How Your Workspace is Affecting Your Productivity

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How Your Workspace is Affecting Your Productivity

Everyone wants to do well at their jobs, and the key aspect that everyone is talks about is productivity. This makes sense as it’s the most easily quantifiable value we can place on your work.

But unless your job is strictly task-based and routine, productivity can take on different forms. Problem solving approaches are as varied as personality types and its important to try and accommodate your team as much as possible to help them be their best.

In your attempts to help them succeed, you’ve taken them through training programs and ran through team-building exercises to try and single out special talents and abilities. But have you thought about the spaces that they work in? Our environments affect us in ways we don’t realize – while one person may thrive in a traditional office environment, another may find them tiresome or constraining. Whether this stems from personal preference or preconceived notions is up for debate depending on the person, the result is usually the same – they may get their work done, but they are unable to thrive.

Fortunately, this is a fairly easy issue to tackle. The key is to properly designate spaces for different methods of work and furnish them accordingly (don’t worry, it doesn’t need to be expensive). Here are a few ways to create spaces that can help bring out the best in your team:

Ergonomics

One of the most important but often overlooked factors is the ergonomics of the office space. From chairs to desks, keyboards, monitors – you name it – ergonomics affect our every action and can deeply affect our moods and mindsets on a subconscious level. Standing desks are a great investment as they provide relief from sitting all day, but comfortable office chairs and specially designed keyboards and mice can also provide much needed relief.

Breakout Spaces

A great breakout space is an informal area where people can relax a little from the tension of the main office areas. Allow your team to either relax for a little bit or use the space in fun ways that allow them to approach problems creatively. Consider providing a big whiteboard for people to have fun with and work out ideas with others!

Color affects us more than you might think

If you’ve seen offices working to implement bright colors into their spaces, there’s more behind it than simply trying to appear fun. Studies have shown that the colors of our environments can actually affect our productivity! Low-wavelength colors such as blue and green help improve efficiency and focus while mid-wavelength colors like yellow can create a sense of happiness. If you need a room to get your team psyched up, you could even use a high-wavelength color such as red that can boost energy!

As we learn more and more about ourselves as humans, we’re realizing that holistic approaches are so important to how we approach the world around us and the problems we look to solve. Where we work affects how we work, and successful teams take these factors into consideration when looking to increase productivity.