By the end of this year I will have a new office area. All to myself, outside of the home environment. Already I am looking forward to this event. With an interest in both the best way of working and the design of such a place I will be spending some time in looking how to improve my current office environment.
I’ve separated these in two categories. Basics to get the job done, and then Comfort to enjoy the environment. So here is my list so far.
Basics
1. A large rectangular desk
2. A comfy desk chair.
3. Two large flat screen monitors at least 19″
4. Laptop, Internet Connectivity, Printer, Telephone, Web Cam, IPod, camera, shredder
5. Paper, pens, pin-board, files, folders (sometimes its good to go back and be traditional when working)
6. Shelving and Storage
Comfort
1. A comfy chair with cushions for reading, researching, long conf calls etc
2. A small coffee type table to enable me to spread out when working
3. Photos of friends and family
4. A dramatic background picture for when on a web-cam.
5. Plants
This will change no doubt. The best part of moving my working environment outside of the house will be the space and obviously the commute.
August 5, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Nice to hear about this, Sam. So, is your new office going to be on your property, but detached from your home or are you considering some leased office space? Are you going to be building something? I’m in the process of building out a home office in my basement and I’m considering doing a video blog series on the build out as I get started. I just need to finish my current project, the basement bathroom, before I get started on the home office.
August 19, 2008 at 7:57 am
I’d add in a whiteboard. It’s surprising how different standing up and writing feels to siting down and writing.