Setting up a Home Office

You'll need a few basic pieces of furniture to make working possible.

First is a desk. You obviously need a space to spread out, and the kitchen table just doesn't cut it. Read the desk section for a more in depth analysis of what you should get, and where you should put it.

Second is a chair. You're going to be sitting in it for hours and hours on end. You need a good chair.

Third is the lighting. This is a more general category and will require a bit of inventiveness for your specific environment, but with a bit of advice and guidance, you can work it out.

I have a desk that I bought at Oak Express for about $200. It even came with a hutch. You don't have to even spend that much money on yours, but do spend what you can. It's much nicer looking at some decent wood all day, and having drawers that are decently constructed.

On the incredibly cheap end, a flat wooden door on cinderblocks will run you $20. It'll also be very depressing.

For a hundred bucks, Target, Walmart, or any other giant retailer will sell you an assemble-it-yourself flatpack desk that'll do what you want. But built it yourself furniture never quite turns out right. I always end up with loose pieces and ugly joints. Avoid this if you can.

Go to a furniture store, and look to buy the desk you like. You are sitting at it all day, and it's worth getting.

A keyboard tray is a necessary addition to the desk, but make sure it doesn't have a lip that juts upwards, as it makes a mouse uncomfortable to use.

Drawers are great to have, you need at least one or two. Having quick access to a stapler, a few pads of paper and pens is absolutely required.

I bought myself a kick ass chair. More than anything else, a chair is what you should invest a few dollars in. Initially I was sitting on a hand-me-down cheapo office depot chair, but I quickly decided that wasn't going to work. My back and neck hurt at the end of the day, and there was almost no padding.

I went and bought an Aeron chair. It was expensive, yes. But it was an amazing purchase. The mesh is breathable, and the back is springy in the right way. The customization abilities are amazing.

You don't have to spend $600+ on your chair, but be sure to not go cheap. You need a good chair.

You wouldn't think that lighting would be so high on my list, but it is. My home office sits next to a nice large window, and I'll be the first to tell you that the outside lighting affects my energy and motivation more than anything else.

In addition to the natural light, having a bright, full-spectrum light will keep you alert and active. This sounds gimmicky, but it'll work. I find that during the winter, the days when I forget to turn on the light during the day, I start falling asleep at 4 in the afternoon, when it starts getting dark. With the light, I can easily keep going, motivated until dinner.

The subtitle of this section is a little tongue in cheek, but it gets the point across. We all know how to sit down, but do you know how to setup your work environment to be comfortable for hours at a time?

This is an incredibly deep topic, which I'll expand out upon in another lens, but I can offer a few quick tips right now.

First is to adjust your monitor to the right height. I spent months with recurring back pain in my shoulder because I didn't think of this one. Align the top third of the monitor with your eyeline. I prop my monitor up on a book to get it high enough, but if you have an adjustable monitor, it'll look nicer.

The second advice is to get proper back support in your chair. If you shell out for the Aeron, this is handled for you, but practically all office chairs nowadays have lumbar support to some degree. Be sure yours does as well. Kitchen chairs will kill your back over time.

My last piece of advice in this short section is to get a decent keyboard. For only $40 or $50, you can get an ergonomic keyboard. I love my Microsoft model so much, I bought a second one (I have two computers). This will keep your wrists feeling fresh, even after working for a long while on the keyboard. It may look awkward to type on, but it's a quick transition, within a day you learn it quick.

Home office desk from headsclouds' Flickr.

Home office image. headsclouds on Flickr