Optimize Your Space for Working & Learning at Home

Today's modern families are living, working and studying from home. From remote work, online learning, and hybrid models, home study/word spaces have become increasingly popular. In order to help, here are some easy home improvement tips to make sure you and your student have the best possible learning and working environment. 

Limit Distractions

It is important to find a place with few distractions when trying to create a space that facilitates remote learning and working from home.  Choose a quiet spot where your child can focus and remove distractions such as background music, cell phones and television.  Ambient noise and classical music might help as well if there are others in the home.  Still, you might be constantly battling with outside noise.  If you are already considering window replacement, noise reduction windows are probably a top priority.  Our Lifestyle Style windows just received the Quiet Mark Award.  They would be helpful in creating a better distraction free space for both you and your child.   

Designate a study space with lots of natural light

Incorporating natural light into the workspace can provide physical and physiological benefits to kids and adults. Natural light is shown to benefit health, concentration and even test scores. In addition, it reduces eyestrain, improves the mood, help prevent drowsiness and assists in fewer mistakes. Setting up a workspace near a large window or patio door will make sure everyone is getting plenty of sunlight throughout the day.   

Establish a routine, and stick with it

Along with creating an effective remote learning space, maintaining and communicating predictable routines is critical as we all adjust to the structure of working from home or remote learning. Even if it’s a little crazy, writing the crazy schedule down will help you and your children know what is coming up and when. Make the schedule together and post it clearly in a common space. It helps us all maintain a sense of structure even as we all adapt to the shift in daily life.  

Equipment and Electronics

When choosing a desk space make sure there is a designated spot for everything. This includes electronics, workbooks and even an electric pencil sharpener.  This will help things stay organized and keep you and your student focused.  Hint: always have enough cords to plug your electronics in at the end of the day. It’s the worst when your computer dies on the middle of a Zoom call. 

When choosing a desk and a chair make sure they is comfortable and limits distractions.  It might not be the best idea to have a chair that swivels.  It might be a distraction for a nine-year-old. Even if everyone is going to be back at work or school this will be a nice setup for homework as well.