How To Create A Home Office In 24 hours: Is It Possible?

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In the last year, the majority of employers and employees have had to drastically adjust to the new normal, working remotely from home. In a lot of those instances, the turnaround was as little as 24 hours to allow employees to get set up and work from home. So can we create a home office in 24 hours?

Creating a home office in 24 hours is possible so long as you plan accordingly. Having your decor choices mapped out, furniture selected, and main office usage mapped out, will make the process of creating your office in 24 hours possible. 

So what are some quick tips you can follow to create your home office in 24 hours, and what should you avoid when designing your office in a short time? Keep reading to find out more!

(Just a heads up a lot of people reading my blog are in the process of designing their own home office. If you want to save some of the painstaking time I did in designing my office, you can find my recommended products here)

How to create a home office in 24 hours

Hold it! don’t go into a mad panic throwing stuff together as that will always inevitably lead to the working space being set up incorrectly or missing key things.

To adequately set up a home office in 24 hours you need to ask yourself the following questions:

• What will your home office be used for?
• What essential items do you need?
• How much space do you have to play with?
• How long will they take to move in?
• Do you need to decorate your office space? 

Let’s explore these below:

What will your home office be used for

Deciding what your office will be used for is the first step to setting up an office in 24 hours.

After all, if it will just be used for desk work for your 9-5 then the items you will need will be different than compared to if it is used by everyone you live with.

It’s also important to get an idea of what your job role entails

If you are working in the legal field you might need some shelves and cabinets to hold your files and book, alternatively, if you are a YouTuber you might need a more spacious area to set up your recording equipment which needs good lighting.

Make sure to take the time you need to plan accordingly as that will make the whole process a lot easier and stop you from having to constantly waste time making corrections.

What essential items do you need?

Now with all that being said, you are on the clock so I would say any home office, regardless of size or purpose requires the following ( click on the links to see my recommendations):

• Desk
• Chair
• Laptop
• Monitor
• Lighting

It’s also worth noting that if you intend on using your home office for hobbies too ( say woodworking… yes people do this in their spare time)

How much space do you have to work with 

Once you have completed your checklist of what you need in your office we need to decide on where we will call home at home – you get what I mean!

There are three key factors when considering your space:

Space itself – is it sufficient for what you need? If you don’t have much spare space to work with then it’s about being creative, e.g. can you use your walls to create more shelves or can you move your storage cabinet underneath the table? The key is to work with what you have and be creative on how to adjust to the situation.

Lighting – often forgotten about but lighting is such a key factor to consider when working. Make sure you don’t plunk your desk in a dark corner of the room – make use of natural lighting. To highlight the importance of Lighting there was a study carried out by the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine:

Number of employees	Work Condition	Sleep Quality	Well being
27	Placed in Windowless Environment	Much poorer sleep quality	Worse off than those with sunlight
22	Placed with significantly more sunlight	Better sleep quality	Engaged in more physical activity

As you can see the impact of having better lighting is huge so please do not forget to ensure you’re working in a well-lit space. Don’t forget if the natural lighting and room lights are not sufficient you can always get lamps!

Privacy & Quiet – The last key factor is to ensure your office is based somewhere where you can work with privacy and also quiet.

Depending on your role you might be dealing with confidential or sensitive information that needs to be properly protected.

Also, just from a production perspective the more private and quieter the workspace the more you can get lost in a large data set and analyses work.

The last thing you need is interruptions every 10 mins meaning you have to refocus and start again.

If you do not have the option of a separate workspace and e.g. have to share with your partner or sibling then invest in some screen protectors so that you can at least ensure the screen isn’t readable to anyone but you!

How long will they take to move in

So you’ve decided on your office function, made a note of who will be using the office and how much space you have to work with, the next thing will be deciding how long any furniture might take to move in.

Now whilst My first option would usually be to go to the web to find recommendations for items to build your office with, (such as my fantastic recommendations)  delivery may be an issue especially if you want to buy and install your items on the same day.

The best thing I found to do in this situation is to go to a retail park that has multiple furniture outlets that will easily allow you to compare three versions of your essential items.

The good news is that stores like IKEA are usually in larger retails parks that have other types of shops (like tech shops)

Do you need to decorate your office space?

Finally, and arguably the most controversial point. Is if you need to decorate your office space.

Whilst I love a lick of fresh paint (seriously blue is the best color for a home office) the truth is that in a 24 hour period you won’t have enough time to decorate your office space with a new coat of paint, flooring, or other essential design ideas.

The best thing to do in this situation, if you really want to redesign is to try to do this either in advance or after the 24 hour period as it will just take too long.

Timetable for creating your home office in 24 hours

So I appreciate I’ve spoken quite a bit in this blog post but want to give you a solid timetable to work from to make things easy so hopefully the table below can show you how to successfully create a home office in 24 hours – try to stick to it as a blueprint to further help save you a lot of time and unwarranted stress.

Time	Task
Before your 24 hour period	Paint your room the color and design of your choice. Consider looking at this post for office design inspiration.  Set a budget for the total amount you want to spend on your office space
6am – 6.30am	Decide what your home office will be used for and its primary users.
6.30am – 7.30am	Measure out your office space with a tape measure to understand how much space you have to work with.
7.30am – 8.30am	Make a list of the essential items you will need in your office space.
8.30am – 10am	Do a quick google search of the types of products that are available as well as the price needed for these – this will help you see if your budget is adequate or if you need more.
10am – 11am	break/travel to your nearest retail park.
11am – 3pm	Visit your nearest retail park and purchase the items you need for your home office. Compare three models of each and choose the one which you like best for best results.
3pm – 4pm	break/travel back home – you may need to organize the delivery for the same day which can cost around $50
4pm – 6pm	Get help ( or if you are tough do this by yourself) to move the items into your office space and unpackage
6pm – 6am	Start assembling your furniture and small decor bits, ensure you get plenty of rest. You may find that you get done quicker than you had originally anticipated.

Functionality vs Look

A common mistake made when creating the office space is people browse the internet for inspiration and purchase items based solely on looks and not function.

Remember I am not saying you can’t have both, but you need to make sure that the stylish chair you purchased will actually support your back for 8 hours a day.

Or purchasing that cool-looking half moon-designed table only to realize you have a really limited workspace.

Also, ensure to take some time to hide away any clutter or mess e.g. wiring as that will only distract you and not let you feel as if you’re in the actual office.

Also, have you considered whether you want a sitting or standing desk or both? Studies have shown standing can help reduce health issues such as obesity as you burn more calories standing than you do sitting!

Image courtesy of uncaged ergonomics

Plug Time! If you need inspiration for how much you want to spend on your home office please see our below two blogs that start from 0 yes 0 to whatever you want!

How To Make An Office At Home For Free

How Much Should You Spend On A Home Office? 

Alternatively, if you have more than 24 hours you can check our sister blog on how to build an office in a week!

Organize

What if I told you that in the US the average employee wastes more than 2 hours a week finding, sharing, and storing documents.

Yes, you have read that right! A study in the US found that there was a significant direct impact between being disorganized and your working hours.

Why do I bring this up?

Well, when building your office space you need to make sure you have set up a good filing system to ensure you know where you have placed your documents – remember I am not just talking about your filing cabinet I mean your digital library as well.

The last thing you need is to spend time finding documents for significant parts of your day.

Also, remember when setting up your filing system and areas for any documents you are reviewing actively that being organized will help avoid the room being cluttered and boost your productivity.

Lastly make sure you are well stocked on essential items such as pens, papers, staples, highlighters, and so on.

The last thing you need in the middle of the day is to go to the shop/office to pick up stock!

And there you have it! You have built your office in 24 hours and are raring to go!

Remember good planning will make that transition so much better and efficient and naturally over time you can add any bells & whistles you want!

Finally, a lot of people reading my blog want to know what products I recommend for a home office/remote working. You can find out my recommendations here and learn how I make money whilst working remotely on the side here.