How to create a minimalist workspace

So you think you want to create a minimalist workspace? Maybe you’ve heard the word being bandied around in start-up circles but you’re not really sure what it’s about. Maybe you’re a devoted minimalist but you’re not sure how to apply those principles to your workspace. Well here are a few pointers to get you started.

Minimalism was a term first used to describe an artistic tendency which emerged in the US in 1950’s and can still be seen in the work of visual artists today. In the 1950’s artists like Donald Judd, Robert Morris and Dan Flavin started using industrial materials to paint and build sculptures, toying around with the conventions of painting and sculpture. Bringing mechanical processes into the process of making art reduced the gesture of the artists to the most minimal form.

When the artists removed themselves from the artwork, the artwork became simple, clean and to the eyes of some, empty. The somewhat clinical grid paintings of Agnes Martin, the Shades of White series by Robert Ryman (small-scale canvases painted different shades of white), the simplistic sculptures of Robert Cerra, all seemed to take art back it’s the simplest form. So where does minimalism as it used today come into the equation?

Well, the current strand of minimalism’s most popular advocates is Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus. They are authors of the books Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life and Essential: Essays by the minimalists run the blog The Minimalists, are featured in a Netflix documentary entitled The Minimalists: A Documentary about the Important Things and tour the country inspiring new converts to cast of their belongings and savour only what is essential to them. The movement didn’t originate with them. Ryan was converted by Joshua and Joshua was converted by blogger Colin Wright and his blog Exile Lifestyle was no doubt inspired by other bloggers before him. An alternative big influence on the movement was Japanese author Mari Kando’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Regardless of its origins, the movement seems to have hit a nerve. So what can we learn about our office spaces from these so-called minimalists?

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On the face of it, minimalism seems to be a practice of getting rid of stuff — of striving to live with as little material goods as possible. Yet ‘The Minimalists’ themselves assure us that by being more selective about what we hold onto, we can unburden ourselves from the weight of our possessions. That is, they claim that they don’t want us to get rid of our stuff, they just want us to choose our stuff more carefully. In their words:

‘Minimalists don’t focus on having less, less, less; rather, we focus on making room for more: more time, more passion, more experiences, more growth, more contribution, more contentment. More freedom. Clearing the clutter from life’s path helps us make that room.’

#1: Clean lines in black and white

As we mentioned, minimalism started as a visual style of art and that has remained essential to the cultural movement. Even the minimalist blog is in black and white with black and white photographs and centered text. The visual style of minimalism is classic and it helps things to look clean, ordered and simple.

So choose desks with simple lines in black and white, find chairs to match them, be selective about your lighting and the artwork on your walls. Of course, if you think the color is important to your work culture, you don’t need to get rid of all color altogether, just choose one or two colors, keep it simple.

There are plenty of great Pinterest boards on minimal office design for you to check out..

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#2: Less is more

Although minimalism isn’t exactly about casting your possessions aside, it does preach that by having less we appreciate more. The idea is that you study your personal possessions, what is important and why. The same can be applied to your office space. Look at what you have in your draws, on your desks or what is positioned in the communal spaces around your office. Start to look closely at what has value to you, whether that’s a functional use or an emotional one. If you have a sentimental object on your desk, feel free to keep it, just make sure you understand why and that it is exacting a positive influence on your space.

In their blog My Minimalist Workspace Joshua Reynold proposes this ‘experiment’:

‘As an experiment, why not give this a shot: get rid of everything today (box it up or simply get it out of the way), then slowly reintroduce items to your workspace as needed over the next few days. Then get rid of anything you didn’t reintroduce — anything you don’t use this week.’

#3 Add things you love

It may seem contrary to the basic idea of minimalism to ‘add’ anything, even ‘what you love’, but as long as you don’t add lots of things you love, there’s no real contradiction. The process of studying what possessions you love and want to keep may lead you to discover new things you love and want to be surrounded by. Think carefully about what you love and what you want around you. If you’re designing communal spaces in an office space, the same principles can apply. Think about what is meaningful and influential for your company culture and give those objects pride of place. Get rid of the clutter that is bringing nothing to your team.

Marie Kando gives the example, ‘You might think your six shelves of books are fostering an atmosphere of intellectualism, but the truth is that they may be putting you off. Sort through them and discover the ones you’re truly passionate about, and you may soon find yourself becoming more passionate about reading in general.’ Perhaps surrounding yourself with objects which inspire you and relate to your work, you’ll find a new energy and motivation!

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#4 Keep time fluid

Another increasingly common concept in the millennial mindset is the concept of being ‘time poor.’ As millennials place increasing significance on experiences, time is an increasingly valuable commodity.

At the root of it, the millennial preoccupation with time is a preoccupation with autonomy. When Joshua Fields Millburn realized that his lifestyle wasn’t fulfilling, he also realized, ‘What’s worse, we discovered we didn’t have control of our time, and thus we didn’t control our own lives.The minimalist approach is about taking autonomy over your physical and mental environment, about living with intention. One important way to create autonomy in a workspace is to allow people to be responsible for the time they spend there.

Much like unimportant objects cluttering a desk, employees who are at the office because they’re waiting to ‘clock off’ out of a sense of obligation, are clutter in an office space. Allowing employees to come in whenever they want will allow them to use their time intentionally, with purpose. Sure sounds minimalist to me.

#5 Get rid of unnecessary routines

As we’ve seen minimalism isn’t just about your attitude to materials, minimalism is an ethos and approach to your lifestyle. The same process and approach to material objects can easily be applied to routines and processes.

For example, take a look at your workday. How much of what is on your agenda is truly valuable to you? Are you having too many meetings? Are you giving too much time to one particular area or not giving enough time for lunch and break times. If we think about everything on our agenda in terms of its value we might start to see where we can cut the fat.

To borrow from Colin Wright’s blog, ‘Frameworks are lifestyle superstructures that contain all of your habits and rituals and propensities. Your frameworks help you manage your practice, ground-level activities and ensure they all play well together. They also help you assess new routines and activities, and discard old ones that no longer serve you and your desired ends.’

So minimalism can be applied to the broader frameworks in place in our workspaces, to how we structure our days. Ultimately minimalism is about efficiency and efficiency in terms of value.

If you want to strive for a minimalist workspace start with the physical objects surrounding you. The process of addressing and sorting through these objects will get you into the right mindset to start addressing other areas of your life. Once you have tackled the physical move on to those less tangible aspects of your workspace, the routines, and processes at play. All in all, start to think ‘less is more’ and to think in terms of value — the value that your objects, processes, and offices offer your employees or offer yourself. Soon you’ll understand the meaning of everything at play in your workspace and come to appreciate their functionality or emotional value with a clear and tidy mind.

Read original article at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-create-minimalist-workspace-nga-nguyen/?published=t