1.Natural Light
With the current situation social distancing is a must, therefor an increased number of us are working from home forcing us to create impromptu at home offices. While you’ve chosen your comfiest chair, and desk with the most space, you may have overlooked a key element: lighting. Poor lighting can cause headaches, and eyestrain and will concurrently impact your productivity and mood. Here’s some tips to help you optimize your home office and help lighten things up.
Placing your workstation in an area that has a substantial amount of sunlight will provide many benefits. When exposed to sunlight, your biological clock or circadian rhythm is stimulated. Your melatonin levels are affected – when it’s dark your body produces more to correlate sleepiness, and less when it’s light out to promote alertness. Human Centric Lighting or Circadian Lighting is a new buzz term in the industry, this tech is created to help support your circadian rhythm by mimicking the placement of the sun with artificial lighting. However, you may not have access to this solution in your home. Therefor taking advantage of natural daylight will help you stay alert throughout the day.
That being said, you don’t want your workstation to be in direct sunlight that creates glare on your screen. Aim for an area with bright in-direct light that’s not distracting.
2. Task Lighting
A majority of working from home involves looking at a screen, however, there’s other daily activities such as note taking, or reading documents where task lighting can add benefit to your workspace. Task lights enables people to customize light at their workstations to best meet their individual needs and improve focus on the task at hand. Consider an adjustable LED desk lamp with a moveable arm that can provide lighting exactly where you need it. A lot of desk lamps are dimmable to suit the task at hand.
3. Ambient Lighting
Having sufficient ambient lighting, also known as general lighting, in your home office space will help reduce strain on your eyes. The contrast between the light being emitted from your screen, and a dark space around it isn’t easy on the eyes. Instead, try to ensure your workspace is in a room that includes lighting such as potlights or large pendants to provide overall even illumination. Or, indirect floor lamps that bounce the light off walls and ceilings without producing glare. If these are dimmable, even better!
This new lifestyle is an adjustment for those who don’t typically work from home, but we hope these tips can help enlighten your new norm. Please reach out to us if you have any questions!
