As entrepreneurs and business owners, we spend the majority of our time sitting at our desks and making big things happen. If your desk space and working environment is a complete mess, your work ethics and productivity levels probably are too.
I recently talked about how to create an awesome home office or working space to simply get more done. Some of the highlights from the article were focusing on the importance of decluttering, using the right colors within your workspace and also making it representable as somewhere you would like to work every day. After all, for most of us, this is our business and lifestyle — so you should be going to work in an area that you enjoy being in!
At the same time, many of us enjoy a more minimalist or “feng shui” experience. Feng shui is the ancient study of energy flow as it pertains to the physical layout of furnishings in a room. Get your interior design right, and your chi is a’flowing. Get it wrong, and your life experiences difficulties.
While I’m no expert in Eastern interior design traditions, I am familiar with some of the best practices with regard to desk organization — and knowing how to find other great resources online as well. You’d be shocked at the extent to which a disorganized desk can affect your state of mind and productivity. Here are a few suggestions to make your everyday life and work effects that much more effective.
4 ‘Feng Shui” Methods to Increase Productivity and Energy in Your Office
- Don’t Have Anything Out Which You Don’t Use Regularly. A scattered and cluttered desk is a common sight in offices all around the world. There is little wonder why Executive Suites around the world feature minimal clutter. Interior designs and workplace specialists understand that the more tools and decorations that are visible to the eye at a given moment, the more distraction is taking its toll on the worker. Oftentimes, the cluttered desk is the result of a tired and taxed mind. The owner of the desk is so preoccupied with other things, that it’s really hard to take the time and attention to find a place for every piece of clutter on a desk. Take half an hour, and clean house. You’ll find that you have a lot more mental clarity afterward.
- Throw Stuff Away. If you don’t use an item regularly, but you don’t have a place to put it, it’s likely that you don’t need it. This goes especially for documents which you have in digital form. But it can also include the contents of many a junk drawer. Coupons, instruction manuals, endless pens and pencils. You just don’t need all of this stuff. Throw some of it away. If you’ve managed to live life without using these things for a few weeks, you’ll be able to live the rest of your life. Get rid of them!
- Find an Organizational Method That Works. New rule: Anything made of paper gets filed. Find an organizational system, alphabetical or otherwise, and follow it religiously for a month. Once you’ve managed to do that, you’ll have it down as a habit. From here, designate a drawer that is used just for non-paper items: staplers and whatnot. Divide this drawer into smaller drawers, using boxes or desk organizing tools you can buy at Staples. Make sure each section has its own purpose, and stick to them. By now, the surface of your desk should be free of most things. Now that it’s open and clear, add a well-chosen plant or two, something that can thrive in the mid-level lighting of your office. Now your desktop is free of stuff that needs to get done, and now has projects in action as well as things of beauty. It makes for a better state of mind.
- Add some plants and life to your working environment. Even if you are going to a clean and minimalistic approach with your office space, adding some color and plants to your working area can go a long way. Not only will live plants bring a refreshing feeling to your office, it can also help with the air quality as well. There are also many other benefits to adding plant life to your working space, such as reducing stress, increasing productivity and even reducing noise and illnesses. Some of the most popular plans for office spaces are aloe, cactus, ivy, peace lily and spider plants to name a few.
Being an entrepreneur can be stressful enough at times. Improve your productivity and working environment by implementing these feng shui tips into your working space.
The post Feng Shui: How to Organize Your Desk for Success appeared first on Zac Johnson.