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Improve Your Office Life With These 7 Tips

As the years go by, your workspace can grow stale. A balanced work environment can fuel you and your team.

As time goes by your workspace can grow stale. A balanced work environment can fuel you and your team. If you’re planning to reinvigorate your office and reboot your creativity and inspiration here are some office life tips to keep in mind.

 

1. Let there be light.

When it comes to a comfortable workspace, lighting is everything. Giving your office lots of natural light is a very different experience from spending your days in a windowless room with florescent light bulbs.

 

Photo: © Photographee.eu, YFS Magazine
Photo: © Photographee.eu, YFS Magazine

“Eye strain, headaches, and general feelings of malaise are common complaints among office workers. Switching from fluorescent lights to natural daylight can help alleviate these issues, while also helping to boost employee productivity.” Not only will gentle lighting energize your team, it will also reduce eyestrain and headaches.

 

2. Make your office more cozy.

Add some personality to your space and encourage your team to do the same. Personal workspace décor is just as important as large-scale office décor. Prompt employees to keep family photos and preferred art prints in their workspaces. To further the at home vibe, consider choosing an office space with a kitchenette and amenities.

 

Photo: © babybamboostudio, YFS Magazine
Photo: © babybamboostudio, YFS Magazine

 

3. Offer workspace variety.

The standing desk trend is gaining momentum for a reason. People like variety. But it’s not always feasible for a company to come up with the money it would take to replace everyone’s desks. Consider providing alternative workstations and chairs that employees can swap out with exercise balls, stools, etc.

 

Photo: © Monkey Business, YFS Magazine
Photo: © Monkey Business, YFS Magazine

 

4. Set aside communal space.

Do you have a space set aside for your employees to gather? If not, you should. It will open up the lines of communication a little more. Giving employees this opportunity will help nurture ideas and build a collaborative workplace culture. If you have the space, put in a comfortable couch or lounge chair for breaks and other downtime.

 

Photo: YFS Magazine
Photo: YFS Magazine

 

5. Keep the clutter at bay.

A disorganized office can really zap the energy from your day by inducing stress and distraction. While you can’t enforce a tidy desk rule, you can affect change in your office by offering a better storage solution for your office. Princeton research suggests the effects of visual clutter are long-reaching: “excess things in your surroundings can have a negative impact on your ability to focus and process information.”

 

Photo:  © StockPhotoPro, YFS Magazine
Photo: © StockPhotoPro, YFS Magazine

 

6. Invest in greenery.

Keeping plants around the office will boost creativity while serving as a natural air filter. Desk plants, for example, can help your team embrace a cozier space that is conducive to productivity. “Flowers on your desk can always connect you to the outside world in addition to perfuming the air around you.”

 

Photo: © hitdelight, YFS Magazine
Photo: © hitdelight, YFS Magazine

 

7. Bring your dog to work.

Pet-friendly policies are growing more popular among employers. Slate reports, “about 7 percent of employers now allow pets in the workplace, reports NPR. Five years ago, that figure stood at 5 percent. That might not seem like a big jump, but once you remove jobs that don’t have offices from the equation—manufacturing and agriculture, for instance—that’s about a 50 percent increase. That rise is a victory for people who tout the benefits of inviting dogs and other furry friends into the office: It lowers the stress of employees, increases morale, produces tangible health benefits, and reduces turnover, all at no cost to the company.”

 

Photo: © Halfpoint, YFS Magazine
Photo: © Halfpoint, YFS Magazine

 

Now that you have a few extra tips to guide your office décor decisions, perhaps you noticed the one thing they all have in common: work culture. Decorating your office with your team in mind  is bound to produce great results.

 

This article has been edited and condensed.

Susanne Loxton is a business enthusiast who combines her interest in career and development with a passion for writing. Susanne works as a Communications Specialist for Aubiz, a compendium of knowledge about companies in her native Australia. Connect with @loxtonsusanne on Twitter.

 

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