The office has taken on a new level of importance. In 2020, home offices set the stage for unprecedented productivity at work.
Whether you’re continuing to work from home or returning to a little slice of your company’s headquarters, you know the right office setup empowers you to stay productive and supports your physical and mental health.
At Foresight, we help your clients manage risk through our proprietary technology because our goal is for all workers to get home safe. And that extends to our distributed team working from their home offices. So we asked our brilliant team for their office must-haves that keep them feeling motivated every day — and we got some brilliant answers!
Our Favorite Ergonomic Furniture
Chair, desk, computer. Those items work well for a quick call or answering emails, but to work full time, your body deserves the best fit for ergonomic health.
Ergonomic furniture and accessories help prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders, which can absolutely result from working at a desk. Some of the biggest risks of working from a home office include improper posture, repetitive movements, and even compression.
So what does our team do to support our spines?
Everyone recommends investing in your chair. You’ll know you have the right chair when your neck, shoulders, and arms are relaxed, with your ears roughly over your shoulders.
- Emilio, Chief Insurance Officer, recommends Humanscale chairs.
- Michael, VP of Business Development, recommends using a lumbar pillow for support and putting a Purple cushion in the seat.
- Lindsey, Senior Growth Manager, uses a drafting chair with armrests and footrest.
Many on the Foresight team are also partial to a standing desk. Standing desks or sit-stand desks come with all kinds of benefits, including the reduction of shoulder and back pain. If you aren’t ready to replace your current set-up, you can also add a standing element to your existing desk to raise your workstation to eye level. Be sure to use an anti-fatigue mat while standing.
Whether you sit, stand, or walk, you also need to make sure you have the right desk accessories including:
- Ergonomic mouse
- Ergonomic keyboards
- Laptop and monitor stands (to bring the screen to eye level)
Tip: Want to make sure your office won’t be hard on your body? Use our ergonomic workstation checklist to evaluate your office setup.
Our Favorite Ways of Staying Active
Have you noticed that it’s somehow even easier to sit at your desk all day when you’re in your home office? With no colleagues to talk to or group Starbucks runs to make, working from home requires you to find a different routine.
How are Foresight staff staying active? Well, it’s not easy, but if you develop a daily rhythm and focus on activities you enjoy, you’re more likely to find more success.
- Hunter, Senior Manager, Operations, recommends setting reminders to achieve consistency. He recommends forgetting about intensity, just get up and move.
- Emilio recommends trying to stand as much as possible during work. He’s also a big advocate of using golf to keep active.
- Elaine, Commerical Underwriter, swears by her sit-stand desk.
- Christine, VP Business Development, Southwest Region, always tries to get in 30 minutes of cardio or weight training every day.
- Michael takes walks around the neighborhood to keep moving.
- Lindsey starts the day on her feet at her standing desk and takes an active walk or hike with her family a few days each week.
- Nikki, Content Marketing Specialist, keeps active by walking the dog or going swimming or out on her SUP.
Foresight’s Top Picks for Mental Health & Productivity
Mental health and productivity are two sides of the same coin: burnout leads to productivity fall out. Switching off and protecting our mental health is important for our professional and personal lives.
As a remote-first organization, the Foresight team relies on productivity tools as a core part of our daily work. Some of our favorite methods for getting things done include:
- Asana, Slack, Zoom, and Google for collaboration
- Notebooks for physical to-do lists and the dopamine hit of marking an item as done
- A great pair of noise-canceling headphones
- Good music to keep focused and inspire the occasional dance break
Tip: Want to keep up with your co-workers, build something fun, and try out music you might otherwise not experience? Use Spotify Premium to collaborate on a remote playlist and keep your team grooving to the music. Check out the Foresight Spotify Playlist here.
Mental Health Tips from the Foresight Team
Protecting your mental health is the most important task you have. And the methods you take look different for everyone. Some of the ways our team cares for their whole selves include:
- Christine takes small breaks and adds meaning to her rest by chatting with peers. (Social interaction contributes to positive short- and long-term health outcomes.)
- Lindsey is a big believer in investing in yourself through counseling or therapy. And nothing beats a good belly laugh, especially when shared with someone you love.
- Michael listens to motivational podcasts during downtime.
- Elaine keeps worship music flowing through her headphones.
- Hunter checks in with meditation apps and uses white noise to relax. (White noise works! One study found white noise can relieve agitation and improve mental status in older adults with dementia.)
- Nikki loves-to-hate (or hates-to-love) cold water swimming. (Even five minutes in the water generates a rush of feel-good endorphins and reduces chronic stress.)
Foresight Staff’s Favorite Home Office Items
Now for some fun!
Working from a personalized space will leave you feeling more inspired, creative, and productive every day. Some of our team’s favorite office items include:
- Elaine loves her essential oil diffuser and keeps a magic wand for bind orders.
- Michael keeps his surfboard in his office to remind himself that life and work should be fun.
- Lindsey loves her sloth glasses holder and keeps a corkboard full of pictures of the family, Foresight brand specs, and her work/life mantras.
- Christine is a plant evangelist: they’re great for oxygenation and keep some life around you.
- Emilio keeps plenty of pictures of his kids on his desk.
Get More Tips from the Foresight Team
Foresight is an industry leader in risk management, so it’s no surprise that our team goes out of their way to minimize risk to their bodies and minds, especially when working from home.
Are you ready to help your clients better manage their risks and prevent claims? Get in touch to learn more about how Foresight’s innovative risk management technology could help your middle-market clients.
