It’s all about productivity. Having a dedicated space in which you keep office hours, focused on your job, helps you maintain your normal office discipline while working from home (even if you relax the dress code radically). It also means that entering or leaving your office space is your daily equivalent of ‘clocking in’ or ‘knocking off’, so you can set boundaries between your work and home life.

Invest in your property and connectivity

If you own your home, building yourself a home office – either attached to the house, or as a separate outbuilding – could add value to your property. So, taking out a personal loan to fund that renovation could be an investment.

Even if you already have a room to turn into an office, you might need some extra money to make sure that it is set up right. Do you already have all the right office furniture and tech at home? Are you facing installation costs for a faster internet connection? Do you need a printer? Will you need to upgrade your home computer system or laptop, so that you can connect better with the platforms your company has to work remotely?

You should have a look at your Wi-Fi network hardware, too. Not all Wi-Fi routers are equal, and it pays to invest in one that can handle the higher volume of traffic across more devices connected to the network. If you’re working from home while your children are also studying online, then this upgrade would boost family harmony.

Check affordability

It’s an investment in your future productivity to get the best tech you can afford. Nothing is as frustrating as hearing only every third word in a conversation because your connection is too slow. Weigh up your available options and get the fastest speed your budget will allow.

Using a loan to make sure you have comfortable work furniture isn’t a luxury – it’s an investment in working from home productively

Whether you need to build a home office from scratch, or simply re-equip an existing room in your home as your office, be sure to include all the once-off costs in your renovation budget. That will give you the total amount you need to borrow. Whether you qualify for a loan that size will depend on several factors, including affordability.

Affordability depends on how much of your discretionary income – the money you have left after paying your fixed monthly expenses – the repayments for a new loan will take up.

Invest in your furniture

Using a loan to make sure you have comfortable work furniture isn’t a luxury: like broadband, it’s an investment in working from home productively. Procrastination is one of the main pitfalls of the #WFH life, and little niggles about your comfort make perfect excuses for procrastination.

Ideally, you should have a work desk and a decent chair that offers you comfort and support. This is one investment that goes a long way towards reducing fatigue, especially if you spend many hours at your desk. Using multiple displays is another way you can improve your productivity. Apart from making you feel like a rock star, this setup helps you organise different workspaces so that everything is easy to see or use.

As you settle into #WFH fulltime, you can expect to be looking for new ways to improve your work environment and boost your productivity continually. Putting the basics in place from the start can only make that easier in the long run.

Did you know that if you take out a personal loan and open a Nedbank MiGoals Plus or MiGoals Premium Account, you can get R200 a month cash back for the duration of your loan? For an affordable loan tailored to your circumstances and value-added extras like cash back, choose the bank that’s best for your money.