If you have a cluttered, boring or uninspired work environment it makes it more difficult to be there.
1) Set your “stage” for work. What inspires you, what relaxes you, what brings you joy? Decorate your office with some “art”… some people put motivational quotes or passages, pictures of your family, certificates of achievement, photos of your WHY (i.e. working hard to save for retirement at the beach), etc. Having these inspirational pieces help your office be more enjoyable to be at and help you to relax. Music, smells (i.e. candles), sounds (i.e. fountains) can also help to make a more relaxing environment. Think about the most relaxing place you enjoy going and try to bring in a few of those attributes to your office space.
2) Keep your office space neat and organized. While some people believe they work better in their piles, it has been studied and proven that piles create more stress, take more of your time looking for things and result in reduced productivity. All of this is related to stress. When you can get things done efficiently, not only do you work at a high performance level but you finish your work quicker. So keeping your office neat and organized will get you out of there sooner and reduce your stress while you are in it.
3) Cluttered space is a combination of the two challenges above. It is important to ‘weed” through your stuff and get rid of things. In today’s digital world with a good computer file system and a strong back up system, you can reduce the paper you have. There is a book on Feng Shui and Clutter that talks about the cost of clutter in your office and home… just saving things that can be recycled requires you to have more space, more heating/sq. ft. expense, etc. Clutter can make you feel like you have more to do and make it more difficult for you to “finish” tasks as you get distracted with clutter that you touch trying to complete a task. It is a great practice at least ONCE a year to empty your office and sort as you put it back, returning only things that are needed.
Christy Geiger, Business Coach, www.synergystrategies.com
