The truth is, what we surround ourselves with and how we set up our office can end up positively or negatively affecting our productivity. Because of this, you will want to consider analyzing your office space to ensure that you are putting yourself in a good position to be as productive as possible in your office environment. Instead of setting up your office with no critical or analytic approach, you should be looking at everything from placement to the type of furniture that you are using to ensure that you are optimizing for increased productivity. Below, we will be going over some key tips to optimize your office space for better productivity.
Tips For Optimizing Your Office Space:
- Reduce The Clutter
One of the biggest productivity killers in an office environment and workspace is clutter. Cluttered desks and/or rooms can lead to decreased productivity overall. Not only is it going to inhibit your ability to focus on the task at hand, but it can increase the level of stress that you have to deal with which can further reduce productivity as a whole. Similar to what multitasking can do to your brain, having a cluttered workspace can end up causing significant overload to your senses which can end up impairing your ability to think clearly, focus on one thing, and even think creatively. Thus, one of the best things that you can do is focus on making improvements in your office space set up to reduce clutter to optimize productivity.
There are a lot of things that you can do to effectively minimize chances that you end up in a cluttered environment. For one, you should be looking to reduce the amount of paper that you use. You can do so by investing in cloud storage solutions. You will also want to use smaller storage spaces. Typically, we tend to fill up anything that we have available. Because of this, if you are dealing with less space for storage, you are likely to clutter less of the space.
- Set Up Different Areas
Another thing that you can do to improve the amount that you are able to get done while in the office is to try to set up different areas within your office which will allow you to optimize each task. For instance, if you are going to be focusing on work-related tasks while at the office, you want to have a specific desk setup for that. Whereas, you should have a specific area set up to take your breaks and where you can relax. This area should be completely different than your work setup (if possible). That way, when you physically move yourself to take your break, you are going to be less likely to be in the same mindset that you would if you were to remain in the same place that you spend your time working. You can even use different devices during these times. For instance, you can be using your desktop computer while you are working and switch to a tablet to enjoy your break, consume media, or even read.
- Sit By a Window
If you are really looking to maximize creativity, you should consider moving your Desk View desk to an area that has a window. Not only will this allow you to absorb more vitamin D throughout the day which can help you boost energy levels alone, but it is also going to help you gain inspiration and feel better about working. Being able to look outside and see sunlight can really help to maximize the level of productivity you are able to achieve.
- Optimize Your Layout
If you are someone that has to do a variety of tasks that involve moving throughout your office, you are going to want to optimize the layout of the room to avoid having to walk or consistently move long distances to be productive. For instance, if you are going to be printing and filing things throughout the day, you will want the printer to be close by along with the filing cabinet. That way, you will be able to get everything done in one fell swoop rather than having to consistently walk back and forth between the two different areas that you have created. This will allow you to achieve better optimization for the tasks that you have to do on a daily basis.
- Larger Monitor
One of the biggest office upgrades or improvements that you can make is by investing in a larger monitor. By getting a larger monitor, you are going to increase the amount of virtual real estate that you have to work with when it comes to your screen size. By having more screen to work with, it is not only going to allow you to have many more things open at once, you might even be able to do things like data entry or other tasks much more efficiently because you can see them at the same time. For instance, if you are going to be doing data entry with a spreadsheet and some information on your computer or online, you will be able to snap each window into place and have more screen real estate to work with which can help you be more productive in the end.
Overall, there is so much that can be done in order to optimize your office space for maximum productivity. By analyzing your work habits and the requirements that you have throughout the day, seeing what you spend the most time with, and looking for ways to boost efficiency, you should be able to effectively come up with the right ways to optimize your space. Not only do you want to look at ways to boost productivity by focusing on decluttering and increasing motivation, but you also want to look at actual ways to improve overall efficiency such as getting a larger monitor to have more room to work with. By following the tips above, you should be able to improve the level of productivity you are able to achieve in the workplace.