Light in a working environment can affect both your mood and productivity. So getting it right when you’re working from home is important.
Offices usually have a set lighting pattern – long strips of neutral, uniform light. While this might not be the most inspiring lighting system it is designed to help you work. The light doesn’t glare on screens, offers little contrasting shadow and isn’t overly bright.
But when working from home, you’re faced with lighting that’s designed to help you to relax rather than focus.
Here’s how to get the lighting system in your home office right…
Change your shade
Start with the largest light in the room, which is usually the ceiling light.
You’re aiming to get a diffuse glow that covers a large area. Remove any map shade that focuses the direction of the light down and change for a large pendant fixture or globe style shade that provides a gentle, even glow.
Use curtains
The other main source of light should be natural light from outside. Though this is a tricky one to deal with as, unlike office buildings that often have windows on all sides, home offices might just have a single window.
It means the sunlight changes during the day and depending on weather conditions. You could have perfect lighting in the morning, but have the sun shining into your eyes or across your screen by the afternoon.
Curtains and blinds can be used to control the daylight. You don’t want to block it out completely, so find a system that lets it in but in a controlled manner.
Bring in daylight lamps
If your window isn’t big enough, try using a daylight lamp to mimic the natural light from outside.
These shouldn’t be seen as a source of light to work from but as a way to provide both a gentle, even light source as well as a more natural form of light that’ll help your eyes and brain, reducing eye strain and headaches.
Use lamps correctly
Lamps are great for home offices but they need to be used correctly.
Having a single lamp on with your computer screen isn’t great as you’ll create a deep contrast between light from the screen and the lamp, and the darkness of the rest of the room. This will put unnecessary strain on your eyes.
Instead, use lamps alongside your main light source to help remove shaded areas.
Lamps can also be used to create areas for specific tasks like reading. But make sure the light from the lamp covers the whole area and not just part of it.
Use a single colour scheme
We’re not talking paint here but light. You might think one bulb is the same as the next but each one provides a different level of warmth.
So if you’ve got a standard, warm glow bulb in your main light but an LED lamp on your desk, you’ll have two different types of light, which can cause eye strain. Make sure other light sources use the same bulb type as the main one.
Remember the wires
The more light sources you have, the more wires. Not only can these be unsightly, but they can also be a trip hazard and could cause a plug adapter to overload if you’ve got them all switched on at once.
A surge in this situation could affect your computer if it’s attached to the same adaptor.
Posted by The Secret Businessman