When it comes to building your workspace
you can aim for the trendy look and flick through some interior design mags, or
you can let science guide the way. Based on recent psychology and neuroscience
findings, here are some simple and effective steps you can take once to improve
your productivity for years:
Take ownership
of your workspace
The simple act of
making your own decisions about how to organize your workspace has an
empowering effect and has been linked with improved productivity.
Craig Knight,
Director of the Identity Realization workplace consultancy, showed this in
a 2010 study with Alex Haslam involving 47 office workers in London. Those
workers given the opportunity to arrange a small office with as many or few
plants and pictures as they wanted were up to 32 percent more productive than
others not given this control. They also identified more with their employer, a
sign of increased commitment to the team effort and increased efficiency.
If you are an office manager this suggests you
should give your staff as much input into the design of their office and
immediate workspace as possible. Many
companies even give their employees a small amount of money to furnish their
space. Alternatively, if you’re a creative in an open-plan office, try to find
ways to make your mark on your immediate environment. Even the simple use of a
pin-board to post your own pictures and messages could help you feel that the
space is yours with consequent benefits for your work.
Choose rounded furniture and arrange it
wisely
If you have the
luxury of designing your own workspace, consider choosing a layout and
furniture that is curved and rounded rather than sharp and straight-edged.
Creating this environment has been linked with positive emotions, which is
known to be beneficial for creativity and productivity (added bonus: there’s
also less chance of knocking an elbow or knee on a sharp corner).
In a 2011 study,
hundreds of undergrads looked at computer-generated pictures of room interiors
and rated those filled with curvilinear (rounded), as opposed to rectilinear,
furniture as more pleasing and inviting. Another study out this
year found that people rated curvy, rounded environments as more beautiful
than straight-edged rectilinear environments and that the rounded spaces
triggered more activity in brain regions associated with reward and aesthetic
appreciation.
This contrast between
straight edges and curves also extends to the way we arrange our furniture.
Apparently, King Arthur was on to something: sitting in circles provokes a
collective mindset, whereas sitting in straight lines triggers feelings of individuality
– something worth thinking about at your next meeting if you want to encourage
team cohesion.
Apparently, King Arthur was on to something: sitting in circles
provokes a collective mindset.
Take advantage of color, light and
space
Choosing the right
color and lighting scheme for your office is one of the simplest ways your
environment can enhance your performance. Different colors and light levels
have different psychological effects, so the ideal situation is to install a
lighting system that allows you to alter the hue and brightness of your room to
suit the kind of work that you’re engaged in.
For instance,
exposure to both blue and green has been shown to enhance
performance on tasks that require generating new ideas. However, the color
redhas been linked with superior performance on tasks involving attention
to detail. Another study out this year showed that a dimmer
environment fostered superior creativity in terms of idea generation, probably
because it encourages a feeling of freedom. On the other hand, brighter light
levels were more conducive to analytical and evaluative thinking.
Not as easy to
modify, but ceiling height has also been shown to have psychological effects. A
2007 study found that a higher ceiling was associated with feelings
of freedom, together with a more abstract and relational thinking style that
helped participants see the commonalities between objects and concepts.
Make use of plants and windows
If you only do one
thing to optimize your workspace, invest in a green plant or
two.Research has repeatedly shown that the presence of office
plants has a range of benefits including helping workers recover from demanding
activities and lowering stress levels. As a bonus, there’s also evidence
that plants can reduce office pollution levels.
Another feature of an
optimized office is a window with a view, preferably of a natural
landscape. This is because a glance at the hills or a lake recharges your mind.
Obviously a view of nature isn’t possible for many people who work in cities,
but even in an urban situation, a view of trees or intricate architecture have
both been linked with restorative benefits. If you can’t negotiate a desk with
a view, another plan is to choose an office in your building that’s the
shortest stroll from an urban park. A visit here will revitalize your mind
and compensate for your lack of a view.
If you only do one thing to optimize your
workspace, invest in a green plant or two.
The benefits of a messy desk
There’s a lot of
pressure these days to be organized. How are you supposed to get your work done
if you can’t even find a clear space on your desk to roll a mouse or place a
plant? But new research suggests Einstein may have been onto something when he
opined: “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is
an empty desk a sign?”
Kathleen Vohs and her
colleagues at the University of Minnesota found that participants
tested in a messy room at a desk covered with paper came up with more
imaginative uses for a ping pong ball than participants tested in a tidy room.
This matches the views of consultant Craig Knight who has argued against the
modern trend for “lean” workspaces. “We don’t understand psychologically why
putting someone in an impoverished space should work, when it doesn’t work for
any other animal on the planet,” he said recently.
It also fits with the
advice from Eric Abrahamson – co-author of A Perfect Mess: The Hidden
Benefits of Disorder – who says people with highly ordered desks
oftenstruggle to find things because their filing systems are so
complicated. He also points out a key advantage to a mess – you can find things
in it that you didn’t expect. Discovering that ground-breaking idea you
scribbled on a piece of paper two years ago could be just the spark to get your
next project off the ground.
***
It’s easy to neglect
the importance of your workspace, especially if you’re under pressure of
deadlines and not so into interior design. But hopefully this review has
convinced you that the spaces we occupy really can affect us psychologically.
It’s vital that you choose an office space that you feel happy and comfortable
in. If your freedom is restricted, shape the space as much as you can to make
it your own. Get your surroundings in order and the rest is sure to follow.
courtesy: www.99u.com
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