5 tips for setting up your TEFL home office

Since the pandemic, working remotely hasn’t just become a novelty; it’s become something of a norm. More job adverts than ever are appealing to candidates from all over the world because - wouldn’t you know it - many jobs aren’t location-dependent. 

As this has all happened, online teaching has become a bigger industry than ever before. Through smartphones, tablets and the trusty home computer, teachers and students alike can share and learn from different rooms. 

It’s great. How do you do it? How does a TEFL teacher create the perfect home working environment? How do you ensure you don’t just start working from a neglected corner of your kitchen and stay there forever? Well, we aren’t here to tell you how to live, but we do have some advice to make home working a pleasurable experience. That way, you can be as productive as possible and be yet another happy home worker.

Step 1: Picking the right space

Before you launch into teaching English online , look around your home. The first thing you need to identify is where the best light source is because there is something of an art to it. Do you like working by a window? Or across from a window? If your home is lacking natural light, then consult home working guides for genuinely good advice about lighting your environment. Preserving your eyesight, keeping you awake, making sure your students can see you when you’re doing online classes - without insulting your intelligence, it’s worth pointing out the importance of these things.

Noise! NOISE ! Let’s talk about noise. Do you live near busy streets? A railway? The Museum of Sound ? Do you live with a shoegaze musician? It sounds like we’re being silly - and to an extent, of course we are - but the volume of your environment is really important. Let’s be real. It’s incredibly distracting trying to learn English if your teacher is conducting lessons from the elephant enclosure of a zoo, for a random example. A good pair of headphones and a room that’s well-insulated from outside noise is the best practice.

How else can you immediately improve your working space? Dividers might be the best option. It’s useful to separate your working space from your living space. Room dividers (or partitions, if you’re fancy!) are a useful idea, if just for the mental health benefits. Don’t work from your bed or your couch if you can avoid it, as it’ll ruin both of them as resting places.

Step 2: Improving the environment

This might sound trite or even unnecessary, especially if you’re into ultra-minimalism . However, personal effects can help you maintain your focus and inspiration while helping you improve your performance at work.

Pictures of loved ones and personal knick-knacks from trips or gifts from friends deserve a place on your desk. If it brings you joy, and it’s at least relatively professional (i.e., the thought of anyone seeing it doesn’t terrify you), then it’s allowed. 

Rugs will brighten up any working space. It’s also a good idea to find some storage solutions for all the stuff you’ll need - stationary, your daily planner, notes etc - but don’t pick out boring stuff just because you think it seems like the done thing. You’re allowed to have personal effects that you enjoy.

Is the environment comfortable? Can you work here for hours a day? It’s important to make it yours , provided it is, indeed, yours alone. If anyone else uses the space, then it’s important to agree on an environment that benefits more than one person.

Step 3: Furniture

We hear you already: furniture is expensive, it’s a pain to carry upstairs, and the whole thing is a nightmare.

Okay, fine. It doesn’t have to be, though. Investing in dedicated “work furniture” - if it’s within your means - makes all the difference. A good desk doesn’t have to be mega expensive; it can be found on Gumtree , Facebook marketplace or any upselling site. And hey, how about a non-squeaky chair that doesn’t ruin your posture? It may seem like a wild dream, but these kinds of things are out there.

Comfort isn’t a luxury. It’s essential if you’re working from home. You don’t want to finish every shift feeling you’ve been twisted like a pretzel. As the Wu-Tang Clan told us in 1993, protect ya neck - and also ya back - with a decent chair and desk. 

Step 4: The right tech

Of course, having the right technology to do your job is vital. We’ve covered this in a separate blog post , but we can go over some of the finer points here as a refresher.

Again, not to insult your intelligence here, but you’ll need a computer. What’s more, you’ll need a good computer, one that runs quickly, can still install updates without any bother, and accommodates the programmes your online teaching job requires. Clearly, having a stable internet connection is crucial - test your internet speed now, go on ! - and then there’s all the other hardware you’ll need.

Most laptops these days will include a webcam, but if you’re dubious about its quality, you can buy a decent-quality USB webcam relatively inexpensively nowadays. Similarly, computers do have internal microphones, but having a separate microphone is super useful - as well as professional. You might have a microphone on your headphone set, which is something else you’ll need to consider. 

Having the right technology isn’t just vital for actually conducting your job, it also makes a good impression on your students. Your English learners want to feel as though their teacher cares and has invested in their craft. They don’t want a teacher who’s just woken up and is trying to teach them English from their bed, on their phone. Having the right stuff - in all senses - is important.

Step 5: Trial and error

Maybe the biggest thing to take away from all of this is that nobody can claim to have perfected working from home. People tend to change their working environment now and then. They make fixes as they go, no matter the budget, and even if they do have a great set-up, they’ll change it now and then.

Setting up the ideal TEFL home office takes time. There will be things you like and don’t like early on. Don’t be afraid to experiment and figure it out along the way. Maybe that houseplant doesn’t belong there? Or you’re bothered by a shadow that’s cast from a piece of furniture? Whatever it is, adjust as you go.

Now you’re ready!

Let’s be clear here: working online as a TEFL teacher can be super rewarding. It’s a fantastic way to achieve financial and geographic independence. You choose your own hours, your rates, and where you want to be and where you work from.

If you want to be part of the WFH movement —and remote work isn’t going anywhere soon— then hopefully, our tips will help get you closer to a perfect, zen , home working environment. You can forget about commuting, you can forget about queuing for coffee, and you can start to feel the freedom of working from home.

Excited to achieve location independence through TEFL teaching? It all starts with fantastic TEFL training - try our 120-hour Premier Online Course today!