Unless you are lucky enough to have a very large area for your new workspace, most rooms already have factors like doors, windows, radiators and electrical sockets that limit where you can place your furniture and equipment. This can actually be a benefit, as it gives you a starting point around which to fit everything, whereas a completely blank canvas can be bewildering. Using your workspace is the only way to find out whether it is practical and efficient, so treat your first layout as a trial run and tell yourself you will change it round if it doesn’t work well for you. This is much less demoralising than feeling you’ve got it wrong and have to start all over again.
As a self-employed person you will be able to claim against tax for a proportion of the running costs of your house. But do seek advice on this from an accountant to make sure you’re not hit with a capital gains bill fromthe taxman when you sell your house. It’s likely an employer would take the view that any costs incurred through working from home will be offset by your savings on commuting, and they may therefore be unwilling to contribute to the costs of heating and lighting your home office.
Calculate how many electrical sockets you need for your computer, printer, scanner, fax etc. and add on a few more for future requirements. If necessary, get more sockets installed rather than overload the system by plugging lots of appliances into an adaptor. If you are starting from scratch you could consider putting sockets above desk level, rather than just above the skirting board, so you can reach them easily.
You may need at least one more phone socket for internet use and while you’re putting that in, it’s worth debating whether to get separate phone lines for home and business. The advantage of separate lines is that you always know how to answer when the phone rings, a formal business reply or an informal hello, and you might want to ban the kids from answering the business line.
Your job will dictate whether you use a PC or Mac, and space whether you stick to a laptop. When using a computer, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recommends that your forearms should be roughly horizontal and your eyes at the same height as the top of your screen. You should be able to use your mouse with a relaxed arm and straight wrist, and get up for regular breaks to rest your body and eyes.
The HSE advises that it’s better to take regular short breaks than a longer one less often. For example they suggest a five to ten minute break every hour in preference to 20 minutes every two hours.
Broadband is now available almost everywhere in the UK but it’s worth checking that you can get it and what the speed is. If you have more than one computer you can get them networked together, either hardwired or wireless (although there has been negative publicity about the health implications of wireless networks).
If someone is working with you, or your children will be playing computer games at the same time as you’re working, you will lose a lot of your bandwidth, so consider having two broadband connections if the bandwidth is insufficient to support both activities. You can get broadband for home or business use. Home use is cheaper, but you share the bandwidth with more people. Before signing up, check whether there are limits on how much you can download, as your ration may be quickly used up if your children are downloading games and videos.
It will pay dividends to find a competent and reasonably priced computer engineer now rather than waiting until something goes wrong. And what about backing up your work? IT experts recommend you keep a back-up off-site in case of an emergency like a fire. Your stress levels benefit from having contingencies in place to deal with such crises, even if you never need to use them.
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