Working From Home – Done Right

working from home done right

As we enter a second lockdown across England and the other parts of the U.K. go through their own local restrictions. It has never been more important to have the right working set up in your home office. Long gone is the “it’s only short term” justification. Working from home is here for the long term and with this latest wave of guidelines we look at what equipment you need to make home working successful.

A Decent Sized Monitor

Working on a laptop screen is fine for a few hours, now and again however if you are working for 8 hours a day for the next 4 weeks and possibly beyond on a 13 to 15″ screen you are going to be straining your eyes, potentially hurting your neck as you try to get into the right position to see the screen. The first stage of getting a Display Screen Equipment (DSE) safe working space is having a good size monitor, I find that a screen between 23″ to 27″ is ideal for working day to day, with bigger screens great if you have the space to accommodate it. Try to position your screen at eye level to you’re not looking up or down at it which will strain your next and upper back.

External Keyboard and Mouse

Laptops are an ergonomics nightmare where your hands are stretching over a trackpad onto a smaller keyboard. To reduce the strain on your hands the best option is to get an external keyboard, one that is either Bluetooth or uses a multi adapter like the range from Logitech which allows keyboards and Mice and other accessories to only need a single USB adapter. The keyboard and mouse you get should suit your working needs, if that’s a large marble mouse, an ergonomic mouse or a split keyboard it should reduce the effort you have to go through to use your device all day everyday.

Home working

A Wireless Headset

We are all so use to Microsoft Teams and Zoom now, however the number of calls I join where people are rocking the iPhone headset or even worse a wired set of cheap headphones they got for the gym, the sound is awful and it makes the disconnect of video conferencing worse. What I recommend from personnel experience is you look to get a decent wireless headset designed for video conferencing it will not only make your life easier, to prevents you leaning into the screen because the headphone lead is to short. These devices don’t have to be expensive but nearly all come with active noise cancelling in both the microphone and headphones, which will elevate your conferencing experience.

A good webcam

To pair with your headset an external web camera is always better that the small sensor on the laptops built in camera (if you have one), this allows you to position it above your monitor so that everyone is looking at your face and not up your nose. I have noticed a massive difference between using my web cam vs using my laptops built in device, I feel more relaxed on calls and it allows my posture to remain good throughout.

A Dock

So we are talking about plugging in a monitor, keyboard, headset and doing this in a easy way, well the easiest way to achieve this is by placing all your connections into an easy to attach dock. There are many of these devices from click and lock devices, to USB C and generic 3rd Party port replicators. Find a device that works with your laptop and has the inputs you need to support your monitor and other accessories, this will make it much easier to connect your device should you need to move it that much quicker.

Home working setup

A decent chair

Regardless of if you are working from the dinning room table or a dedicated desk, a key part of setting up a home working environment is the chair, get something that is supportive , adjustable and comfortable. Don’t use your dinning room chair or a breakfast bar stool. These are bad for your posture and could end up making your 8 hours feel like 80.

 

We are in unprecedented times and you may never have considered home working before this year, however the team at Planet IT are here to help. Get in contact today via contact details below if you need advice and guidance on how to make your home working the best it can be;

Contact me at – LinkedIn Message James Dell or Email : [email protected]

Talk to the rest of the team – Call 01235 433900 or Email : [email protected]

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