Crowded, clustered, and ungrounded workspaces are a major cause of reduced work productivity and a lead cause of work-related stress. Paired with other office noises, conversations, and smells, it leads to a workspace that is certainly not fit for any productive results. On the contrary, a dedicated office space with calming elements can turn any cubicle, wall-less office, corner office, or even a work-from-home office into a temple of efficient production.
A space set with the intention of soothing, calming, and reducing stress is definitely seen as a better place to work rather than a place with haphazardly thrown office supplies, clutters, and bad smells. In fact, not carefully planned or calming offices are a reason why many people don’t find it in themselves to concentrate and produce good quality work. So, to help you combat stressful situations at work or resist the Monday blues when you just can’t bother to work, here are all the best ways to create a calming office space.
Have something calming to look at
An office space choke-full of papers you need to look at, ink stains, discarded coffee cups, and post-it notes aren’t very relaxing to look at, to say the least. The to-do lists, countless notes, and thumbtacks will only make you feel increasingly anxious and worried. Get all your to-do lists on the cloud, sync them across your devices and reduce disorder.
Declutter all the walls of your office, take down post-its and in turn, get something calming to look at to adorn your walls. A calming scenery on a canvas is one of the best things you can get on your office walls. You could find one calming picture from the internet that seems to soothe you the most or a recent landscape picture you shot while traveling and get them made into canvas prints by Canvaspop. All you got to do is upload the picture to CanvasPop, choose the frame you like, and have it delivered to your office!
Choose the right colors
Needless to say, colors play an important role in channeling moods, and if used in the right proportions, some great color combinations can have your creative juices flowing. So, when heading out to pick your office decor, or maybe even office supplies, spend some thought on which colors make you feel the most grounded. Green is commonly associated with creating a sense of calm and peace. Hence, a few green speckled around your office space will definitely make you feel more relaxed and refreshed.
Blues are associated with intelligence and are great to help you stay insane when working overtime. Yellows create a sense of happiness, and red creates a vibe of energy and positive aggression, which is great when working for your passion.
Get indoor plants or a terrarium
There are countless options to choose from when you go for getting yourself a plant baby. You could choose baby succulents, a kitchen garden plant from where you can take a fresh batch of herbs home each day, a thin climber, or maybe even a fake plant if you tend to forget watering your plants. The plant will give your space an element of freshness which is a must at jobs that require a creative flair or simply to soothe you while you work hard.
Another option for green is an office terrarium. You can make one yourself or buy one. In fact, you could certainly get a terrarium where you put water once, and the live plant absorbs it as needed. You can refill the water chamber each week or so. The greens will help you stay calm, and it is especially lovely to see your plant growing!
Build a hobby zone
Using a lot of brainpower and energy to come at productive results when working and easily exhaust you and take away all your passion for working. Luckily, you can combat this serious side effect of hard work by creating a hobby zone in your office. Or, if you have a particularly small office space, you and a few co-workers could together set up space in the office corner.
Here, you could keep a few items like coloring books, knitting needles and yarn, macrame threads, paint and drawing sheets, and other hobby supplies that require mindless work.
A hobby zone on your work desk can be used when you are feeling particularly low and can’t seem to focus or stay calm. Any mindless activity like coloring in a coloring book can make you feel focused and calm you instantly.
Put up a few favorite pictures
You sure must have albums filled to the brim with pictures of your loved ones, pets, and family. You could bring a few of these pictures to the office and set them in your workspace. Just tack them up to your cubicle walls, tape them down, or tuck them in your office mirror.
The pictures of your loved ones help not only bring a part of your private life with you to your work atmosphere but also help you relax and calm down when you feel especially jittery and tense and work. The pictures can help you feel stable and calm you down and maybe remind you to call the people you love so that you can have external help to calm down when stressed.
Bring in the smells
Research shows that soothing aromas and smells can help soothe excited nerves and bring you into a state of zen when you feel tense and jumpy. Apart from that, if your office-mates have a reputation of bringing particularly smelly lunches to the office, you could have your own relaxing smells ready to combat bad smells.
Lavender is one of the most used elements in aromatherapy that you can try. You could also choose other smells that seem to help you focus and bring them to your office space in the form of essential oils, aroma beads, and more!
Clean, organized office space is a sure way to reduce feeling anxious while you work. So, do use these tips and create a calming workspace!
