When Your Bedroom Becomes Your Office, And You’re In A Meeting

April 2, 2020 by Dave Haynes

With many millions of people working from home, most rather abruptly, they are confronting challenges like finding room to work, and somehow chasing off the kids who are also at home, and will barge in at the worst moments.

There are endless meeting room display solutions out there, but the great majority of them are going to require power cabling, mounts and holes in walls if they are going to be co-opted for use outside of, let’s say, a spare bedroom.

The simple answer is a sticky note that says Mom’s On Phone or Stay Out or No Girls Allowed.

Or this brilliant one that has gone a little viral (good way viral):

The more sophisticated version is something like what Slovenia’s Visionect has come up with – called Joan Home.

Joan is an e-paper room sign used in business, but this version is meant for work at homers.
Employees who are interrupted during their deep work sessions and conference calls face a significant drop in the quality and speed of work, resulting in prolonged working hours. Those extra work hours are eating up time that could be spent with the family – the most important element of most people’s lives. 

What’s more, young tech enthusiasts working in global tech centers live in shared accommodation with their housemates, making working from home especially challenging. Interruptions can cause lost deals, output is prone to human error, and their focus is pulled away from building successful businesses.

Joan Home is a home office device which displays your current availability and your calendar/schedule for the day. Its hardware was inspired by Joan and so it is energy-efficient, easy to attach and extremely secure. It also has a wireless design that resembles paper, making the device both simple and elegant.

Created on the principle of simplicity, Joan Home connects to your calendar and updates in real-time, allowing you to stay organized. Installation takes just a couple of minutes. Simply stick a magnet to any clean surface and place Joan onto it – that means no drilling, wiring, or damage to your walls. The device is completely wire-free and thanks to its energy efficiency, it only needs to be charged every few months. 

The big attractions here are no wires (cuz e-paper), easy mount and a lovely monochromatic, minimal design that won’t likely offend a spouse or partner who doesn’t his or her home design look thrown off.

It costs $250 USD, so some people may choose to instead go the sticky note route. But if the money is there and whoever is in the house will respect such signs, this is pretty cool.

Then there’s this …

  1. Matt Krebs says:

    I’d go Steve’s route! Kickstarter!

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