There was a time when the words home and office implied two very different settings in a person’s life, but nowadays the two seem to have blended, with the notion of working from home a rather common one. If you find yourself bringing your work home with you and actually finding it a more productive way to work, then a designated home office with all the right features is certainly something you will need.
A home office should be a comfortable, tidy space that maximises productivity, therefore no TV to distract you, unless it is required for work with conference calls, of course, and no family members constantly popping in for chats! One such way to increase productivity is to embrace all that modern technology has to offer with the use of some ever-so helpful smart technology to make your day run that much more smoothly, leaving you with plenty of time to get back to your home life.
Whether you have recently created a space for yourself or you have had a home office for some time now, it could just be the time to upgrade with some fantastic smart features and, here at LLM – Luxury Lifestyle Magazine, we do love to find ways to make our lives run much more smoothly. In light of this, we’ve had a look around at the latest smart technology and have shortlisted our top four picks to make you all that more efficient while working from home by bringing your office up to date.
Lighting controls
Now, we all know how to operate a light switch, but how about being able to control various types of lighting in your home office with a desktop touch screen panel? Using cutting edge technologies with simple to use devices and customisable features, specialists in smart office automation, such as Mayflower London use the expertise of their in-house technicians to programme the most efficient lighting system for your space.
Fancy features include illuminated in-wall keypads that come with individual custom engraved buttons, visually pleasing integrated dimmers and light switches – more so than a conventional set up, and a choice of devices, handheld or desktop, to control the lighting in the space.
Climate controls
With the weather in a constant state of who knows what, it can be difficult to decide whether it is a blast of heat, or a constant trickle of cool air you need at any given time. This is why one of our favourite smart upgrades has to be climate controls – the idea of walking into a room with a constant flow of perfectly temperature-controlled air is a dream for us all when the weather gets out of hand.
Climate controls installed in your home office can take the stress away leaving you to focus on your work in a comfortable environment and, better yet, you can set up a pre-programmed schedule so that the instant you enter the room, the temperature is already at your desired level. Ultimately saving on your energy bills and creating a more sustainable approach to how you use energy, this is a great option.
Smart speaker
If you love all the gadgets and gizmos modern life offers up, then you will likely already be in possession of a smart speaker. But did you know that these inconspicuous devices aren’t just there to play your favourite tunes? They have a wealth of fancy features to utilise in an office setting too.
Your very own home-based personal assistant, a smart speaker is there to inform you of the date and time at its most basic level, but it can also provide you with reminders for a work meeting, and ensure you take breaks and finish work in good time. If you find yourself out of coffee, add it to the shopping list or order it online, and if you’re short of information, ask away and the answer shall be spoken!
Smart glasses
Try as you might to ignore distractions at home, this is often inevitable so keep on track with a pair of smart glasses. Connecting to an app on your smartphone, the glasses have the ability to track your brain power and heart rate in real time and provide you with feedback on your efforts so you can best decide how and when your best performance arises. You will also get a helpful little nudge if you find yourself gazing out the window for too long – very nifty.
