I believe that all adults should have a home office – a space in their home designated for work and work alone. It doesn’t matter if you really work from home or if you’re an office worker who just needs to take some work home for the night or for the weekend.

Having a designated area for work takes you into the productivity zone. Let’s face it, hijacking the kitchen table could work temporarily until it’s time for dinner. And having no permanent work area makes you vulnerable to distractions. Need to do the laundry? Fold them too? Why not? Kitchen pantry needs organizing? Sure. TV with the kids? Absolutely!

We all equate home with rest and not having to work. Starting a work task is hard enough, doing it while at home makes it even harder. It is daunting to discipline yourself from doing ad hoc tasks while working from home, not having a designated work area compounds the problem. While answering emails on your bed or in front of the sofa in your pajamas sounds like a dream job to me, that setup won’t be sustainable in the long run.

I know that not all of us would have the luxury of having a home office, what we can do is assign an area of our house for work. It could be a lone table at the end of the hall, a large closet that you’ve opened up and outfitted with a desk, or an area in the kitchen away from the dinner table. Just as long as you can separate “home” from “office”, you’re all good

Once you have carved out a space for yourself that is specifically allocated for work, you can start equipping it with home office essentials. Here’s a list of home office “essentials” that most home office workers swear by.

Absolute must haves:

• A clock – to keep track of your work hours. Many people who work from home have a difficult time keeping track of their work hours from their non-work hours because it’s so easy to keep at it late into the night or be distracted by the kids or spouses. Be sure to check the time.
• Trash bin – keep a trash bin nearby so you don’t have to get up and go to another room to throw it away.
• Basic office supplies – staplers, pins, paper clips, scissors, pens, pencils, a sharpener, post its, and some note pads are some of your best bet.
• WiFi/High Speed Internet Connection – nowadays, business is largely done over the internet with large files being exchanged between collaborators. A wifi connection enables you to stretch your legs and bring work to the garden or porch from time to time. Let go of your dial- up connection. Seriously.
• Computer (Desktop or laptop) – This is where the magic happens. So, if you must have 2 absolutely essential and non-negotiable items on your list, a computer with high speed internet connection is a must.
• Surge protector – you have to protect your assets and this will protect your tech from voltage spikes and surges.
• Comfortable ergonomic chair – for long hours of work in front of the computer, an ergonomic chair is a must have. Your back and whole body will thank you for it.
• Mobile phone – for business calls and generally for keeping in touch.
• External Drive – for data transfers and keeping backups of your important work files.

You could use these too:

• Multifunction printer – you might be going paperless so you could do away with a printer, but this could come in handy when printing labels or other resources that need to be printed out.
• Hardline phone – not essential if you do most of your business on your mobile phone,  but a landline number on your business card or business listing tells people that you are more established and are not a fly-by night operation.
• Window view – ah…wouldn’t it be nice to have a garden or lakeside view while booting up your computer and sipping coffee?
• Coffee maker – speaking of coffee, a coffee maker would a great addition to your home office.

Wish List items:

• Small well stocked fridge – you could always go to your regular sized fridge for healthy snack and refreshments but if you have a mini fridge in your home office, that would be stellar.
• Cuddly significant other – pets are always a stress buster – so are cuddly humans.

There you have it folks – a list of home office essentials. Did i miss anything? Please let me know in the comments. Remember to Stay Humble, Hustle Hard.

Written by Jaie O.- The Help