If you work from home either full-time or at least part of the week, do you struggle to focus when you’re not in the office? Or do you find it hard to detach from your working day when 5pm rolls around? If so, you’re not alone but there could be a solution to make you more productive when you are working from home.
The UK has one of the highest working from home rates in the world, with British workers doing an average of 1.8 days per week from home. Only Canadians work from home more. But that means that a sizeable number of us are using our homes as our offices for at least part of the week.
Of course, while there are many pros to working from home, from dodging the commute to being in to accept deliveries, for some it is hard to separate work from home life when the day ends. For others, it’s too easy to get distracted by household chores.
At the other end of the scale are the people who are more productive when working from home, but who therefore end up doing extra hours because they don’t need to leave their desk.
How can a garden annex help?
A garden office room could be the ideal solution for anyone who has the space to erect one at their property. One of the most frequently cited pieces of advice for those working from home is to get up, get dressed and prepare as you normally would if you were going into the office.
This ritual of “going to work” can help prime your brain for the day ahead. However, when you’re only going to be at your kitchen table it’s harder to follow the logic that you need to get dressed formally for the day. But even adding a short “commute” from your home to your garden office can do wonders.
What’s more, your garden annex can become your dedicated workspace. It’s recommended that you have one place you work from when you are working from home as this will help you stay focused and benefit your mental health.
That means you can leave all your work paraphernalia, whether that’s your laptop, notepads, pens or other equipment, in one place that you can’t see when you’re “home”.
Build breaks into your day
It’s important to build regular breaks into your day and a garden office can help facilitate this. If you have to walk back to your house to make a cup of tea, for instance, you’re stretching your legs, getting some fresh air and having a screen break all in one.
This also ensures you get exposure to natural light on days when you’re working from home. This is important for our bodies’ circadian rhythms and often daylight acts as a mood booster. It also feeds into the sense that you are “going to” work, which makes it easier to separate your working day from your home life.
Use your space to set boundaries
When you live with others, it’s essential that you set boundaries around working from home with them so that they don’t disturb you when you’re focusing on a task. Working from a separate garden annex makes this much easier than if you’re sitting on the living room sofa.
Tell the people you live with when it’s appropriate for them to knock on your office door. Share the hours you plan to work too, so that they can hold you accountable if you run over your working day.
Similarly, having a separate workspace like this helps you set boundaries with your colleagues too, because you won’t be tempted to “just check” your emails in the evening if your computer is in not only another room, but another building at the end of your garden.
Finally, having a separate workspace makes it much easier for you to keep it clean and tidy. By using a garden annex as your office, you can set dedicated time aside each week to tidy and clean it, which will be a much quicker job than cleaning your whole house.
While working from home spiked during the lockdowns associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s clear that it’s now here to stay. In fact, the figures in the UK at least indicate that many people enjoy working from home at least part of the week and want to continue to do so.
Therefore, if working from home is part of your life on a regular basis, it makes sense to set yourself up for success.