Even though the circuit breaker ended last June, Singapore has recently tightened social interactions and gone back to the default state of working from home under Phase 2 (Heightened Alert).
Employees who are able to work from home have reverted back to work from home arrangements. While eight out of 10 workers in Singapore say they prefer to work from home or have flexible working arrangements, problems like burn-out and low productivity are prevalent.
After all, there are more distractions, less accountability, and less communication at home than when working in the office.
However, that does not mean that you cannot be productive. In fact, there are many ways in which you can keep yourself working productively despite working remotely.
Here are some tried-and-tested products that can help you get the most out of your home office:
1. A desk that can do it all
Having a proper workspace gets you in the right frame of mind to begin working each day, and sustain the momentum during working hours. The dining room table can only be comfortable for so long, so why not upgrade to a fully adjustable table suitable for both work and leisure?
The Omnidesk makes for a great table option for your work-from-home setup. It’s not good to be sitting at your desk all day, so they have integrated an adaptable desk feature that allows you to work while standing if you ever need to switch things up.
Founded by the same guys behind Aftershock PC in 2018, Omnidesk offers the quintessential desk for the modern age, with the goal to recreate the magic of having customisability at your fingertips with an entirely new product segment.
Omnidesk is essentially something that you might have seen in many tech offices, especially among programmers — a height adjustable desk that lets you switch between working sitting down and standing up.
The difference however, as you would expect from the guys behind Aftershock, is that their desks are fully customisable from the ground up. In other words, you can configure it in any way you like — you can pick the tabletop size, desk colours, and accessories such as monitor stands and speaker mounts.
Moreover, the flagship Omnidesk Pro 2020 features four smart memory programmable presets that allows you to save your favourite profiles. This means that you can switch to your ideal sitting, standing or even bean bag table positions at a touch of a button.
Paired with the Omnidesk Cable Management Bar and Mounted Power Bar, the full setup required for a neat under-desk cable management system is completed.
To add on, the Omnidesk Pro’s ergonomic curve provides a natural and comfortable location to rest your arms during usage, allowing you to experience utmost comfort. All these features combined definitely make for an excellent addition to your work-from-home setup.
2. An energy booster
Getting a cup of coffee might have been part of your morning routine, but now that the need to travel has been eliminated, it might be difficult to grab that energy booster.
Furthermore, in the absence of fixed office schedules, many often work through lunch or past official working hours. Taking a break is needed, and it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re slacking off.
Instead, a break can help to increase your productivity and leave you feeling recharged to power through the day.
With the abundance in variety of coffee brew bags, having a coffee break while working from home has become convenient, quick and easy.
The Executive Brew Bundle from Foreword Coffee Roasters is specially designed for those who have been drinking coffee their entire lives and now want to enjoy coffee at its best.
Consisting of compostable coffee capsules, biodegradable coffee brew bags and a designer cup that repurposes coffee husks, the bundle makes for an enjoyable yet sustainable coffee brewing experience at home.
Foreword Coffee is not your run-of-the-mill coffee house. It is a social enterprise with a vision of empowering persons with disabilities and special needs through employment opportunities, such as for individuals with autism, intellectual disability, deafness, cerebral palsy and mental health conditions.
Starting from January 2021, the coffee brand has also pledged five per cent of its sales revenue derived from its latest version of coffee brew bags to community development projects in coffee growing regions in Asia.
In this fast-paced digital age, employees are loaded with tasks and responsibilities to execute, which can lead to burnout, stress and unnecessary tension.
A brief coffee break provides you with a quick way to relax and unwind, and can also help enhance productivity levels, increase focus and lower the stress levels at work.
Foreword Coffee provides the best of both worlds — a quick energy booster while doing good.
3. A recovery tool
Sitting at your desk all day is bound to leave you with some body aches.
According to Gleneagles Hospital, work-from-home injuries related to backaches and sprains have increased significantly in Singapore since the circuit breaker period, with neck and backaches up among the chief complaints.
Maintaining comfort should always be a priority, and you can relieve yourself of these aches and pains with Hydragun.
Hydragun is a sports recovery device to relieve muscle soreness, tightness, aches, and knots. It’s a next-generation tool designed to help your body speed up recovery through myofascial release.
The performance technology startup aims to provide emerging product solutions to help individuals reach their physical and mental peak.
Its muscle massage gun is powered by SmoothDrive motor technology, which makes it one of the quietest amongst popular massage tools. Quieter, stronger, sturdier, and sleeker; Hydragun’s unique design and build quality breaks new ground in recovery technology.
Working from home can be tiring, and the process will be made worse if you are plagued with nagging body aches. With the Hydragun, you can easily enjoy a massage with the click of a button.
4. Handcrafted, artisanal sound system
Voice and video conferences are now a norm as teams are split into different locations, but the remote work experience is thwarted by bad audio.
Recall the last conference call you had, or the last time you spoke with a client over the phone. Were you frustrated or confused because you could not clearly hear what was going on?
If you have had to ask someone to repeat themselves or repeat yourself multiple times, you are not alone. The speakers on phones and laptops might not be sufficient, so it’s worthy to invest in a new sound system for your home.
Soundkraft brings you a Bluetooth speaker that is a cross breed of Thai artistry, Scandinavian and German audio engineering; as well as the latest advancement in digital signal processing and electronic design.
Soundkraft’s co-founder Oon has been building amplifiers and speakers for the last 35 years. Being a maverick DIY enthusiast allowed him to test every conceivable approach out there and to see things for what they really are.
The speaker’s monocoque design is carved from a single piece of wood serves as a pressure vessel, ensuring maximum rigidity and minimal amount of unwanted vibration. Its spherical shape also ensures sound wave is distributed evenly in all directions.
Besides using the speakers for work, they are also excellent for leisure. Having a bluetooth input means these speakers can be linked directly to many modern day TVs and laptops for an immersive home theatre and gaming experience.
All Soundkraft’s Enigma speakers are assembled, individually measured and optimised in Singapore. This results in a system with an incredibly flat frequency response for truly accurate music reproduction.
5. A journal with specialised templates
Jamie Lee of The Kind Friend realised that people of all ages and demographics were trying to understand “how to lead a happy and meaningful life, and cope with stress and anxiety.”
This is probably even more relevant now as social distancing has made human interaction harder to come by. According to a report by Channel News Asia, more Singaporeans are feeling anxious as the pandemic has triggered feelings of uncertainty about the future.
Like physical health, mental health is equally important, and has the ability to affect one’s work and overall quality of life.
A report by the University of Rochester Medical Center states that one of the ways to deal with any overwhelming emotion is to find a healthy way to express yourself. This makes a journal a helpful tool in managing mental health, or even as a means of relaxation.
The Kind Friend is a journal that has been carefully crafted, and has curated templates to help users overcome stress and anxiety through journaling. Each journal includes 26 weekly templates that help users to set goals, track habits and moods, and prompt them to reflect on their week.
Besides using a journal as a way to cope with stress, it can also double up as a way for one to keep track of their goals and progress at work.
Gear up for optimal work-from-home productivity
One of the biggest challenges of working from home is setting up a home office with the right tools, but once you’ve got everything in place, it’s easier to get work done, as our output at work is very closely tied to the tools that we have.
It is likely that working from home will be here to stay for an even longer period of time, and products that enhance our workspaces and well-being are deemed a worthy investment.
With these products, working from home will be made so much more comfortable, leading to an increase in productivity and efficiency.
You can shop some of these products now on VP Label:
Featured Image Credit: The Pride: Singapore Kindness Movement
