If you work from home, your home office is where you will spend a lot of your time during the course of the day. Designing an office that is not only aesthetically appealing but comfortable and functional is important to your overall productivity. Not to mention keeping it neat and clean.

When considering factors that pertain to comfort in the office, the term ergonomics often comes to mind. For those who aren’t familiar with this term, ergonomics is essentially the art of designing a working environment that provides an efficient level of comfort to enhance one’s abilities to work productively.

If you’re not comfortable in your work office, you aren’t able to be as focused as you should be allowing productivity to fall by the wayside. As such, as you prepare to create a home office you enjoy walking into each day; keep these design tips in mind.

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  1. Choose a Desk and Chair that are a Decent Height
    Your desk and office chair are the most important components of creating an ergonomic home office. These are obviously the pieces of office furniture that will be used by you the most during the course of a working day. The ideal desk should provide enough space for your office equipment to sit along with room for you to move your legs around without feeling stiff. As you will also be doing a great deal of typing or using the computer, you want to make sure that the desk is at a comfortable level to support proper typing posture.When choosing a chair for your office, you want to do more than choose the one that looks the most comfortable. You want to choose a chair that allows you to adjust the back rest and arms for easier access to your desk.

Taking it a Step Further: If you want to take your ergonomic efforts in your home office to another level, consider buying a sit stand desk. These types of desks essentially allow you to alternate between sitting and standing during the course of a work day. Since sitting for long periods of time can have adverse affects on your health, standing while still getting work done is a great alternative.

  1. Invest in Adequate Lighting
    Eye strain is a common workplace complaint that you’ll want to avoid. Investing in proper lighting is ideally one of the ways to prevent your eyes from straining more than necessary. If your office is in a location where there is a lot of natural light this is great as it can save you some money. Investing in blinds and shades to adjust the amount of light in the room works well. However, if you intend to work during the evening hours you’re going to want to make sure that your purchase decent lights. Standing lamps or desk lamps work great for amplifying work on your desk. Purchasing LED bulbs of course is a great way to save on energy in your office.
  1. Arrange Computer Monitor Appropriately
    Your computer screen will be stared at for a better part of the day. Neck strain and back pain are common workplace complaints as well. To prevent this from happening, you’re going to need to ensure that you’ve set up your computer monitor appropriately. To do this simply sit all the way back in your office chair with your feet planted on the floor. Adjust the computer monitor so that the top of the screen is at a comfortable eye level. You should not have to look up or down to see the screen as this can cause strain on the neck and back.

Take a Break: A big part of the problem with office injuries and health concerns is sitting all day long. To avoid the adverse affects from sitting in the office too long it is a good idea to take a break frequently. Get up and walk around the house to get the blood flowing and to give your body a break from being in the sitting position. Doing a few stretches is also a great way to prevent muscle tightness or joint pain.

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When it comes to designing your home office, style is certainly something you want to consider, however, your health should never be compromised. Keep these three tips in mind as you being shopping for office furniture and arranging your office space. The more comfortable you are during the work day, the easier it is to focus on the task at hand and get the job done.