Working From Home: Ideal Set Up For Developer

Working from home became a temporary solution for a lot of people during the height of the pandemic. However, a lot of developers have been working remotely for years, and given the changes over the past year and a half, it’s likely plenty of people will be working from home more permanently.

There are a lot of benefits that come with working from home. You save time not having to commute, get more time with your family and for yourself, and often have more flexibility regarding working hours. That being said, many challenges come along with working from home, like maintaining a healthy work-life balance. There is also finding and creating a productive and happy work environment within your own house.

Most of us that had fully in-office work before the pandemic suddenly had to find somewhere to work in our homes. Often, this meant setting up a workspace in an area that wasn’t currently set up to accommodate that. In this post, I want to go over ways you can set up your workspace as a developer to make your at-home office work for you.

Ergonomics
Any professional office has concerns around making sure their workspace is as ergonomic as possible for their employees. It’s really important to ensure that your employees can perform their duties without risking injury. When we switch to working from home, we often prioritize comfort over safety, especially because working in odd positions never feels uncomfortable until after the fact.

As comfortable as it is to work with your feet up and your laptop on your lap while you’re doing it, after some time of this, you will really start to feel it in your back and neck. You want to ensure that your work setup is built to handle you sitting at your computer for hours without causing unnecessary strain on your body.

There are some great tips by Ergonomic Trends about how exactly to set up your space to avoid these issues! Regardless, just be mindful about your setup and how you feel after a full day of work.

Environment
Often when you’re working from home, you’re alone all day. Working by yourself can start to affect your mental health, so you want to do what you can to prevent this issue. Outside of trying to form good social connections with co-workers, I believe that changing your workspace environment can have a very positive effect on your mental state.

If possible, try to work in an area with lots of natural light. Try to keep your work area clean and tidy to not only help you feel productive but also calm. And most importantly, don’t underestimate the power of some good decor. Surround yourself with things you love and enjoy, whether that be plants, colourful lights, or your favourite POP figures. Try to make the space you’re spending so much time in both comforting and relaxing (while still allowing you to be productive), even though all you’re doing there is working.

Good Tech
As a developer, your necessary workplace tools are often only a few pieces of tech. Frankly, most of the time you can do everything you need on a good laptop. However, if you have some extra cash, it’s worth upgrading your setup so that it works better for you.

Dual monitors or an extra-wide screen can save you a lot of time bouncing from window to window. Mounting it on the wall in front of you (or propped up on a stand), is not only good for your ergonomically, but frees up space on your desk for some other tech essentials. A good keyboard and mouse can really add to your workflow. Not only are they often smoother and nicer to operate, but they’re often aesthetically pleasing, which feeds back into my environment tip!

There is also some tech that is simply fun. We’re a part of the tech industry, and most of us love staying up to date with the latest trends in technology and devices.

What works for one person won’t necessarily work for another, but there are some general rules that can help improve your home setup overall. Hopefully, something in here helps you to make your workspace even better!