The new normal is far from normal. It has blurred the careful separation between work and personal life that most of us maintain. Now that we all work from home, having your own place of work is more important than ever.

Imagine that. In jammies, sunk into the sofa and typing on the laptop. Or leave your laptop on the kitchen table, pour yourself an OJ and swallow a sandwich. It seems an awfully familiar sight, doesn’t it?

Well that’s you. That’s me. That is almost all of us these days. Since we have to work from home, we no longer differentiate between work and personal aspects of our day. Quite simply, we work and live in the same room, and in the long run that is a recipe for disaster.

The merging of work and personal life may not seem trivial at first, but it soon turns into a big day when you can’t separate one from the other. You will have difficulty getting things done on time and ready, and will often have to deal with a wandering mind.

The psychology of physical spaces

Although we generally do not pay any attention to it, we develop instinctive cognitive prejudices around and about the physical spaces we find ourselves in every day. These help us maintain order and meaning in every space.

An office, a bedroom, a kitchen, a balcony. All of them are defined by their furnishings, otherwise they are all just floors and walls and ceilings. We assign a purpose to each room and decorate it to serve that purpose. And every time you walk into a room, its layout and appearance will remind you to use it for that particular purpose.

As you work in different areas of the house you blur the purpose of each of those physical spaces that you normally wouldn’t. If you sit and work in the kitchen, is the room now a kitchen or your study? You can no longer clearly separate the two when it comes to how your mind perceives it.

The stimulus your mind receives is that you are in a kitchen setting but tell it to do job-related work. Since the environment is not separate for any of the activities, you can imagine why you could be very easily distracted in such a scenario.

Dedicated work areas reduce distractions and help you focus

Think about why we all worked from offices primarily. The infrastructure was physically designed so that we could focus on work and nothing else.

If you have your own workplace from home, you are practically removed from the personal part of your life. You will now feel just like you are at your desk in your office. Instead, however, you are in your home office.

Having your own office or other home office facility brings a sense of legitimacy to your work environment. You are far from the temptation to do anything other than work.

You no longer think about an impromptu snack or a quick round of social media surfing as you sit in your home office and focus on it.

Being in an environment that feels like work automatically makes you think and focus on work. When you move away from the daily routine of your private life, you are suddenly much less distracted and more focused than before.

You are more productive when you have a real job

An office space that is separate from the rest of your home is essential for your work productivity. On a work day, you need to have access to work-related resources that are available when you need them.

Having a permanent work station instead of a rotating one will help bring consistency and routine into your work.

When you work from a real workplace, you have things measurably more organized and orderly. This has a direct impact on your efficiency and your performance.

When you really make it your own workspace, you tend to associate it with work and nothing else.

You will automatically become more productive because that is your only goal when you sit in a dedicated workspace that you have created for yourself.

There is a sense of discipline when you have a home office

A dedicated home office encourages you to be more disciplined in your work time, just like in the office. Also, since you’re less distracted, you’re more likely to stick with your discipline and get the job done accordingly.

Whether you live with roommates or have a family, there are bound to be things that will distract you from your work. If you have a space that you only use for work, you will only be doing work-related things there.

You instinctively set yourself boundaries and be more mindful of your work with a dedicated work area. Physical limits are automatically translated into mental limits, and you no longer deviate from your daily work tasks in order to pursue other thoughts.

You are harming your health when you choose to work anywhere, anytime

Regardless of whether your home office is in its own room or carved out of a different area, it will not affect your health. Both physically and mentally.

When working from the couch, bean bag chair, dining table, or any other location, you tend to not focus on your posture. Bad posture lasting for hours affects you in a way that is easily noticeable. Back and neck pain, leg and hand cramps, and headaches are common effects on you.

This is because none of them are designed for long periods of sitting and working. Do you know what are A combination of desk and chair. This is because their height, design, and structure are all designed to make you feel comfortable while you work.

A Survey from a University of Cincinnati professor figured out that about 75% of people Working from home, hunched over their laptops. This adds about 10 pounds of extra pressure for every inch forward or down, according to the study. That doesn’t sound good, does it?

Having your own workplace at home helps maintain a work-life balance

Having a dedicated home office space will make it easier for you to disconnect when you’re done. You will not bring this energy into your personal life. It was particularly important to all of us to have a work-life balance when working from our offices. Why should we think differently when working from home?

If you are working from your bedroom or living room, or any other location, it is much easier to overwork yourself and cause burnout. This is because there is no mental separation between your work and personal life.

A direct reason for this is the lack of physical separation between the two. The physical barrier and the mental barriers complement each other to help you separate your work and personal life.

With a clear and dedicated work area, it will be much easier to toggle your work mode on and off. This is because when away from your home office you tend to part with work-related things. When you’re back in that field, just think about work. This is the only way to condition our minds.

For some of us this was already difficult when our work and personal life took place in different places. Imagine how much harder it would be if they overlapped each other every day.

In summary …

The separation of our personal and professional lives plays an important role in how we perceive both. A dedicated home office space and home office help us maintain that difference between the two.

The inability to separate from work while living your personal life becomes a cause for concern unless you actively separate the two. A dedicated workplace is a must for high productivity, good health and a good work-life balance.