It’s been roughly a year since millions of people worldwide made the transition to working from home. If you are working remotely for the foreseeable future, it may be time to reassess your home “office” setup. If you are looking to improve your work from home experience this year, here are four items that may help.
A second monitor
Do you have a second monitor while working from the office but not at your home? If you don’t have the luxury of working with a second screen, it’s time to request one. Whether that’s asking your supervisor if you can grab yours from your office or asking your IT team to send you one, having a second monitor is a massive productivity boost. Instead of using a tiny 15′ (or smaller) laptop screen, secure a second monitor to view multiple windows, applications, and other documents side by side. Say goodbye to switching back and forth between windows all day! Plus, a second screen can streamline your communications by having your Zoom, Slack, or Teams app open on one screen while looking at your other.
Blue light-filtering glasses
If you are like most people throughout the pandemic, your screen time has massively increased. Workers across the globe are reporting an average workday of 2.5 hours longer while working from home. The result of extended screen time can be eye strain. And according to a report by Eyesafe Nielsen, the average screen time per person rose 60%, to more than 13 hours a day, in March 2020. When you stare at a screen longer, you are blinking less, which can harm your vision. To counter this, invest in some blue light-filtering glasses. These glasses (which don’t require a prescription) can help filter out the harmful blue light emitted from screens. It’s essentially a nighttime mode on your phone for your eyeballs. Using a pair of these glasses can help your eyes feel less fatigued and are a must to improve your work from home experience. Plus, they are pretty affordable!
A furry coworker
If you are missing your coworkers a little too much, you can always adopt a furry one! Pet adoptions have exploded over the last 12 months. In fact, Animal Shelter Count tracks shelter adoptions across the nation with over 500 rescue organizations. They recorded 26,000 more pet adoptions in 2020 than the year prior – a 15% increase. Having pets can help keep you company, boost your mood, and make you more active. Sometimes we all need a nudge to step away from our computer for a few minutes, and a furry coworker can be very convincing!
Meal prep services
I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want to do after working all day from home is cook. Currently, it’s more challenging to go grocery shopping or go out to eat (depending on where you live). An easy way to spice up your lunches or dinners is meal prep services. There are many options available, like Blue Apron, Home Chef, and HelloFresh that offer tasty and healthy meal prep services. You can customize them for your house’s meal planning needs and can cancel anytime you want. If you are looking to spice up your meals and sick of thinking about what to cook every night, give one of these tasty services a try!
These are just a few items to consider adding to improve your work from home experience. If you are interested in reading more career or work from home advice, visit our blog!
