Working remote is not only a possibility these days but more of a given thanks to the current pandemic. Many people these days work from home either because their current place of employment had to adjust to health safety protocols and operate remotely or by choice as people started freelancing or providing virtual assistant services.
Remote workers before the pandemic found themselves working while traveling, staying in a café, and wherever they find themselves when they need to work. All they’ll need is a laptop and a place to work using it to start freelancing or working as a virtual assistant. Right now, most remote workers will be working from home and might find themselves working in the bedroom, the living room, or even the dining area.
Even though many people these days work from home, not everyone has a dedicated workspace at home and simply work anywhere they want. This might seem like a good idea for anyone using laptops, but those who use desktop PCs will need a dedicated area for their setup. In fact, having a dedicated workspace has lots of advantages for remote workers.
Physical Spaces Affect Psychology
People always develop instinctive cognitive biases about their space, which is why some people find themselves being more productive when in a physical office than when at home. The rooms in a house are all built and set up differently to differentiate their purpose from one another. The moment someone enters a particular room, they’ll immediately know what it is for and drive them to use it for a specific purpose.
If someone starts working in the comforts of their bed, then they might find themselves getting sleepy easily, like how students easily get drowsy when reading their textbooks while on the bed. The moment someone uses a particular room for a different purpose, their mind can get confused because they’re assigning a different purpose to a specific room. Another example is that people might start snacking while working if they set up in the kitchen.
Dedicated Workspaces Help Remote Workers Focus
Offices are particularly designed to get people to focus on their work, and having a dedicated workspace at home can help emulate the feeling of working on-site. When possible, having a separate room to work in is ideal since it ensures that the remote worker won’t be too distracted when working. Once they have a designated workspace, they can decorate it according to their needs. They can check these two articles for more information.
Setting up a home office is arguably more straightforward when using a desktop PC since people won’t be tempted to move their devices to work in a more comfortable place. A typical desktop PC will usually consist of a big PC case, a single 18” to 20” monitor, and a keyboard and mouse. Higher-end setups will typically have more monitors, a bigger PC case with heavy components, and multiple peripherals. Setting it up takes time, and it can be bothersome to constantly tear it apart and move it to a different location. The only exception is when people use a Mini-ITX PC since it’s light enough to serve as a travel PC and can be relocated easily.
When using a laptop, people might be tempted to set up the laptop in whatever comfortable they might have in mind. They might end up working on the dining table, in front of a TV, in bed, and in any other place that can distract them from working. Setting the laptop up in a separate room or in a corner where people won’t easily get distracted is ideal. Another option is getting a second monitor and other peripherals and setting them up like a desktop PC to make it more bothersome to move the laptop.
A typical Filipino virtual assistant or freelancer will usually use laptops instead of desktop PCs because of their portability. Should they have old and slow hardware, they can try to upgrade them to improve performance. They can read more about this in our previous article on succeeding when working from home.
Once remote workers are in an environment that makes them think of working, they’ll find themselves more focused on work instead of easily getting distracted.
Have a Work-life balance
While working from home, people might find it difficult to have a healthy work-life balance as they work in a confusing place where they might want to rest instead of working. However, instead of the confusion that can distract people from their work, remote workers might instead overwork themselves as they think they have flexible working hours and can work any time they want.
Having a dedicated workspace with work-specific equipment where people will only go during set work hours will allow people to separate work from their life. A dedicated workspace can effectively encourage remote workers to walk away from their work laptops or PCs once the day ends.
A work-specific area with its own dedicated PC completely separated from someone’s personal PC located in a different area will help remote workers focus on work while also having a good work-life balance.
Conclusion
Dedicated workspaces are vital in ensuring that remote workers can focus on work with minimal distractions while also unplugging from work after regular working hours. Being distracted at work will keep people from being productive, while remaining connected to work equipment can prompt people to continue working even when they’re past their standard work hours.
Many people today work remotely as either virtual assistants or freelancers, and they’ll need to be able to focus at work. Many businesses will want to be able to rely on the services of quality VA companies in the Philippines. Having a dedicated workspace at home will help make virtual assistants more productive and efficient, and they can improve further by developing habits to be more successful.
Sources:
https://beck-technology.com/working-from-home-tips-dedicated-workspace/
https://www.wishup.co/blog/6-reasons-why-a-dedicated-workspace-is-a-must-when-working-from-home/