?Mood Boosters to Uplift Your Office
They say that your environment affects your mood, so it?s no wonder that productivity and attention span is diminished in an office with terrible lighting, devoid of anything vibrant and personal. Maybe it?s workload that?s getting the best of you, but believe it or not, the methods to increase productivity and engagement might be easier than you think.
A basic first step is adding some green to your surrounds. It?s been found that simply having indoor plants within your line of sight in the work environment can increase employee productivity, and decrease the levels of sick leave taken among those in the office.1 Pair this with cooler lighting, and the effects are increased vitality & alertness, and decline in daytime fatigue.2 However, exposure to natural light is most beneficial, but in the difficult environment of the office is not always possible.
Employees who are actively engaged with their workspace are proven to be more motivated workers.3 Encouraging engagement with workspaces could mean having personalised items on desks, such as images or trinkets. Brands such as 3M produce colourful & entertaining desk accessories, such as Post-It Note Dispensers, and colourful highlighters & tapes. It?s important not to discount simply using colourful items such as sticky notes or pens as tools to improve your mood at work. Read more on how to use colour to your advantage at work here.
Alongside environment, work focus can also be a contributing factor. Increase in workload and stress levels can contribute to the ill-fitting surrounds and cause trouble in your workplace. The addition of productivity tools to your work routing ? hard copy or online ? can prevent stress from getting in the way of tasks at hand. Dedicate a pen and notepad for to-do lists, or utilise a workflow board online such as Trello to assist with both workload and time management, putting your mind at ease.
While mood improvement may feel like a monumental thing to shift in the office, making small changes day by day to each of the above could impact you positively when working together to uplift your mood.
- http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/42/3/581.fullc
- https://onlinemba.unc.edu/blog/how-lighting-affects-productivity/
- https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/aug/31/plants-offices-workers-productive-minimalist-employees