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If you're not comfortable sitting in your chair for more than 30 minutes at a time, you'll never get enough work done regardless of how powerful your PC is, so take a good look at your choices, and opt for a good chair that supports your back well and offers at the very least adjustable height. Other options are the tilt of the seat and back, castor wheels or not, and of course, color. Also consider seating for guests and customers if you are running a small business out of your home office, or a seat for you spouse or children, as you may want them to be able to sit beside you to see your achievements. Your desk space should address all of the things you plan on bringing in and using, either directly or indirectly. There should be a specific space set aside for your PC, speakers, monitor, keyboard and mouse, a separate space next to it for pen and paper work, room for your printer, and space for large and small storage, including pens, paper and CDs. Ironically, although most of us work with standard desks of 3' x 6', L-shaped desks are more ergonomic and allow you to reach far more real estate simply by rotating in your seat. If you don't have a lot of room for a desk, you can have one integrated into your wall shelving, merging your wall storage with a foldout desk, Storage is often overlooked as unimportant, but it is so easy for a pile of paperwork to spill over and cover your work area if enough attention isn't given to storage and a system that works with it. Generally, storage should come in three sizes: small for pens and CDs, medium for papers and books, and large for filing, boxes and the like. Small storage fits best on the desk itself, medium storage on the desk or on bookshelves, and large storage under the desk of at the bottom of bookshelves - make sure you address each and allow some space, otherwise you will end up with papers that could be filed piled up on your desk, or boxes littering the floor of the room with no where to go. A more organized work space is a more productive work space. The ideal home office will have three levels of lighting available: bright when you need to clean or open up your PC to connect things up, regular for your normal day-to-day work, and low-light if you want to watch a movie or play a game and get into the zone. Also, having a window or other distant scene to look at every half hour or hour is a good idea to help relax your eyes and be able to work for longer periods. One advantage of an unfinished basement or is buying a new home is that you can customize the floor space to suit your needs. Remember to leave enough space when planning how things will fit to allow you the option to change your mind, and if you get the opportunity, tape an outline of your proposed space on the floor to help visualize how that space will feel before you get around to actually building walls and making the decisions permanent.
If you have to share work space with another type of space, like putting the computer into your guest room or in a corner of your bedroom, things can get a little trickier, however, there are special-purpose desks that make things a little easier, sometimes merging a smaller footprint desk into in with your wardrobe, closet or clothing storage, and sometimes using a bookshelf as a room divider to still give enough space for the privacy of your bed and the room needed to type and work.
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