Written by Christina Pichler, Feb 10, 2022
In times of online lectures and zoom meetings, our homes often turn into our own working places, lecture halls and home offices. What equipment does a perfect home office need? We know what’s important and researched gadgets with which you can optimise your working place at home. Therefore, we have the most useful must-haves for your home office!
If you have a lot to study, then you’re probably sitting in your room all day studying diligently. A daylight lamp can help you concentrate longer and slows down the process of getting tired because the simulated daylight increases the amount of serotonin in your body. Serotonin wakes you up. At the same time, the lamp decreases the amount of melatonin, the sleep hormone, in your body, which makes you sleepy. You can buy daylight lamps in electronic stores or online for about ~30€.
Our notebooks’, tablets’ and phones’ screens emit mostly short-wave blue light, which is especially tiring for our eyes. Surely, you’ve noticed yourself that your eyes get tired quickly and sometimes even hurt when you’re looking at screens for too long. Blue light filtering glasses can help with that, since it filters the damaging light. These glasses are available online for ~20€, but otherwise your optician can help you too.
Bonus tip: Ophthalmologists recommend 15-minute pauses every two hours for your eyes. Take a few minutes to gaze into the distance.
Essays, presentations, homework, seminar papers, bachelor or even master theses, students spend several hours every day writing on their laptops or computers. Even though it is not painful for most, it can cause a misalignment after some time. Therefore, we recommend using a wrist rest. This takes pressure off the wrist and prevents misalignment. There are wrist rests for keyboards as well as mousepads for roughly ~10€.
Whether you’re listening to music while studying or have noisy neighbours or online lectures, the right equipment for your ears is essential for your home office. If you live in a noisy area, noise-cancelling headphones are perfect for you because they suppress any distracting noise. If you have a lot of videoconferences, we recommend a high-quality headset because you also get an excellent microphone. It’s best to compare the options in the electronic store. The price for audio equipment starts at ~40€. For really good noise-cancelling headphones you’ll need to spend a bit more though.
Despite the fact that you should ventilate regularly, you can improve the atmosphere of your home office by using air fresheners. Not only do they look great, but they also make your room smell great. Small air fresheners start at ~20€.
The biggest problem when working from home is your posture. We rarely have the perfect furniture to support a good posture. However, you can improve ergonomic requirements with little gadgets like a laptop stand. You can change the height as well as the tilt of your laptop with a laptop stand. Theoretically, you could also grab your laptop and study in your bed on comfortable days. Laptop stands cost ~15€ and more.
Especially when you’re studying intensely or are extremely focused, it’s easy to forget to hydrate. But drinking enough water is essential for your brain to function properly. That’s why a water bottle can be helpful because you can better observe how much you’ve already drunk. Some water bottles even have markers that show you how much you should drink at what time. This gadget is especially cheap, water bottles cost ~3€.
Our phones distract us way too much. To avoid grabbing your phone too often, you can put it in a smartphone stand, so that you focus on studying. This way it stands in the corner of your desk and you’re not as tempted to play with it. You can buy smartphone stands for ~5€.
Our sedentary lifestyle, so the fact that we spend our days mostly sitting in the office, in lecture halls or at home, is very bad for our bodies. Back pain, tense shoulders and neck, pelvic misalignment and shortened muscles are only some side effects of sitting for hours on end. To counter this, you can use a sitting cushion for your home office. It’s not only comfortable, but also takes pressure off your back and tailbone. Sitting cushions start at ~15€.
Since you’re spending so much time in your home office, it is important that you feel comfortable and that you like your surroundings. Desk and room plants can be a great decoration. Not only do they look amazing and add something to your room, but they also improve air quality and oxygen supplies. Green lilies, monocots, aloe vera, arching hemp, common ivy and chrysanthemums work very well for this. Or you choose one of these easy indoor plants. It’s best to get inspiration and advice from your favourite flower shop.
A good footrest is another important tool to improve your sitting posture. It’s even more important if your feet don’t touch the floor while sitting because it is very tiring for your back. Some footrests even have massage points that stimulate the soles of your feet which can feel nice after sitting for a long time. You can buy footrests for approximately ~20€.
How often do you get great ideas while you’re trying to focus on studying? In this case, a pin board or the modern version, a whiteboard, is a great addition to your home office. This way you can quickly jot down your ideas and then get back to work. A whiteboard is also great for writing down your to dos. You can get pin boards and whiteboards for ~10€ in stationary or furniture shops.
Desk mats not only protect your desk from ink stains and cust, but they can also be a visual improvement and practical. There are multifunctional desk mats that also function as mousepads or notepads. Or how about a desk mat that has storage space for pens and chargers? Depending on your needs for your home office, you can get a fitting desk mat.
Sometimes time seems to freeze, sometimes time flies. In order to never lose track of time, you should get a clock for your home office. If you want to always have the time in front of you, you should chose a wall clock, which is a great decoration at the same time. If you like to work in chunks or maybe want to work with the pomodoro technique, then a timer or beautiful sand clock would be perfect for you.
It’s hard to work amidst of chaos and a chaotic desk is the death of your motivation. It’s easiest and best to work in a beautiful and clean working environment. Therefore, you should get a desk organizer for your home office. There you can store chargers, pens, computer equipment, post its and documents. For example, you could get a desk organizer in furniture stores for about ~20€.
Your home office is perfectly equipped with these gadgets and you have a perfect study environment. In many STUWO dormitories you can switch between your own room and the learning lounges for a little bit of a change of scenery. If you need a more radical change of place, we recommend a study session in a learning café or university library!
Best pets for students: An overview and tips for making a decision