Improving Productivity by Improving Lighting in Your Home

​Lighting is one of the crucial factors that affect workplace productivity even if you work from home.

Insufficient and poor lighting can not only hinder your productivity, but also affect your mood and cause health problems, such as headaches. Fortunately, improving your lighting is a simple upgrade that will definitely have a positive impact on your motivation and inspiration. 

Maximise natural light

First things first, you should maximise the amount of natural light in your home office. Sunlight is the healthiest and most inspiring lighting solution, so you should make sure that you have plenty of it. It can help improve your mood, efficiency, motivation and concentration and make you feel energised. Aside from placing your desk close to a window, you should also remove heavy drapes or any outdoor obstacles that might be blocking natural light. You can also install skylights or solar tubes for increased natural light in your home office. 

Install a layered lighting scheme

​When it comes to artificial lighting, you need to install multiple sources of light to illuminate your work area properly. General and task lighting are particularly important, but you should avoid placing overhead lights directly above your desk because they can give off an unpleasant glare. You should choose fixtures with lampshades that will diffuse the light throughout your home office and create a more pleasant environment. As for task lights, they are of the utmost importance for your productivity because they will provide you with enough focused light necessary for writing, reading, typing, etc. You should go with an adjustable desk lamp that you can use for a variety of different tasks. 

Direct and locate your lighting properly

​The location and direction of your lighting fixtures can also affect the general atmosphere in your home office. As already mentioned, if you work directly underneath an overhead fixture, you’ll get an unpleasant glare. The same goes for lights located behind you, so you should experiment with the location of your lighting fixtures to find the most appropriate one. You should also pay attention to shadows cast by your lamps. For instance, if you’re right-handed, you should place your task lamp to your left to avoid creating annoying shadows. 

Beware of electricity issues

You should be aware of possible electrical problems that may arise in your home office. If you have a lot of units plugged into a single power point, including your computer, lamps, printer and other pieces of office equipment, a power point overload is likely to occur. Therefore, you might find it useful to have contact information of an experienced emergency electrician just in case. This also might come in handy in unusual situations, such as lighting strikes that may cause a serious electrical problem. In addition, before installing additional sources of light, you should have an expert check your wiring and other electrical installations to make sure that everything is in great condition. 

Switch to LEDs

​Installing LED lighting is not only eco-friendly and cost-effective, but it will also have a positive impact on your productivity. LED bulbs emit steady, bright light without any annoying buzzing sounds, which will help you create a more comfortable and enjoyable ambience in your office. You should go with cool, blue-white bulbs that emit a glow that resembles natural light. Generally, working under these lights can contribute to your focus, productivity and satisfaction. 

Go smart

Smart lighting fixtures are an efficient solution that will provide you with a greater level of convenience. Once the sun sets, you’ll need to switch to artificial lighting. However, if you install smart lights, you can configure them to turn on automatically when needed. You can also install smart switches that can be remotely controlled so that you don’t have to stop working just to turn the lights on. In addition, smart lighting solutions can also help you reduce energy waste and increase your savings in the long run.
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By installing adequate lighting in your home office, not only will you create a more comfortable work environment, but you’ll also boost your productivity and mood. 

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Guest Author Bio

Cooper Klein is an interior designer based in Sydney. He’s a regular contributor to several online magazines. You can find him on Twitter.