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Equip your Home Office like a Pro

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Home Office

Home Office

Setting up a Home Office may have felt like an irrelevant practice for some people. But after the arrival of COVID-19 and the advent of working from home, it may be more important than you think. If you’re lucky enough to have the space to set up a home office, make sure that you are equipping it with the right stuff, so that you’re prepared for any scenario.

PC or Laptop

Though obvious, it needs to be said that you must have a computer in your home office. Most people these days prefer to use laptops, due to them taking up much less space, and because it is not dependent on power cables, you can take it with you wherever you need. If you aren’t sure, speak to your London IT Services Provider and see what recommendations they have for you. A laptop may be all you need, but a desktop would offer greater computation and storage capabilities if you have the space for it.

In addition to your computer, you may wish to connect a full-size keyboard and a mouse, rather than relying on the laptop’s built-in keyboard and trackpad. You might also choose to get external monitors to connect to your computer – having multiple monitors is a great way to keep your digital workspace better organised.

Wireless router

Of course, to do work from home, especially if you have colleagues that are in a company office, you will need good internet, and preferably a wireless router that is in your office. If you asked providers of IT Support for Accountants which kinds works best for them, wireless is always the answer.  Keeping the router in close proximity to your computer and phone will ensure that you have the best possible connection.

It might be that your home office is not in the best position for your router to receive a strong connection. In this case, you may want to consider getting a WiFi range extender (or even invest in a WiFi nest) to put in your office.

Data Storage

Working remotely and on a computer means you’ll be dealing with plenty of data in the form of documents, spreadsheets, presentation, and maybe even image and video files, emails, etc.

Even if you have a desktop PC with a large amount of internal storage, it is still important to have additional data storage. Also, remember to speak to your IT Support, it can’t hurt to have a Cloud Expert or Azure Expert on hand to help you! At the very least, you should have an external hard drive – keeping your files on an external hard drive instead of your PC is a good practice, because it means your computer won’t slow down from being at full capacity.

If you have the budget, you may want to invest in a redundant archive such as RAID storage, which will give you even more capacity in additional to your external hard drive.

For smaller files and programs that you may want to keep on your general person just in case, you should also have a flash drive.

Printer/Scanner

Of course, it is a good practice these days to go paperless. However, some people may insist on sending your printed documents, or even request that you give them printed documents. This is why every home office should have a HD printer and scanner just in case. At the very least, you can scan documents and keep digital copies on your computer.

Ergonomic Desk & Chair

Some people, whilst working from home, may have just been sitting at the kitchen table, on a dining chair; or even worse, they might be working from the sofa. This can be incredibly detrimental to your posture, and at worst, could result in injury.

So, when you’re setting up your home office, don’t just use any table and chair. Make sure the table is at the right height for your size, and invest in an office chair that has good lumbar support. A wheeled, rotating office chair also has benefits such as allowing your to change position more easily than an immobile dining chair.

Waste Disposal

If you are having to deal with physical documents, and anything else, you don’t want to quickly become surrounding by balls of paper and other types of waste. At the very least, invest in a waste paper basket. You may even want to get a few different bins, so that you can organise recycling from general waste.

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