How does having a home office in the garden help your productivity?

Here I wrote an article for a real estate firms website about garden offices, becoming increasingly popular in the UK.

For the past year, many of us have been required to set up offices inside our homes, amidst the chaos of our families and daily occupations. It has been difficult to find appropriate spaces that weren’t the dining table, the unmade bed or the kitchen top. Some have found themselves staring at computer screens whilst drowning in seas of children’s toys and infant screams, dog barks and afternoon chats. Working from home means the inevitable fate of being disturbed by the familial helter-skelter of the home, the habitual pitter-patter of loved ones around.

However, a growing number of families in the UK have been indulging in garden offices, an increasingly popular solution - Direct Line’s home insurance branch released research stating that since lockdown, roughly 1 million homeowners had acquired a shed or similar structure to use as a workspace. A further 1.1 million were found planning to do so in the next year. The market offers a great range of various structures ranging from traditional garden sheds to complex and modern pods. Plus, a garden office does not require planning permission in the UK.

Garden offices present a huge push in productivity for their users. A serene outdoor setting is a breath of fresh air for folks accustomed to the indoor disorder - looking out on greenery and soaking in the calm of the outdoors. A separate space to have a break from the madness of the home can be a blessing: having an office in the garden is an efficient way to compartmentalise work and personal life, providing a decent work-life balance. A separate workspace means more privacy, hence more concentration.

A garden office is greatly customisable and can provide an adaptable and flexible environment to grow and evolve in. Whether your work or family is constantly evolving, a garden office can present a functional place whose sole purpose is to cater to your needs for a healthy workspace.

Working from home suggests dictating an atmosphere of quiet and calm upon your family. For some, it isn’t even a possibility, let alone pleasant situation to have to enforce. Having a place to work on your own terms can lift a whole lot of stress off your shoulders, which opens one up to productive and constructive times of work.