I’ve worked out of my home since 2020. My home office has evolved and has become a place where I enjoy working. With a little effort, you can improve any home office environment with some of the tips I’ve discovered.
Hardware
Splurge on keyboards, mice, and monitors.
I’ve managed desktop support for thousands of employees, and one of my tenets was not to scrimp on monitors, keyboards, or mice – they’re what users sit in front of and work with all day. Despite knowing this, I’d gotten by with cheap keyboards and monitors for years. When I started working from home full-time, I decided to upgrade my experience.
I bought an LG 34-inch ultrawide monitor to replace two smaller monitors. I could divide the screen into “snappable” areas with LG’s Screen Manager application. I could administer systems at three different sites and give them each an equal slice of my monitor – or keep a log window open in a corner while I do my work with the remainder of the monitor. Windows 11 has this feature built-in.
I replaced a worn Dell OEM keyboard with a Logitech MX Keys S keyboard. My office is open to the rest of the house, and as much as I like my old IBM Model M keyboard with it’s bucking-spring keys, it was too loud. The MX Keys S keyboard is whisper-quiet, has an action like a really nice laptop keyboard, but with feedback at the end of the key’s travel. I find I’m typing much faster with it.
I swear by the Logitech MX Master 3s mouse. I’ve got a comfortable mouse well-sized for larger hands. Along with the usual two buttons plus a wheel, there are 2 buttons and a roller wheel near your thumb and another button at the base that I use for switching virtual screens.
With the Logitech Options + application, you can program function keys and mouse buttons for various functions, as well as launching a ChatGPT helper.
Both the monitor and keyboard use Logitech’s USB unifying receivers, meaning my home and work PCs only need one dongle to control both keyboard and mouse.
I’ve sworn by the Logitech C920e webcam for years. It’s got a decent microphone which works in a pinch, 1080p video and has worked well for years. This webcam privacy cover is a nice add-on, and looks like it’s part of the camera.
A Blue Snowball iCE microphone is a nice upgrade from a headset microphone. It gives me a nice, warm room sound and it’s small enough that I can place it in front of my keyboard when I’m on calls and it doesn’t show up on camera.
When I’m listening to music or a webinar where I’m not speaking, I use a pair of Jabra headphones with microphone and noise cancelling. I’ve got a homelab running in my office (more on that later) and there are a couple of fans that I can hear when I’m working. The noise cancelling blocks the sound perfectly.
Layout
Keep it clean.
I have a work laptop and a home desktop PC. The logitech keyboard and mouse can each support three devices. The monitor supports two HDMI inputs. When I’m working, I switch the monitor, keyboard and mouse to my work laptop. At the end of the day, switch back to my home PC. It helps me separate work time from home time and saves space on my desk. This helps me set boundaries to limit work to work time and separate work and play in one home office.
Network
There’s no substitute for wired.
Wireless networking is convenient, but when relying on high quality video and audio and working 8+ hours a day from home, wired ethernet. Your wireless router will most likely have 4 wired ethernet ports, if you
Lighting
There’s no substitute for good lighting on video calls.
Office lighting is consistent. My home office lighting was not. I have a skylight, which makes working during the day challenging when the sun is directly overhead. I bought a skylight shade online, which was tricky to install but makes working in the summertime much nicer.
I use Wyze LED bulbs in my floor lamp and track lights. With Wyze’s app, I can tune the color temperature and brightness individually or as a group. At night, I prefer warmer lighting but when on camera during the day want a brighter, whiter light as fill for natural light.
Sound
Next on my list…
I haven’t done anything yet to improve the sound in my home office beyond putting blinds on the windows behind my desk and laying down a rug on the floor. I am going to be ordering these sound baffles to mount to the wall in front of me to help deaden any echoes. Admittedly, it sounds pretty good in here
Software
Keeping organized means getting items out of your head and off of paper and into a digital system.
Work uses Microsoft365. At home, I use Google Workspace. My tasks and calendar are split between them. I use Microsoft OneNote as a place to store notes for both. I’m testing out Notion as a “Second Brain” after reading Tiago Forte’s book, “The PARA Method: Simplify, Organize, and Master Your Digital Life“. Using Notion, I can capture notes for both work and home and build a hyperlinked data library, where I can easily link related notes. Notion is web-based, so I’ll be able to access my data from work or home.
I live in an area with poor cell phone coverage and rely heavily on Microsoft Teams for work calls and Google Voice for home calls.With calls coming in on my headset, I don’t need a desk phone.With Teams, many companies allow you to have a telephone number and call outside your organization; Google Voice allows you to pick a telephone number in any region you’d like.
