Getting that home/work balance just right isn’t easy. Even more so when you have to work from home. It can be difficult to find the motivation to work when you have the children running around your office or workspace, leaving a trail of sticky fingerprints and toys behind them. It’s wonderful being able to pick them up from school and be there while they’re growing up…but it’s not easy.

So, with that in mind – rearranging your workspace and creating a specific area just for you has the potential to make it all a little easier. Even if you don’t work from home, you still need a place to keep all those important documents, diaries, and an area to help you keep on top of things like school fetes, non-uniform days and somewhere you can help the kids with their homework.

Read on for 4 tips to help make your workspace work for you!

Have everything you need in one place.

Pens, pencils, paper, printer ink – check out Printerinks.com canon for the latest cartridge prices – these are all the things that will help make your work run a little smoother. There’s nothing more frustrating then desperately hunting down a pen to take a note and all you can find are three pencils with broken nibs and a broken biro, so you resort to writing in a dried up felt tip that one of the kids left on your desk…Having all your stationery and your work materials in one simple place will make it all so much easier.

Invest in a little filing cabinet, pretty pencil pots or a set of desktop drawers for smaller things like sticky notes and paper clips. Keep it organised.

Get some light in your life

Hunched over the laptop at 11 pm in the dark won’t do your back, eyes, productivity or your mental health any favours, so it’s time to light it up. Try to work in an area with as much natural light as possible; this is good for the mind and your energy levels too. As it gets darker, you can rely on some good artificial lighting to keep you and your productivity going. Try a good desk lamp with a soft glow – you don’t want it too bright.

Keep little hands out

You might need to sit the little ones down and let them know that your workspace is an important place. You don’t need to banish them from it – just let them know that it needs to be kept clean and tidy and if they want any pens or pencils all they have to do is ask you first. They’ll understand.

Arrange and declutter

A desk with no room for the laptop is no good. So get rid of all those old documents, scrap pieces of paper and curled up post-it notes. If you need to hang onto some of it, then file it away somewhere that is not your open desk space. Keep it clean. Simple and tidy.