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Neuroscientists have devoted a lot of effort to determining how the design of the place we’re in influences our mental performance. You can use what they’ve learned to create a home office where you’ll excel, and maybe even enjoy working.
The suggestions that follow don’t require large outlays of cash. Most are free, although some may call for a little physical effort on your part.
First, open your curtains! To optimize your mood as well as your performance, make sure as much glare-free natural light as possible flows into your office. Orient your computer screen so it is reflection-free; often perpendicular to a window works well for this—but test things out and if you need to move a blind or curtain slightly to eliminate onscreen glare, definitely do so. If the weather and architecture allow, open your windows when the time is right to work some movement into your office.
If you have several view options when you orient your desk, pick the one with the most visible nature, whether that nature is the tops of plants in a window box or an expanse of plants and trees spreading out in front of your window. If your office doesn’t have nature views outside, create your own inside. Place a couple of green leafy plants (they’ll “work” even if they’re short but a couple of feet tall is great) or a couple of images of nature (prints from your home printer of scenes you find online are fine) in view. If plants and you just don’t mix, you have too many allergies or too few horticultural skills, etc., artificial plants work well in an office, as long as they’re “good fakes”—you’ll know them when you see them.
De-clutter your office—which doesn’t mean create a stark cube. Keep a few reminders of who you are and what’s important to you out on view, but tuck the rest out of sight in cabinets, drawers, etc., without transparent sides. The goal here is a moderate amount of visual “complexity” in the space where you’re working—a good example to keep in mind as you add or remove visual elements is a residential space designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. They are right on target, visual complexity-wise, for knowledge work.
If you have a wooden floor in your office, and you’ve covered it with a carpet, roll that carpet back a little if you can do so safely—seeing wood grain de-stresses us, and who doesn’t need that from time to time as we work?
Do what you can to work in a space where visual and audio distractions will be low—how well you can cut them out will depend on where you live and who you live with. Sometimes building a screen out of whatever you’ve got nearby can cut lots of visual distractions, while also signaling to others that you’re “at work.”
Adding a slight odor of lemon to your home office, maybe via a subtle air freshener, will keep your space smelling good and your brain performing well.
Playing a nature soundtrack, very, very quietly as you work can help you feel mentally refreshed and boost your performance. The research here is clear: Keep the volume low and tune into an online (or other) option that features the sorts of sounds you might hear in a meadow on a lovely Spring day, such as burbling brooks and gently rustling leaves or grasses. Did someone give you one of those on-desk water fountains for a birthday eons ago? Now’s the time to dig it out of the back of your closet and set it up.
Sure, there are more things you can do to your home office if you have more time and money (if you’re painting, choose a light sagey green, for example, to enhance your creative performance)—but without spending a dime (or at least very few dimes) you can make your home office work for you, and feel better working at home.
