Do you feel that your workspace is boring and dull? Does your office space make you feel sleepy and unproductive? Is your workplace lacking creativity?
Environment and surroundings have a major impact on your productivity. How you work highly depends on where you work. When your workspace makes you feel dull, bored, unproductive, lazy, and less confident, then, you know you need to upgrade your workplace and workstation.
The typical stereotype thought around work is to pay the workers more and they shall be more productive. However, there is definitely more to this. There is a link between happiness and productivity at work. Those workers who are happy in their jobs are likely to be more productive and creative. Some of the companies are already on to make changes and can see it paying off as well.
“Happiness is the ultimate productivity booster.”
A recent study at the University of Warwick by economists found that happiness leads to a 12% rise in productivity, while 10% were unhappy workers who were less productive at work.
5 Ways to Design a Creative Office Workspace
1. Bring in more Light
Tired of working in a dreary and dull workspace? Well, lighting happens to be one of the most important factors to staying focused, to be more creative, to increase productivity and to feel inspired.
Even better is natural light reflecting inside your workspace. Bad lighting can also have a very negative impact on both personal and professional life. How so? It causes eye strain, headaches, tiredness, irritability, feelings of sadness and depression. As a result, this decreases your creativity and productivity at work.
Easy and Quick Ways to Clean Energy at Work and Home
Take a vacation ‘professionally’
For those who have no control over the entire general lighting in their workplace, can add in bright lamps or natural light bulbs or even use light therapy at their own personal work station.
If you happen to work from home, you can open up the windows or draw the blinds and let the natural light in. Moreover, you could use bright fluorescent bulbs to add more light at your workspace.
2. Create more space to work
When a person is constantly sitting at their desk for say 8-10 hours at the same workspace, their productivity is hampered. That is not it! They suffer from poor posture, headaches, eye strains and lose the ability to think creatively.
How to fix bad posture at work
Therefore, offices should give the liberty to workers to make use of other areas to work in besides their own desks. The more the workers move about and work in other areas, they can meet other co-workers from different departments. This will lead to an exchange of creativity, promote collaborations, and increase productivity.
However, make sure your boss knows where you are working instead of making him/her believe that you are not sitting idle.
It is not necessary to turn your office into a living room, however, create seating arrangement using narrow perches, pull-up stools, bean bags, ergonomic chairs or floor cushions. However, keep in mind that there are workers who prefer to be alone to focus on work while at their workspace. Therefore, make a room for those workers who like to work in silence.
http://wordpress-334546-1028402.cloudwaysapps.com/yoga-poses-to-improve-bad-posture-at-work/
If you work from a home at a desk, then, add a comfortable chair to your room. Ergonomic office chairs are also useful and healthy, especially for your posture. These ergonomic chairs are easily available in the market or online. They come with added support to help those with a poor posture.
If you need a change from your workspace, you could encourage employees to work from cafes, libraries or co-working spaces.
Simple Yoga Poses to improve Bad Posture at Work
3. Display Inspirational Art
How to decorate your office workspace to increase creativity? Do you see those boring white walls all around you? Use those empty spaces with inspirational creative artwork, paintings, and photos created by the workers themselves. This gives them a sense of confidence and a reason to know more about their fellow co-workers.
Utilize your office walls or dress them based on your office values or something related to the work you indulge in. Adding color to the walls can also increase the creative thought processes and uplift your mood. In most offices, the color yellow works as an anti-stress reliever. It also changes the whole feeling and atmosphere of the room. Yellow is my happy color too!
For example, Reebok has a separate room for workers to brainstorm the latest designs by writing and drawing on the walls. This approach and collaboration present in their workspace help them to work faster and also finalize their design on the very same day.
4. Nature and Aromas build your Creative Juices
Nature:
Indoor plants at workspace are known to create and make you feel alive and connected to the soul. It is the sole reason that we are breathing. Sitting in a dull and drab office can add gloominess to your life. Hence, adding a little nature at your workplace or workstation can uplift your mood, freshen the atmosphere and also add a focal point to your work surroundings.
Add small low-light and low maintenance indoor plants at the office and your desk. Each plant will add an organic character and vibrancy to the workplace. Small indoor plants will also improve the air quality and remove impurities from the office environment.
Research has shown that plants at the workspace decrease stress and also enhance productivity.
Here is a list of some indoor plants that you can consider for your office:
- Snake Plant
- Cactus
- Bamboo Palm
- Aloe Vera
- Gerbera Daisy
- Spider Plant
- Lemon Balm
Aromas:
Just like how nature and color impact the creativity at work, the smell of aromas also has a solid impact on affecting your mood and productivity. Using essential oils or scents at your workplace can boost your mood and enable you to be creative in full swing. It also helps you to calm your nerves down on a stressful day.
However, most of the workers might not be comfortable with adding scents to the workplace. Some of them could be allergic to certain smells as well. Hence, we need to keep in mind the well-being of everyone.
Instead, you can keep your favorite essential oil in your drawer. When you are in the need to revitalize your mood or need a boost to work faster, put a few drops of the oil on your handkerchief or cotton ball.
In case, you are working from home, burn some scented candles, incense or essential oils to fill your home with a warm scent to bring in positive and productive energy.
My personal favorite is to use camphor. The smell of camphor is so relaxing and it also burns away negative and stagnant energy at your workspace and the entire home.
Try some of the following essential oils to increase creativity at work:
- Cinnamon – Improves focus
- Camphor – Purifies the space of negative energy
- Lavender – Soothes and helps to relax on a stressful day
- Peppermint – Elevates your mood
- Citrus – Lifts your spirits up and reduces the feeling of gloominess
- Pine – Increases focus and alertness
5. Create a Playroom within the office
By introducing playing into the work routine – the employees can take a break from a stressful day to unwind their thoughts and also socialize with the other co-workers. Adding elements of play at your workspace can lower your stress levels, increase your motivation to work, boost creativity levels, improve concentration and also increase optimism.
Many top-notch companies apply this to their work routine. For example, Google has Pac-Man machines to play at for free of cost, LinkedIn lets its employees play foosball or ping pong to take a break from answering emails and at Zynga, the hallways are installed with arcade games.
Playing engages the creative side of every individual allowing to eliminate any negative thought and ensuring creative ideas to flow. Installing play ideas or having team-bonding games can also lighten a stressful, taxing and nerve-racking atmosphere at work.
Focus on your work, build your empire, be creative and most importantly love what you do.
Tell us in the comments below which creative method do you follow in your workspace to increase your productivity at work.
