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2600 days ago

CREATING A FUNCTIONAL HOME OFFICE

Garry Tranter from Price My House for Free Limited

Working from home can be a challenge so ensuring you have a functional work space goes a long way towards increasing productivity and avoiding distractions.

Whether you work from home full-time like me, split your time between the office and home, or simply need a space for personal admin, focus on creating a space that’s functional yet inviting.

DESIGN A HOME OFFICE THAT WORKS FOR YOU

Creating an effective home office starts with identifying the right room or space in your house.

While most of us dream of a large custom designed office to work from in, don’t be overly concerned with the size of your space. Instead focus more on working with what you have. That may be converting a spare room into an office, or utilising a nook in your living room.

One day we plan on building a studio office in our backyard to run my business from, but for now, it’s a case of working with what we have. In our small home that meant converting an oversized bedroom into a multi-purpose room.

Personally for me to be productive, I need a light, calming space, one free of distractions to maximise inspiration and creative thinking. I gave the once dark bedroom a mini makeover by painting the walls in a fresh, crisp white colour - Dulux Okarito.

Choosing the right desk is about identifying how much space you need to work from. I don’t need a large desktop, prefering one that is simple in design. I sourced this one from Freedom Furniture for $250.00, keeping only my essential items on display.

I find I get bored with interiors easily and like to keep the space fresh by changing art and décor around me. Surround yourself with things you love, place a rug under your feet for the cooler months and add life to your office with plants.

Don’t forget about creating a relaxing space in your home office too, which can be as simple as adding an arcmchair. I like to have somewhere comfy to sit when I’m reviewing documents. Relocating my hanging chair from ico traders to sit in the window near my desk gives me the chance to get away from the desk, while still completing work.

LIGHTING

Good natural lighting is important. A well lit space not only helps lift your mood but also assists productivity. When converting the bedroom I reorientated the layout to place my desk near a large window.

Additionally, look to add a desk lamp for late afternoon and evening work as overhead lights won’t suffice.

ORGANISATIONAL SOLUTIONS

There’s nothing like sitting down to an organised desk to jump start your day.

A clean and tidy desk allows you to focus on the task at hand and keep your mind clear.

Too often our home office becomes a dumping space with clutter piling up. Create effective organisation and storage solutions while maximising the desk area. I like a clear and tidy desktop so I utilise a locker cabinet underneath my desk to store and access files I regularly need.

For all remaining paper work or receipts, I file and archive these to well organised digital folders with back ups to the cloud.

To keep clutter at bay, get into the habit of once a week clean out - sorting through the clutter. I do this each Friday so when the new week rolls around on Monday I can get stuck into my work and not be distracted by mess.

More messages from your neighbours
2 days ago

EMPIRE BUILDING TRUMP

Michael from Trentham

So Donald Trump does not want to start any wars and is a peace maker.
And yet he is seriously seeking to annex the world's largest island, Greenland from Denmark, take over the Panama Canal from the sovereign country of Panama who have owned it since 1977 and even forthrightly suggesting that Canada ceases being a nation and become a state or series of states of the USA.

Greenland above everything else, harbours minerals vital for todays and tomorrows world and that is what probably attracts Trump most. His son is looking things over in Greenland as this thread is being produced. Climate change is also changing Greenland which despite its name is currently mainly covered in ice and snow all year round. Greenland has a population of 55,000.

Panama's major asset after tourism and services is the canal with a current revenue of $5 billion. It operates its shipping charges through an international organisation so that the USA gets an unbias deal for its ships etc that use the canal. Panama is a poor country on the improve and has a population of 4.5 million.

Denmark is a member of NATO. But Trump has threatened many times for the USA to pull out of this Europe-USA defence alliance and Greenland may be the straw that finally breaks the pact.

Canada is surrounded by the USA but it is so much unlike the USA and much more akin to Australia and NZ. In contrast to the USA, Canada is one of the happiest countries in the world and in total land area is the world's second largest.

NZ is going to come under the scrutiny of Trump and his henchmen/women. He will probably look to cut NZ away from its free trade arrangements with China with some kind of ultimatum.

23 days ago

Poll: Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

Just a bit of a fun poll to get you thinking.

If you had to live out your Christmas days, would you prefer it was a summer Christmas or a winter Christmas?

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Would you rather: Christmas in summer forever or winter forever?
  • 63.3% Summer
    63.3% Complete
  • 35.4% Winter
    35.4% Complete
  • 1.3% Other - I'll share below
    1.3% Complete
2704 votes
20 hours ago

New Year, New Questions You Won’t Solve!

Riddler from The Neighbourly Riddler

I get smaller every time I take a bath.

What am I?

Do you think you know the answer to our daily riddle? Don't spoil it for your neighbours! Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm.

Want to stop seeing riddles in your newsfeed?
Head here and hover on the Following button on the top right of the page (and it will show Unfollow) and then click it. If it is giving you the option to Follow, then you've successfully unfollowed the Riddles page.

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