable for use at home, as well, so your remote workspace travels wherever you go.

Ambience: What Makes You Happy, But Not Distracted?

For me it’s working in a café. I don’t have much equipment as a writer but I require a little bit of background noise to function correctly; not music, because the lyrics conflict with my written words, and for others too, it’s hard to read when there’s music.

For creative types on the other hand, music can be a huge motivator. Consider what kind of noise and ambience motivates you to work without distracting you; that can be the live sound of various conversations in a busy co-working space, or the recorded sounds of an ambient noise app like Noisli.

If you need to work at home because you’re required to take conference calls in between work sessions, but working from cafés is definitely your style, Noizio even has “Paris Café” setting!

Green Plants Can Boost Creativity

Plants — yes, that’s right, plants. Plants can boost creativity by up to 50%. Whether you enjoy working for an hour a day in a natural open space, or you keep a few tiny bonsai trees on your at-home desk, either can massively improve your work output. Not only do they clean the air in a room, but brief exposure to the colour green can induce creative and innovative thinking.

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by Daniel Schwarz via SitePoint