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Covid-19 Pandemic has continuously challenged employers, workers, and their families economically. It prompted the companies to do closure, layoff of personnel, and drastic work hour adjustments. Observance of social distancing with continued productivity urged companies to shift from an office to work from home (WFH) or the remote setup.
What is a Work From Home (WFH) Setup?
Work from home is a work condition adapted inside the worker’s own house, without travel and central office. It is also called remote work, telework, telecommuting, home office, and flexible work area.
WFH is considered a challenge as it requires home and space changes while maintaining work productivity and stability inside one’s home. Various internal and external distractions in the house will demand great focus, attention, and effort on your part. The best 6 figure jobs start at home!
What does your current work from home setup look like? What is its importance, and what are the preparations you make to find a WFH job? Lastly, what are the furnishings and equipment needed for such a home office setup?
Here is a guide that will answer those questions, present the best WFH jobs and training opportunities for WFH aspirants.
Perceptions of Workers and Companies Toward WFH
Being in work from the home setup is an old but underrated work condition. While others are still adjusting from a drastic shift from an office to a home office setup, many employees work in this setup.
What does it feel like to work from home?
Employees and leaders display mixed reactions regarding a work from home setup. From a US-based survey done by McKinsey, employees at a WFH design are more involved with their work. They also have a higher sense of well-being than those doing office jobs.
Parents in remote jobs worked better than those who are not in a remote setup. However, more than 80 percent of them stated that the pandemic crisis affected their material possessions. First-timers in a home office job struggle to become productive despite a lack of personal interaction from their clients.
Some employees felt that they were distracted with household chores and other non-work-related activities while at home. Others felt sadness and longing with their co-workers, as they see them as reliable moral support at these trying times. Meanwhile, leaders are faced with challenges to monitor and interact with their employees while maintaining work productivity and stability.
How do people manage to work from home?
Most industries nowadays resort to working from home set up to avoid the transmission of Covid-19 to their employees. WFH employees manage to work by physically altering their rooms into a workspace with customized home office furnishings and equipment. They also tend to work from home through the support of their employers, co-workers, and family members.
A remote job seems to be the most convenient job that can be offered to individuals. Let us discover the benefits of being in a WFH setup.
Advantages of a WFH Setup
Work from home is becoming a work trend that everyone must consider. If you are used to being an office employee, a home office setup will significantly affect you. What are the advantages of this work condition?
Let us differentiate a WFH from an office setup. WFH is a working setup that is carried out inside the worker’s home, instead of the usual office location. So, should companies allow work from home?
No matter how employees and leaders react with the current WFH setup, most companies will still allow work from the home condition. Here are the top reasons why companies present remote work to employees:
1. Modern Technology Promotes a WFH Setup
According to clayburnettgroup.com, advancements in technology make remote work easy and convenient due to fast social connections and work efficiency. With operating equipment and furnishings such as desks, laptops, phones, software, video conference, and the internet, physical offices may not be significant.
You can finish your office tasks from typing to video recording and conferencing at the comfort of your home. Employees can do this with the right tools, work skills, and workspace.
2. WFH Allows You to Hire Qualified Employees, Regardless of Location
You can connect with people through technology in a WFH setup. Employers can now easily communicate and interact with qualified people for the job, without the hassles of files rummaging or physical appearance. Location is no longer a significant factor as you can hire the best employees at their most comfortable place – their homes.
3. WFH Enables You to Effectively Contact and Choose Employees from Various Locations
Gone are the days that you will select employees based on their proximity to your workplace. Through a home office setup, you can now message, interact with, and chat with employees across various locations with different backgrounds. This approach improves work communication and creativity, increases work information diversity and boosts work productivity.
4. You Can Save for Office Space Rents
You can see a high impact on reducing office rental fees, even if some employees will go on a remote setup. The high percentage of company expenses for space rental can be distributed to other essential costs, such as employee income. WFH can still welcome more profit, even if you retain some receptions for your actual office area.
5. You Can Save Significantly for Office Supplies and Furniture
Imagine all the usual supplies you use in the office, from pens and bond papers to furniture, like desks and lamps. As an employer, you’re not required to invest in office supplies and furniture since most employees work remotely.
You can have significant savings, which you can allot to other vital expenses like expanding your business or increasing income. You can even provide a computer to your employee, though this is not usually needed.
6. Work From Home Feels Like Working Inside an Office
These two work conditions may feel the same, minus the actual location. Employees can still feel the ‘office vibe’ as they perform work tasks such as attendance, interaction with co-workers, and tangible work outputs.
You will perform tasks on workdays for reasons that fit your venture. There are technology and gadgets that help you interact distantly, and home office equipment to start your work.
7. Less Stress and Higher Productivity for Employees
The WFH setup decreases work-related stress. It allows people to have quality family time and work even when you travel to different places. Additionally, it provides opportunities for a work-life balance while improving work quality and attitude. Start your day right to have a more productive routine.
8. Long-Term Employment May Happen Because of WFH
Employees enjoying their work environment closer to their families are more likely to be happy, productive, and dedicated to work. There are fewer chances of resignation, training costs, and commute expenses.
WFH employees will work in convenience inside their homes while maintaining a work-life balance. This work condition will result in a more extended stay, greater participation, and more work proficiency in the company.
9. No Commute Means Good Attendance and Work Time and Less Delinquency
Traffic is no longer an obstacle to working on time. You can immediately log into your attendance, even when you’re wearing your most plain clothes.
The supposedly 15 to 30 minutes allotment for travel can be maximized and used as part of your working time. WFH, all in all, maximizes productivity and improves attendance.
Setting up Your Workable Home Office
Work from home (WFH) setup involves an arrangement of functional home furnishings and equipment that mimics an office setup. An adequately designed workspace feels like the usual office setup, minus the actual office location. Your work area must promote productivity and prevent muscle pains, bad posture, eye strains, and other health discomforts while working.
According to UpRight and Ernst & Young, 71% of employees in the study who showed good posture exhibited higher confidence levels. These workers with good posture showed increased productivity by up to 75%. Therefore, employees must have a proper WFH setup that will promote confidence and work efficiency and prevent work-related health problems.
Read on to determine how to setup an employee and work-oriented home office for your work needs.
What is an Ideal WFH Office Setup?
As a remote worker, how does your work from home setup look like? Your Coronavirus work from home setup may look like a standard room or a customized one. All of these will depend on your budget, design concept, and resources.
Most rooms can be converted to your ideal WFH workspaces. The ultimate goal is to promote an employee’s productivity, creativity, and health, even at the coziness of one’s house.
What are some good home office setups that you can arrange inside your home? Designers and WFH employees share their ideal home office setups, which have the following common characteristics:
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A Dedicated and Organized Workspace
A typical workspace is a small, private room with a desk, lighting device, and computer stuff. It must be distraction-free and separate from the home routine. This place is where you feel finishing your workday even if you are inside your house.
If there is no spare room space, you can convert your guest room home setup into a double function room space (guest and workroom). A confined terrace, laundry area, or even a roofed garden shed can be dual-purpose spaces. If you cannot obtain an entire workspace apart from your home space, find a spot away from interference and home-related activities.
For the organization of your work area, you can follow these recommendations:
- After selecting a work crib, ensure that the room contains all the necessary equipment and furnishings you need for work.
- Organize your desk in a way that is neat and spacious, with electrical cords and cables arranged or hidden from view.
- Choose color blends and designs that stimulate your work drive and appeal to your senses.
- Additional decorations such as plants, posters, and drawers can be visually appealing, but avoid overdecorating your work area.
Additional tips in creating the best desk setup for productivity include:
- A posture-enhancing ergonomic chair
- Computer monitor or laptop on a stand at the exact angle
- Keyboard
- Mouse
- Excellent lighting to illuminate and cheer up your workspace.
Check out these creative work from home setups by clicking this link. You can also review the best home office setup options at this link as a guide in creating the best office setup for productivity inside your home.
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An Appropriate Work Height
When arranging your workspace, make sure that your table or desk is at the correct work height. It is the proper height when you can sit straight with your forearms and wrists parallel to the floor. Your wrist should not bend when you type or use the mouse.
Also, the fingers and wrists should be able to move on your keyboard without any difficulty. Bending of the wrists for an extended time can cause joint strain or injury, which can interfere with your work.
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Correct Monitor Height
When doing your desk tasks, ensure that your eye level is 25 to 30% lower than the top of your computer screen. Your monitor height should be this way with proper sitting to prevent eye strains and back pains while working. You can buy monitor risers to adjust the monitor height.
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Choosing and Arranging Essential Work Items for Home Office
You already have the budget, workspace, and WFH job. Now it’s your turn to determine the work items needed in setting up a home office for remote work.
Choosing the must have home office-appropriate furnishings and equipment to form your home office requires significant consideration. It sets your mood towards work and dramatically affects your work output.
Whether it is typing, audio-video recording and editing, BPO, or teaching, choose the equipment and furniture that match your work nature. Avoid the consequences of poor workstation setup, such as disorganization and cluttering. These may eventually result in health problems such as eye strains and back pains and low work productivity.
How do you create your office setup at home? What are the 49+ essential items in your best home office setup? Here are the top recommendations for your home office setup checklist:
A. Top Furnishing Essentials
A remote workspace is an exclusive space for work and work-related activities. The top work from home essentials that every home office must contain for work efficiency are the following:
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Working Desk
Make sure to spend your work hours on a clean, neat, and clutter-free home desk setup. You need a work desk that is wide and organized enough to contain your work documents and equipment. It may be a good idea to decorate it with plants, pictures, and other motivational stuff at its small corner.
A standing desk is preferred nowadays as having the best desk layout for productivity. It minimizes back strain and promotes upper body movement. Choose the best desk for working from home by clicking these Amazon’s best office desk setup recommendations.
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Lamps
Place a functioning, radiant desk lamp with adjustable brightness on your desk. It should be able to emit the soft light. Soft light relieves stress and conditions you to work efficiently.
Ensure that the lamps have functional knobs to adjust brightness and color temperature to reduce eye strain. Desk lamps should be placed opposite your dominant hand to avoid distracting shadows on your desk work. Check out these top recommended eye protection desk lamps for your work area.
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Room Light
Choose a workroom with adequate room lighting set up at work hours. Windows should be accessible in front of your work area and open to permit natural light and ventilation in the daytime. This position decreases glare, maximizes light and air entry, and provides good outside views in case of eye strain.
At nighttime, illuminate your work area with the best bulb type. The LED bulbs emit cool white light, energy-saving, and less heat-producing; hence, minimize eye strain.
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Ergonomic Office Chair
Invest in a comfortable and adjustable chair. It must fit in your workspace and sufficiently support your back and upper body for long working hours.
Office recliners and ergonomic chairs are the best setup home office needs as they provide generous lumbar support to the upper body. These chairs prevent back, neck, and shoulder strains from prolonged desk work.
Aside from reclinable and full back support, choose a chair with adjustable height, adjustable seat tilt, and arm height. It would be best if it has an armrest. The armrest should support your arm without placing undue pressure on it.
Comfortable, adjustable ergonomic chairs help you focus on your work and increase your productivity by 17%. Sink into these best office reclining chairs available in the Amazon market.
B. Basic Computer System Setup
The most important set of equipment that you need to invest in work from the home setup is the computer system. Your chosen computer system can be a laptop or desktop. However, the best home office computer setup must have the specifications that fit your work requirements.
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Laptop
A laptop computer or notebook is an excellent alternative to desktop computers. It is portable and compact enough for traveling and change of workspace. Moreover, it possesses processor speed and specs almost comparable with desktop computers.
Laptop computers provide work convenience and portability. However, it has a smaller screen, which can cause more fatigue than working on a larger desktop monitor. Review these top-performing laptops at Amazon and order the best laptop fit for your work requirements.
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Operating System
The operating system (OS) is software that interacts with hardware to run computer programs. It is an essential computer system software that enables the start-up, installation, and processing of computer programs. Whether in laptops, desktops, tablets, and smartphones, it is the most critical indispensable software that gives life to your gadgets.
Typical computer operating systems are Windows, OS X, and Linux. Meanwhile, mobile devices like tablets and smartphones contain Android, iOS, and Windows OS. The choice of an operating system for devices depends on the type of hardware you are using.
Upgrade to the best computer OS from Amazon to efficiently boost the performance of your home computer device.
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Desktop PC
Desktop computers or desktop PCs are computers designated in a single area. Its primary components are a desktop monitor, automatic voltage regulator (AVR), central processing unit (CPU), OS, mouse, keyboard, and RAM. It has no internal battery and requires a continuous connection to a wall outlet for its power.
What is a good desktop for a work from home job? In choosing the best desktop, take note of the minimum internet speed and specifications your company requires for your job. Check out these best top rated desktop computers from Amazon.
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Monitor
Also called a computer screen or display, a monitor is essential desktop hardware because it displays the computer’s user interface. It also allows the start-up and processing of programs as the user communicates in the computer using a keyboard and mouse. Select a dedicated or external computer monitor with the largest screen display and highest resolution to efficiently prevent eye strains.
Take a look at these gorgeous best monitors in the market and boost your computer display significantly.
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AVR
An Automatic Voltage Regulator or AVR is a vital desktop electronic device that sustains a consistent output voltage amidst electrical surges. It prevents damages to your computer due to fluctuations of power. Choose the best AVR for your desktop by clicking this link.
After presenting the 9 essentials for the perfect home office, let us proceed with the remaining work from home essentials:
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RAM
A Random Access Memory (RAM) is a hardware component in both laptops and desktops. It determines the amount of memory the OS and applications can utilize. The higher the RAM, the faster and smoother, is your computer performance.
Have a look at these most recommended RAM from Amazon to tweak your computer.
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CPU
The central processing unit (CPU) or processor is the fundamental component of every computer that processes instructions, runs the OS and applications. The greater the number of processing cores, the more efficient is the computer performance. If you are planning to build your own computer set, size up these best-selling CPUs from Amazon.
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Mouse
Use an ergonomic mouse that provides comfort and more comfortable clicking and access to your computer applications. It can also be separately used with a laptop. Check out these top mouse recommendations perfect for your remote work.
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Keyboard
Invest in a functional and ergonomic keyboard that provides typing efficiency by 44% and adequate arm and wrist support while you type comfortably on your seat. This ergonomic keyboard prevents wrist strain and carpal tunnel syndrome, reduces discomfort, and sustains your work focus.
Discover these best keyboard finds for your home office setup.
C. Items for Audio Recording and Output
For jobs requiring audio/voice recording, calls, music, and outputs, you’ll need a headphone, microphone, mic stand, speakers, and headphone stand. These things will help to boost your sound experience.
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Headphones
Purchase headphones with noise-canceling and great mic receiving features to have smooth audio, video call, recording, and chat input and output. Its noise cancellation guarantees better listening and comprehension of virtual communication. It also minimizes external distractions that can affect your work focus.
Wear headphones with adequate cushioning and space for the ears to provide comfort even at extended work hours. Look into these top-notch noise-canceling headphones recommended by arstechnica.com for your noise-free and full-focus remote work.
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Microphone
Using microphones for audio recording and output is unnecessary for most remote work, but it can significantly improve sound output. You can use dedicated or wireless quality headphones to record your youtube audio and voice calls clearly. Browse over these top quality microphone finds perfect for recording youtube videos.
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Microphone Stand
Though it is not always necessary, a microphone or mic stand secures the mic in place, promotes stability, and allows adjustment of positions for better sound capture of your podcast or audio task. Look over these Amazon’s best selling mic stands for superior sound capture.
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Speakers
Set your work mood and productivity by playing music and audio on your quality speakers. Studies highlight the importance of music in the human mind and task productivity. Choose speakers that provide crisp sound output and even wireless connectivity for a superior listening experience.
You can also use these high quality home audio speakers and bluetooth speakers to produce clear background music for your videos, audios, and remote podcasts.
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Headphone Stand
Like mic stands, headphone stands are additional items to organize your desk and make headphones easily accessible. It also protects your headphone from deformities and scratches as it mimics the shape of a human head. Browse the best headphone stands Amazon can offer for your headphone stability.
D. Additional Items for Typing, Input, and Printing
Aside from keyboards, monitors, and touchscreens, additional typing, inputting, and printing devices for home office setup are the following:
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Foot Pedal
A foot pedal, foot switch, or WAV pedal is utilized in WFH jobs involving medical transcription. It enables play, rewind, and fast forward of work dictation through foot control. The most commonly used foot pedals are USB types. Check out these cool Amazon top-selling footswitches for your work transcription needs.
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Printer
It is best to invest in high quality, latest printers for printing, scanning, and copying multiple documents, pictures, and other files. Choose from these top printers for your remote small business printing needs.
E. Items for Additional Improved Lighting
Work from home jobs that involve photography, video recording, video calls, and podcasts, additional lighting devices are convenient. These lighting devices illuminate your subjects with adjustable brightness and color tone perfect for your work lighting needs.
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Ring Lights
Ring lights significantly improve your work lighting by producing flattering soft light without shadows from your subject or face. It focuses the light on the subject, lights up the eyes, and makes attractive catchlights. Go over this list of best ring lights for your photography, zoom, youtube, and videography work needs.
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Green Screen Lights
You can use a green screen to define the subject’s features, create a distinct background, and spread light evenly through soft light. Anyone can conveniently use this for videos, photos, and films. Check out these top 10 best green screen lighting for excellent background lighting.
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Light Wall Panels
Decorate your home office with additional attractive lighting through light panels. Operate these gorgeous light wall panels through wifi and adjust their brightness, color, and theme.
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LED Light Strips
Want to make your home office attractive and colorful with multilayered lighting? Place the best LED light strips behind, under, or around items and gadgets in your home office to have a beautiful lighting experience.
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Monitor Backlights
Monitor backlights or bias lighting can be placed at the back of your computer monitor. These lights can provide surround lighting around the monitor with shining directly into the viewer’s eyes. It balances light and contrasts, making reading texts easy, and preventing eye strain without increasing the monitor’s brightness.
Try these Amazon editor’s choices for the best backlighting – the Pangton Villa LED strip lights and Bason TV LED backlight.
F. Items for Video Recording, Editing, and Video Call
If your home-based job involves a great deal of video recording, editing, vlogging, and video call, invest in these video recording tools:
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Webcam
For WFH jobs that require more video recording and calls, webcams are the best investments, especially if you are using a desktop computer. Webcams provide improved video recording and resolution, autofocus, and adjustable brightness and contrast settings. Use your Zoom to communicate with your remote co-workers through these best-selling webcams.
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Camcorder
Other video tools are camcorders, portable two-in-one video cameras, and video recorders capable of recording live motion video and audio with playback. These are traditional video recording tools used for recording vlogs, films, and video strips, which can turn into webcams. Higher models of camcorders allow live video streaming perfect for your home-based vlogging.
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Digital Single-Lens Reflex Camera (DSLR)
It is a portable camera with a single, interchangeable lens combined with a digital processor. This camera is perfect for remote photography shoots while enhancing and capturing stunning landscape through different focal lengths. Look for the best and durable DSLR camera with high quality sensors, excellent image resolution, varying sensor size, accessible lens sizes, and long battery life.
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Camera Phone
One of the affordable alternatives for video recording and calls in a home office setup is camera phones. Camera phones are smartphones that enable you to capture photos and record videos using its internal camera. Check into these Amazon’s best-selling camera phones for their sensor size, high pixels, varied aperture, and editing software.
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Digital Camera
A digicam or digital camera is a perfect tool to capture and edit your photos and videos for remote photography, vlogging, and videography. You can also connect the digicam to your laptop or desktop and serve as your webcam. Be sure to inspect high quality digicams for their pixel resolution, sensor size, and apertures before purchasing your work digicam.
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Tripods
A tripod is a three-legged structure that adequately supports and stabilizes your camera while doing your photoshoot and video recording. Record excellent vlogs through cameras mounted on the best tripods in the market.
G. Items for Good Internet Connectivity
Planning on a long-term work from home setup will not be complete if internet connectivity is absent. For wired internet connections, modems and internet cables are essential. For wireless internet, routers and wireless adaptors are necessary.
WIRED CONNECTION
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Modem
A modem permits a computer, router, or switch to connect to the internet through cables. Choose the best modem that offers a user-friendly interface, strong internet connection, and reasonable price.
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Ethernet Cable
An ethernet cable is a network cable utilized with wired connections. It connects computers, routers, and switches within a local area network (LAN). The longer and durable the cables are, the faster is the wired internet connection.
Shop for these best ethernet cables on Amazon for a secured computer connection at work.
WIRELESS CONNECTION
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Wireless Router
A router diverts the data from a LAN to another network, usually a wireless connection. It only allows specific devices to connect with other computer systems. Have a look at these recommended wifi routers for your home office setup.
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Wireless Adapter
A wireless adapter is hardware that connects a computer or laptop to a wireless network. There are two types of wifi adapters:
- Wifi adapters that allow connection to wifi networks and cellular
- Mobile broadband adapters that enable you to connect to 3G, 4G, or LTE cellular networks.
Choose a top-quality wireless adapter that is compatible with your desktop or laptop for maximum work performance.
H. Other Computer Peripherals
Add some computer peripherals like USB cables, connectors, drives, bluetooth, docks, and monitors to boost your home office work experience.
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Docking Station
A dock or docking station connects your portable computer to various peripheral devices, expanding its function as a desktop PC. It permits a laptop to use a connected monitor, printer, keyboard, and mouse simultaneously.
What are the best docking stations for my work from home office setup? Wfhadviser.com enumerates these top 5 excellent docks:
- StarTech Dual 4K docking station
- Kensington SD4900P Triple 4K display docking station.
- Totu USB C Hub 8 in 2 USB Type C adapter docking station
- UD-3900 plugable USB 3.0 universal laptop docking station
- EUASOO 11 in 1 USB C docking station
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USB Cable
USB cables are attached to computers directly to peripheral devices to acquire or transfer data from one device to another efficiently. Check out these best quality USB cables and review their compatibility with your computer or smartphone device, thickness, and length to ensure efficiency.
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Connectors, Plugs, and Ports
A connector is the distinct end of a plug, jack, or edge of a card that attaches to a port. A plug is in the cable part that connects to a port. A port matches the plug or card slot and enables the connection between the devices’ ends.
Select the best connectors, plugs, and ports for your computer to ensure an efficient computer connection.
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External Monitor
An external or secondary monitor is a separate computer screen that enables multiple tabs and multiple tasks. Dual monitors for work from home jobs like video editing, BPO, and virtual assistance can boost productivity by 30 percent. Choose the excellent and largest external monitors with a clear, readable display and bright screen to prevent headaches and eye strains.
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Bluetooth Devices
You can connect portable devices such as a mouse, smartphone, and printer to your computer via bluetooth. Make sure that your bluetooth devices are updated to the latest versions for excellent work performance.
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External Optical Disc Drives
Optical disc drives enable reading, writing, and copying of data to and from optical discs. It is a necessary computer peripheral for remote work involving film, music, and video recording. Buy the latest external optical disc drives to ensure your work data is safely read, copied, and stored.
I. Items for Efficient Data Storage
To efficiently transfer, read, and safe keep your work data, you need durable data storage devices with high memory capabilities such as:
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External Hard Drive
External hard drives are portable memory storage devices. It can copy, store, and transfer large volumes of data such as files, photos, and videos. Choose a high quality external hard drive that is durable, portable, compatible with your computer device, and increased memory feature.
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USB Flash Drive
It is a data storing device with a USB interface and flash memory that is removable, rewritable, and more compact than an external hard drive. Purchase the best USB flash drives with ample memory storage, hardware compatibility, and transfer speed.
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Cloud Storage
Cloud storage enables off-site storage of digital data in multiple storage bucket locations. It safely keeps your data to a remote database, allowing sufficient storage without external physical storage. Select a high volume and quality personal cloud storage for your home office files in Amazon.
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CD ROM
A Compact disc Read-only Memory (CD-R) is a CD read by the optical drive for data storage. Choose a CD-R that can read and rewrite data for more generous memory storage.
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DVD ROM
Digital versatile disc-read only memory (DVD-R) is a read-only DVD used to store substantial software applications and files. Check out the wide range of DVD-R from Amazon, perfect for your large work files.
J. Power Supply and Connectivity Backup
Ensure that you have continuous, uninterrupted power supply and internet WFH connection through the following devices:
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Powerbank
It’s a portable battery for recharging computers and other electronic devices during power interruptions or when wall chargers are inaccessible. Go for the best portable power banks with excellent battery capability, multiple USB ports, power output and input, and warranty.
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Pocket Wifi
Pocket wifi, MiFi, mobile hotspot, or internet dongle is a portable wireless modem. It connects a Wifi-enabled device with a WLAN card to the internet through a mobile phone network. You can use this on your smartphones, laptops, and desktops.
Select top-notch pocket wifi with fast internet speed and connection for the more rapid accomplishment of WFH tasks.
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Laptop Battery Charger
A laptop battery charger enables portable recharging of laptops in case of power interruptions. Although it is unnecessary, buying an excellent laptop battery charger ensures remote tasks even at the power stoppage.
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UPS
An uninterrupted power supply (UPS) delivers emergency power supply to devices when the input power source is interrupted, such as blackouts. It provides smooth closure of the computer system and sustenance of power for a few minutes before completely getting drained. Take a look at the best-selling UPS fit for your home-based work needs.
K. Preferred Computer Accessories
Miscellaneous computer accessories are supplementary materials that provide convenience in using and organizing computer devices. These include bags, protectors, filters, pads, and stands.
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Laptop Bag
If you need to change your workspace and bring your laptop with you, a good laptop bag is necessary. Choose a perfect waterproof laptop bag with multiple pockets and thick enough to cushion your computer to avoid damage and deformity.
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Keyboard Protector
A keyboard protector, skin, or cover is put on keyboards to keep them clean, free from dust and other particles. Buy a high quality keyboard skin that is compatible with your keyboard for hassle and dust-free typing.
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Blue Light Screen Protector for Computer
Do an eye-friendly computer desk task through the use of a blue light screen protector for computers. It filters blue light with high radiation and prevents eye strains and glares that can hinder your desk work.
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Mousepad
Place and scroll your mouse to a smooth mouse pad for accurate mouse movement and performance. Browse over the best and coolest mouse pads fit for your computer mouse.
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Laptop Stand
A laptop stand raises the laptop off a table or another surface. It adjusts the laptop height to eye level and decreases strain on wrists because of an angular keyboard placement. Also, it promotes airflow, preventing laptops from overheating.
Look over the top quality laptop stands and check their compatibility with your computer for efficient desk work.
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Monitor Risers
Monitor arm or riser raises a computer screen to an adjustable and eye level height to prevent eye strain and neck pain. Check out these cool monitor risers from Amazon to elevate your monitors to a more functional level.
Preparing and Finding for WFH Jobs
Choosing, designing, and setting up your home office is a tedious task as it requires review and proper choice of essential work items that match your work needs. Another challenging task is to find a work from home (WFH) job that fits your personality, educational background, hobbies and interests, and previous work experience.
How can I work from home?
During a pandemic, a WFH job is highly advisable to promote social distancing while securing a convenient job with flexible work hours. You can start working from home by browsing and applying to online job sites and printed pages that offer remote jobs. Try to develop skills through online training and hone the work skills needed for your remote job.
Work from home jobs includes diverse types of jobs, including teaching, transcribing, writing, sales, computer programming, virtual assistance, and writing. What are the best work from home jobs that you can find nowadays? These are the jobs that enhance your work skills, provide high salaries, secure tenure, and involve a collaborative work environment.
What skill should I learn to work from home?
Enhance these vital skills to help you land and sustain the WFH job best suited for you:
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Work-Specific Skills
First, determine the type of remote job that you want to pursue. From there, develop the work-specific skills aligned with the job. For freelance writing, for example, develop skills in grammar structure and sentence construction.
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Ability to Work Single-Handedly
Remote employers tend to appreciate and hire resourceful WFH employees with high independence and problem-solving skills to get things done unaided. Although virtual work communication is maintained, responses can be delayed compared with personal encounters. You need to stand out as independently as possible and show them that distance is never an issue toward working effectively.
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Self-Motivation/Self-Drive
Working in a home office setup requires a great deal of self-motivation to get work done amidst distractions, home activities, and noise. Develop your work schedule and routine and stick with it. Hire supervised care for your children, as necessary.
You need to work efficiently despite the continuous external and internal hindrances.
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Solid Written Communication Ability
Emails, social media, and other chat and messaging tools are getting popular in remote work environments. Be sure to construct a precise, clear, and grammatically structured, correct response or letter to your colleagues. Grammatically accurate reactions are necessary to prevent miscommunication, vagueness, and waste of time.
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Strong Oral Communication Skills
For virtual jobs requiring phone calls, video calls, or conferences, vital oral communication skill is a must. Use precise language easily understood by your co-worker or employer, unless jargon or technical wording is needed.
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Confidently Use and Learn Digital Tools.
A work-from-home job can be very challenging to individuals who are used to traditional, paper-based communication. Step out of the game by showing confidence in using and learning digital tools relevant to company communication and work performance. These tools may be project management programs, digital platforms, and groups or video conferencing.
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Team Collaboration and Cross-Cultural Literacy
As an employee, a team effort is vital to a remote job. Develop social skills like communication, collaboration, and accountability to fulfill your work duties, disseminate information, and maintain responsibility for others. After all, no person is an island, even in a home-based job.
Virtual jobs help employers hire the most qualified employees from different locations, cultures, languages, and communication styles. Ensure that you approach and acknowledge their cultural differences and practices to promote long-term work interaction.
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Trusted and Secure Equipment
Let’s admit that most employers will not provide computers and other devices for your WFH job. Make sure to canvas and purchase the latest and best equipment and computer and internet security options suitable for your work needs.
What are the best online courses for working from home jobs?
Nothing beats preparation and proper training in landing the best virtual job. Attend the best paid and free online courses to equip you with skills relevant to the position applied. Here are the nine top rating online job courses for you:
- Simple Profit Online Course
- General Proofreading: Theory and Practice
- Bookkeeper Launch Online
- Make Money Online with Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing
- General Transcription: Theory and Practice
- Work-at-Home School
- 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success
- 30 Days or Less to Freelance Writing Success
- Work Online as a Pinterest VA
- Internet Scoping School – Work at Home as a Scopist
What is the best way to find online work at home jobs? What are some work from home opportunities that aren’t a scam?
If you want to find legit, secure online jobs that are scam-free, follow these best recommendations:
- Thoroughly search the details of the online job listings and sites. If possible, stick with sites and companies with a physical and virtual office to verify its company existence.
- Ask for the help of your fellow virtual workers for any tips on applying for online jobs. Their application experience is precious in ascertaining the authenticity of the job.
- Dedicate as many hours in a week for your work search as much as you would do your actual work.
- Create an account that establishes linkages with your friends, colleagues, family, and former workmates. This approach aids in information generation and job leads. Make sure to post your most updated and relevant work details for employers to assess your work profile quickly.
- Search for the specific online sites for freelance workers such as Monster, Kalibrr, and Jora to help you find the best virtual job for you.
- Go to social media groups that offer WFH advice to remote worker aspirants, such as work from home setup Reddit group. Virtual workers and applicants share their first-hand experience of applying for online sites, in which you can get some valuable tips.
What are some of the best high paying work from home jobs?
According to FlexJobs, some of the best high paying work from home jobs with 100,000 dollars or more salaries per year are the following:
- IT Senior Project Manager – salary range from 84,000 to 145,000 dollars
- Business Development Manager – salary from 44,000 to 121,000 dollars
- Mobile Developer – ranges from 49,000 to 112,000 dollars
- Psychologist – salary from 48,000 to 113,000 dollars
- Senior Solutions Architect – salary range from 97,000 to 166,000 dollars
What are the best work from home opportunities for beginners?
If you apply first-time on an online job site, it can get stressful and challenging. You need to develop your work profile and make it stand out among other experienced virtual applicants. To decrease your burden of finding online jobs, here are the online jobs fit for beginners with little to no work experience:
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Short Tasks
It involves the performance of a small online task for a minimal fee, in cents or dollars.
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Online Juror
Online jurors participate in a mock jury by attorneys. They review audio and video presentations or read materials and answer questions related to a specific case.
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Data Entry
Basic data entry involves typing specific information relevant to the company, which requires no previous work experience.
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Website or Application Testing
It only requires you to test or browse a website or application for a specific use or time and then provide online feedback regarding the testing.
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Search Evaluator
Search evaluators review internet search results and respond as to the accuracy and relevance of the search. It requires a minimum college level and good communication skills.
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Proofreader
Proofreading is perfect for individuals who quickly detect typographical errors. Most proofreading jobs require a proofreading course or test before being hired in the position.
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Virtual Assistant
As a virtual aide or assistant, you will perform office assistant tasks in the virtual setting like scheduling appointments, managing emails, answering calls, and organizing meetings.
Are there any work from home internship opportunities?
Many home internship opportunities rose during the pandemic. Some of the sites that provide virtual internship are:
FAQs
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How do you work from home if your company doesn’t provide a laptop? You did have access to OWA using your own laptop, but you didn’t have access to the shared folder.
It is better to discuss the company’s access policies and the job limitations that you face with the minimal connection you have with your employer. Ask for alternative ways to access information while remotely working on a device that is not company provided. An IT staff can set up a VPN and file sharing to facilitate information and file access.
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Does working from home make you bad at communication?
Working from home does not make you bad at communication. On the contrary, it improves your written communication skills more as you deliberately filter and edit your messages before sending them. Some remote jobs still maintain oral communication skills through video calls and conferences.
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How can I work from home with a computer science degree? I want to work at home on my computer.
If you are a computer science degree holder, you can apply for online jobs like Cloud Network Engineer, Web Developer, Software Developer, Java J2EE Developer, and SQL Server Administrator.
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I am going to start my career at Virtusa as a fresher. Will they provide me the work from a home setup like a laptop, table, wifi, etc.?
Virtusa provides freshers with essential desktop equipment like desktop CPU, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and wifi adapter. It does not offer a table and wifi. However, once you are on board with a client and have finished your training, it will allow wifi and table reimbursement.
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I am in need of a job. What is a trustable and safe site to work from home and earn money?
There is no single online site that guarantees a WFH set up with a reliable income. Various online job sites like Indeed, Kalibrr, Glassdoor, Upwork, and Flexjobs offer access to legit work from home jobs. These also provide a good payout, depending on the type of online job you applied for.
Make sure to research the company and its physical address, and ask your friends about it. Legit online job sites never require money during the application process.
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What are your top sales tools to use for your work from a home setup?
The top sales tools perfect for a work from home setup are the following:
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Zoom
Boost your client sales by maintaining constant client communication through Zoom, a video conferencing tool.
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Dropbox
Use a file-sharing tool like Dropbox to store significant large sales, revenue, and business files relevant to your sales work.
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Slack
Slack is a versatile tool to maintain a connection with your team and your clients.
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HubSpot
It is a crucial CRM tool that enables full contact and lead management and improves your customer registry and communication.
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Trello
Use a great task management tool like Trello to organize, monitor, and evaluate your projects and tasks.
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How can I find freelance content writing work from home job?
Answer: Elna Cain, a freelance writer, shares 20 ways of finding freelance writing jobs as a beginner through this link. It includes cold pitching, creating your website, guest posting, and networking with other freelance writers.
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How do computer programmers work from home?
From the recent statistics, more and more computer programmers manage to work from home for a whole day. It gives them the convenience of being at home while avoiding office hassles. Online jobs like software development, web development, mobile developer, Java developer, and server administrator are within a computer programmer’s capabilities.
Final Words
Work from home setups provides work convenience and minimal office costs at the comfort of your home. It is a new work trend that impacts employees, employers, and companies at varying levels.
There are different essential work items in creating your best home office setup for productivity. However, they depend on your type of work, budget, and design preference. Just make sure these are functional enough to boost your work vibe, improve work productivity, and prevent muscle strains.
Continuously search for online jobs that fit your educational background, work experience, hobbies, and interests. Look for the legit sites and do a background search before venturing. Good luck with searching, landing, and doing your online office work at home!
What does your work from a home setup like, and does it work for you? What is your opinion about work from home when compared to work from the office? What are your ideas to work from home? Share us your thoughts, suggestions, and questions by commenting down below.
References
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https://www.wbaltv.com/article/employees-react-to-lack-of-human-interaction-coronavirus/34333343#
https://workingfromhomeinsider.com/10-reasons-why-companies-offer-work-from-home/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommuting
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https://techterms.com/
https://powerpractical.com/pages/what-is-tv-bias-lighting
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https://digital-photography-school.com/8-factors-to-look-at-before-you-choose-a-new-dslr-or-mirrorless-camera/
https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/best-camera-phone-megapixels-3502115/#toc-3502115-6
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https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-to-find-real-work-at-home-jobs-2064300
https://www.computersciencedegreehub.com/faq/work-home-computer-science-degree/#:~:text=On%20the%20other%20hand%2C%20software,Developer%2C%20and%20SQL%20Server%20Administrator.
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