How to build a productive workspace
Did you know that your work environment can directly influence the way you work? Basically everything around you can positively or negatively impact your workday. The color of the wall, the lighting, the amount of nature around it, the scents, all because it interferes with your mood, your focus and your creative ability. Therefore, it is possible to say that paying attention to details and building a work environment that inspires creativity and good humor, will certainly make your daily life much easier, healthier and more fun.
As Sara Coene, who works as an Employee Experience Designer, says: “If you want your team to be creative, then create an environment that reflects this”. But where do I start? There are many things you can change to improve your environment and make your day more productive. Each of them will impact different aspects of your psyche. It is important to say here that all the suggestions that will follow are based on many studies, which are better detailed in the links added in the reference section. Also, these changes might be easy to do if you work at home, but it might be a little harder if you work in a company office. If this is your case you can focus on smaller changes that affect only your desk or your room, like adding nature, aroma and table decoration.
Colors: Picking the right color to your work environment can be a hard task. And that happens because different colors, and different color intensities, will actually influence how you feel. As an example, we can think of the vibrant red: a psychology study at the University of Rochester found out that red increases the speed and intensity of emotions, making us feel as if everything is urgent, which leads to anxiety and worry. This is the kind of feeling that you will usually want to avoid in your workspace.
If you go down a little bit in the red scale, the color orange has been proven to stimulate creative thinking. When it comes to blue, it tends to enhance productivity. Also, it is known as the trust color, and trust is a feeling that is often needed while you’re working, be it trust in yourself or trust in your team mates. You can paint one wall of your workspace (or a piece of a wall) with a color that inspires the feeling you most want to feel everyday while working. If you cannot paint your wall, try to add color in the objects in your table, or hang colorful pictures on the walls around you. To pick the best color for your workspace, you can read more about each color’s meaning here.
Nature and light: Creativity comes to a halt when you’re stressed, and adding a touch of nature around yourself can help a lot to reduce the levels of stress and help to recover from long meetings or demanding tasks. If you can’t pause your work to take a walk and see some nature, you can try to add plant pots around your table or even add smaller plants, like cactus, on your table.
The same thing happens when you’re planning what kind of lighting your office will have: Spaces that are very bright are much more mentally stimulating and tend to stimulate analytical thinking, while dimmed light strengthens the creation of ideas. A good tip is to build your office in a way that you can have both kinds of lighting depending on your mood. It can be achieved by adding curtains or by adding lamps that have the ability to dim.
Table decoration: Another thing that can boost your mood is your table decoration. There isn’t a secret here since each person will have a different preference: some will want a more minimalist decoration (like the one in the picture below), while others will feel better around more vibrant and colorful decorations. You can keep framed photos of loved ones nearby, add pieces of art, hang inspirational quotes and drawings on the wall, whatever makes you feel happy.
Another great thing to have on your table is a place where you can draw and express your feelings and your ideas, since it can stimulate new ways of thinking. Regardless of the decoration you choose, your table should give you the feeling of comfort. But be careful! There is a fine line between adding decoration and adding too many things that can distract yourself from work.
Multiple spaces: One thing that can help a lot to improve creative thinking is to switch spaces. If you are working in the same place for too much time and feel stressed, or feel like your creativity has come to a halt, try taking your laptop to somewhere else. If you work in a company, try sitting in another chair, or on a couch, or moving to another room (if possible). If you work at home, you can add things like puffs and stand up desks. Science has already proven that staying in only one space during your work time is a creativity killer, so think carefully about that when you build an office of your own.
Aromas: Office scents can boost mood, since having nice smells in the office makes a pleasant workday. Also, smells are scientifically proven to increase performance and productivity, but it is not only about that. Scents can also improve your health. According to Beverly Hawkins, owner of the West Coast Institute of Aromatherapy, located in Vancouver: “Essential oils have anti-viral, antifungal and antibacterial properties, and using them in an environment where there are a lot of people can help keep germs at bay”.
Scents like lemon tend to relieve tension, anger and anxiety, while scents like lavender and jasmine are proven to be calming and uplifting. It is important to say that each category of scent (citrus, fruity, floral, woody etc) has its own properties, so before you start picking a scent for your office, try to define what kind of mood your want your workspace to have (serious, fun, calm etc) and then search for scents that can help you achieve that mood.
Food: When building an office from the scratch, keep in mind that you should design it to trigger moments of joy. And nothing inspires more joy to people than food. Yes, it is as simple as that! Try to keep healthy food nearby (like fruits and juice), but also you can stimulate yourself by keeping delicious snacks, like chocolates, around. Your brain knows that if you work correctly and finish your activities, there is a delicious snack waiting right in the corner!
Organization: Yes or No? There is a big discussion about this point. Some researches will say that keeping an organized desk will help you focus, since there isn’t anything to distract you from thinking, while other studies will show that a disorganized workplace can lead to creativity, since you can find an unexpected note, or drawing, that can trigger a different way of thinking. So the conclusion is: you can try both and decide which one works better for you.
These are only a few things that you can do in order to improve your workdays. By making your workspace a comfortable place, you allow yourself to explore the most creative part of your brain and deliver the best of yourself everyday. The secret is to find out what you can change around yourself to switch from a negative, tiring perspective, to a positive one. It doesn’t even matter how or where you start changing, but it is important that you go after the things that make your life easier. As Chuck Palahniuk would say: “Find joy in everything you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home. It’s your responsibility to love it, or change it”.
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