Creating your new home office

For some this could be the most important space in the home now we are working remotely more as a result of Covid 19 and Lockdown. We have lots of tips on how to design your home office but here are some highlights for you to start thinking about. Creating a home office where people work to their full potential, and have a good level of wellbeing while doing so is really important and needs a bit more thinking than just nipping off to the local furniture store to pick up a desk, chair and some folders.

You need to create a space where you can maintain a mood that is mentally alert but als0, physically calm.  In these space, people can sit, alone or with others, and focus on the task at hand, but they don’t experience physical stress or drift off to sleep. Here we’ll focus on spaces for solo work, like your home office.  In a future article we’ll talk about tips you can bring to offices where you’re likely to work with others.

Colour and Light

The colours that people should see as they work should be not very saturated but relatively light, like these.  Greens are particularly good colours to use in workplaces because research has linked seeing them to enhanced creative thinking, and most of us benefit from a little creativity, from time to time, as we work.

Seeing the colour red, even very briefly has been tied to degraded analytical performance.  Looking at red, does give us a burst of strength, however, so it’s not a bad choice for the area where the printer paper is stored.

If you have not so great heating or air conditioning where you work, keep in mind that warm colours make a space seem slightly warmer than it actually is while cooler colours have the opposite effect, they encourage us to think a space is slightly cooler than it actually is.

Lights of different colours and intensities can help you work to your full potential.  Natural light, without glare is always a good idea when you’re at work.  Placing your desk so it’s perpendicular to the window bringing natural light into your work area generally helps with the glare, so does the use of matte finishes not shiny ones.  It is night everywhere, eventually, and we often need to supplement our natural light with artificial.  Golden, slightly dimmer light is a good option for mingling and communicating with co-workers and thinking creatively while slightly brighter, cooler light helps you stay alert and with concentration.  Warm lights should be lower, in floor or tabletop lamps, and cooler lights higher in ceiling mounted fixtures.

Clutter

Moderate visual complexity is a plus in workplaces.  Curate the colours and assortment of shapes (in wall coverings, chair backs, etc.) people see as they work.  Make sure that there is some apparent order in what people are looking at; an apparent plan is a very good thing.  Managing visual complexity means keeping clutter in check, with items not in use tucked into desk drawers, for example.  Books on a bookshelf get treated in our brains as if they were some sort of wall pattern, so they can stay.  A space can’t be too stark, however, that’s as bad for what goes on in our brains as having too much visual activity.

Biophilic Design and Nature

Nature is a plus in any work area.  You can add it via a few green leafy ones in view (more than a couple in view makes visual complexity too high).  Two or so plants two feet tall can work well, but slightly taller or shorter is still OK.  You may be able to see nature outside your window, which is a plus, in any season, especially when you’re looking at rolling meadow like terrain, or with photos/artwork showing similar scenes.  Looking at all this nature is mentally refreshing and has been directly tied to enhanced cognitive performance and creativity.  Having a fish tank in view is also good for mental refreshment, as is a fire if your office has a fireplace.  Desk top fountains, are mentally refreshing to view and their sound is mentally refreshing, boosting mental performance.

If you can, try to work in a space about 70 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit, with humidity levels from 40 to 70%.  Temperature is a funny environmental condition, however, and if you like to work in a space that is much warmer or much colder than the 70-72 degree range you should do just that.  If you live in a place with acceptable air quality, open the windows whenever it seems appropriate, your brain will thank you

Sound

Audio distractions are even more insidious than visual ones; you can’t slightly pivot your chair to block them out, for example.  A silent space freaks us out, and isn’t achievable, anyway.  So how loud should your workplace be?

Your goal should be background sound at about 45 decibels.  How loud is that?  This is about as loud as a refrigerator or moderate rain.  There are a couple of soundtracks that are particularly good for work.  White noise is good for muffling nearby sounds, particularly when played at 45 decibels.  White noise is available online or in old-fashioned radio static, for example.  Another good option is the sort of nature sounds—burbling brook, gently rustling leaves, calm bird calls, etc.—you might hear in a meadow on a lovely spring day.  It also is a great distraction blocker, as well as being mentally refreshing.  You’ll note that I haven’t mentioned music as a performance-enhancing soundtrack—research shows that it isn’t, even if you listen to your favourites at a moderate volume.

Scents

For cognitive performance, lemon works well.  The smell of lavender is not only relaxing (which can be handy during tough meetings), but has also been linked to being more trusting, which is generally a workplace plus.

Others Things to Consider

It is very important that your workspace “says” “I work here” to you. It needs to convey, in a way that you find meaningful, that the area is a place for thoughtful endeavours.  Sounds like a bunch of gobbledy-gook?  It may; how a work area communicates its purpose can vary somewhat from person to person.  A work area needs to be physically fit for the job at hand, without doubt, which often requires a horizontal surface and a chair, but that’s just the beginning.  If you’ve always been impressed by the achievements of your grandmother, and kept a picture of her in view as you work, you need to make sure that you continue to see the photo of her as you work, even if having family photos on desk tops goes out of fashion.  Preserve your own workplace traditions.  Also, since your workplace will nonverbally “say” “I work here” to you, make sure you can’t see it while you are trying to relax or to sleep—a little careful furniture arrangement or a screen, perhaps one you build yourself—can do the trick and establish the correct “work” and “life” zones in your home.

When you are considering how a workspace can support the work that you do, be truthful with yourself.  Hearing other people talking is distracting; if you live in an apartment with thin walls, you need white noise, etc., as noted earlier, you can’t will yourself not to hear a conversation.  We type most efficiently on a laptop when it is on a firm horizontal plane like a desktop for example, not when it’s precariously balanced on the top of our bed-topping duvet.  Pain in your back will distract you from the task at hand if you only work while perched precariously on the edge of an oversized sofa in your living room.  This is not the time to forget about ergonomics.  It is a respected field of study for a reason, its handy tips will help you feel better and work better.

Give yourself some options as you work.  No one wants to sit in exactly the same seat looking at exactly the same things every day.  Build some flexibility into the spaces where you spend time to keep your life interesting and your level of performance high.  Creating a sit-stand desk for yourself—either a fancy one that actually lifts the entire work surface or a sturdy box to rest your laptop on that you move to the top of your seated height work surface from time-to-time—can work a little variety into your day while giving your leg muscles a little something to do.

Make sure that in one of your workplaces you have a view out over your entire work area from a spot where you feel secure—this is often a spot with a view of both the door and outside (if you can swing it, if not the view outside comes first), with a wall or a tall plant/piece of furniture behind you.  This is a space with what’s known in the psych biz as prospect and refuge and it’s the sort of place where we’re most comfortable, and our brains are in just the right state to excel at knowledge work.