Want to be more productive? Consider fixing up your office. You might make more money too!
Think about your home office for a second. Is your office conducive to being productive? Do you feel powerful, focused, and at peace when you sit at you desk?
Does the place you work help you to be inspired? Be more confident?
Or do you feel unhappy and struggle to get work done in a boring, cluttered environment?
Imagine some of the typical offices you might have seen, or maybe it is yours: clutter, drab dècor, boring color scheme, poor lighting. This is not a particularly pretty picture, nor is it productive or inspiring.
Gensler, an architecture and design firm, conducted a study on office productivity. The study found that the average U.S. employee felt that he or she would be 21 percent more productive given a better working environment. All told, the study estimates that poor workplace design costs U.S. businesses $330 billion in lost productivity per year.
The Gensler survey suggests that instead of merely decorating, companies should consider fundamentally rethinking the overall design of their workplace. The survey reported that 90 percent of workers believe that better office design leads to better overall performance and gives the company a competitive advantage, and 90 percent of senior executives believed that a better physical working environment would have a positive impact on the bottom line.
Feng shui is all about how we interact with our environment and working to make it a harmonious space. Have you considered feng shui for your office or feng shui for your home?
Allowing for proper energy flow and surrounding yourself with beauty allow for an uplifted, happier outlook, which in turn, leads to greater productivity. According to a recent Texas A&M University study, workers generated as much as 15 percent more ideas when the work environment included flowers and other plants.
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Whether it be your closet or office desk, excess things in your surroundings can have a negative impact on your ability to focus and process information. They can hamper your ability to be more productive and thereby, the results you are able to obtain.
That’s exactly what neuroscientists at Princeton University found when they looked at people’s task performance in an organized versus disorganized environment. The results of the study showed that physical clutter in your surroundings competes for your attention, resulting in decreased performance and increased stress.
By getting more organized then, you should be able to be more productive, be inspired, be more confident, and achieve more.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind when beginning to feng shui (or improve flow) in your office space:
- Declutter the desktop floors
- Shred excess documents
- Add plants to oxygenate air and improve mood
- Find the right color scheme
- Allow for natural light
- If possible, have the desk facing the door, not a wall
- Keep computer cables hidden and away from chair
Ideally, when we are sitting at our desk, we need to feel calm, focused, and in control. By organizing our office and making it a space where we can be more productive, we are setting ourselves up for much greater success.
Susan Sly is a best selling author, work life balance expert, speaker and entrepreneur. She has appeared on CNN, CNBC, Fox, Lifetime Television and the CBN. Susan is the mother of four children and resides in Scottsdale, Arizona.
