Personalize Your Workspace
While surfing around, looking for neat workspaces, I found pictures of highly customized and very “expensive” office reconstructions and home offices with good-sized construction budgets. But I’m guessing most people (myself included) don’t have huge budgets for a complete redesign. And even more people don’t work somewhere that will allow them to completely redesign their cubicle. It’s a bummer, but that’s the world we live in.
So, what can be done to make your workspace “better” for you? It all comes down to details. A few small customizations can add with synergistic effects. There’s a good list of some larger things you can try at 12 Ways to Pimp Your Office. But here’s some more thoughts on what you can add (or take away) to personalize your office.
- Rearrange things – moving your computer and chair into a position that’s comfortable, but different from your co-workers can give a nice unique “feel” to your cubicle.
- Lighting – adding additional lights can completely change the ambiance of your cubicle. For example, including a traditional desk lamp over your writing/reading area can remove the fluorescent glow. During holiday seasons, it can be fun to string small lights around.
- More (or Less) Personal Photos – Most people have only a couple personal photos – try adding some more. Instead of portraits, include some action and “action” shots. If you already have LOTS of photos, try removing some and rotating others in and out. Mix it up.
- Accessorize – Take a stroll through Office Max or Office Depot’s accessory aisles. Or search amazon for office/cubicle accessories. You might see something that could make your office less cluttered or help your workflow. Keep an open mind and don’t be afraid to try things.
- Reevaluate your Work Process – Take a hard look at what you do most days. Is your office set up to help that process or hurt it? Do you spend a lot of time walking to other parts of the office? Can you move things closer? Can you add small accessories to help you – like putting In/Out trays near your keyboard, adding a hanging file folder near your chair, etc.
In general, be open to trying new things. If you try something that doesn’t work, it will still give you a better idea of what might make your office more personalized and comfortable, while keeping things efficient. You spend a lot of time in your workspace, so take some time each week to think about things that could make it better for you.
Workspace Design Considerations
I’m compiling a list of things that should be considered when designing your workspace. These can be put into specific requirements sections, but for now, it’s just a quick overview list:
Home Office Work-Pod
Many people don’t have a spare room in their house that they can easily convert into a full-time office or workspace. Usually it’s a guest room, or a kids play room when it’s not a home-office. And that’s not optimal, since it can limit your design choices, and more importantly, your workflow.
But, if you have a 2.1 square meter space in your backyard, your problems could be solved. OfficePOD Ltd is producing a small home-office “pod” that you can put in your backyard and use as your very own PERSONAL workspace. No more sharing your space with non-work related things.
As you can see from the pictures, two sides are transparent. While this will make the small workspace seem open, there are two big drawbacks – first, exterior light on screens will make them almost unusable – especially if you’re in a sunny climate. Also, if you put expensive computer equipment in the pod, and you happen to live in a “rough” part of town, I can easily see this being broken into. Perhaps some close-able blinds and/or heavily tinted window would help with both of those issues.
The interior is comfortable enough. There is good usage of space for storage and desktop area. It’s probably plenty for most home-office users, especially for ones that telecommute. OfficePOD’s website goes into the environmental and economic benefits for companies that provide these to employees.
The other drawbacks are power, heating/cooling, and zoning regulations. Depending on your power usage and your geographical climate, these could be a small to large obstacle.
All things considered, if I didn’t have a dedicated home office room, I’d seriously consider one of these PODs. I wonder if there’s a US company that does the same thing?
More photos can be found at OfficePOD.co.uk.
Serenity Now! Maybe..?
This is a classic photo of a nice small workspace that was featured on Lifehacker last year:
Although the owner/designer of this workspace doesn’t consider it “serene”, I think it strikes a cord with people for one reason – there’s no paper. Subconsciously, I think seeing a desk with no paper brings up feelings of calm and relaxation. So, I don’t know if it’s actually serene, it’s just extremely tidy.
So, other than serenity, let’s take a look at the nice design features. First, the lighting is very nice. I’ve got background lights behind my monitors as well, and in addition to looking nice, I think it helps against eye-strain when looking at bright LCD’s. I have an LED plastic light strip along the desk, but this looks like just small lamps behind the two end monitors. It works nicely, but might be bright if you’re looking in from an angle.
I like that there’s a lot of desk space for when there is paper. It works nicely in that you’d have to put paper away, or it would look cluttered right away. The monitor riser is the perfect size for the three monitors it supports – a mismatched riser can really make a desktop look “thrown together”.
Although the TV mounted above the monitors is a little large, it fits nicely. The placement in the center is nice, and would work well for presentations. But, having it mounted directly above the monitors could be distracting. I mounted an LCD TV to the left of center for my monitors, and although it’s asymmetric, it’s not distracting to have on while I work. It’s also easier for visitors to view.
There are a few more photos on flickr, as well as a nice description by the owner, Schodts.
Office and Workspace Design Requirements
If you’re like me, you think a lot about the setup and design of your workspace. Why Not, right? We spend a good portion of our lives there, so if it can make us more productive and happier, it’s worth it.
Although the article is 5 years old, it’s a great outline of the considerations you should make when designing your own office or workspace. Although the article is skewed toward “knowledge workers” with medium to large teams, most of the topics can be equivalent for home, telecommuting, traveling workers too.
The article is “Why Office Design Matters” available in the Harvard Business School Archives. Things like communication, concentration, and collaboration are discussed. It’s not a long article, but definitely worth a read – as well as printing/saving into your personal archives. The footnotes and citations are also worth looking up.
Classic Multi-Monitor Office
This was the first office I saw that had more monitors than I had. Mitch Haile converted his upstairs “loft” into a home office that nearly all programmers would remove an important limb to have.
Most people would probably consider this “TOO MANY” monitors, but, as a user of over 6 monitors at a time, I can safely say that it is extremely useful to have all that screen real-estate. It makes working on complex tasks on multiple machines MUCH easier.
His office FAQ describes in great detail how he converted the old area into an amazing design. Lucky for us, he took lots of photos of the conversion. They’re available on his flickr stream, and he also provides a detailed FAQ at: http://www.biscade.com/office/
One of the neat things he has that I haven’t used since working at a larger company (and not from home) is his Projector. I have thought about putting one on the opposite wall in my office, but have never had a need to do so. I’m actually hoping I will have a big meeting in the future, so that I can justify purchasing a nice projector and screen.
If you have a multiple monitor office, send us photos or a link, and I just may add it to the Cool Workspaces Blog!
Blogs with Workspaces
There are several blogs that include occasional features on workspaces, but I couldn’t find any completely dedicated to offices and workspaces.
Here are a three of the blogs that post some interesting workspaces:
There aren’t many more with consistent posts about workspaces, but if you know of any, let us know!
Cool Workspaces!
What is a cool workspace and what is coolworkspaces.com?
I don’t know what it is, but I find looking at and thinking about workspaces very interesting. Maybe it’s because I spend so much time in my own home workspace, or maybe it’s some sort of “workspace envy.” I follow several blogs that include weekly or frequent posts about a featured or amazing workspace, but I couldn’t find any blogs dedicated to cool places people work.
Workspaces are as unique as the people working in them. And this is a blog dedicated to examining people’s workspaces.
So, this blog will be dedicated to unique, interesting and usable workspaces. Home offices, cubicles, corner offices, closet offices, whatever – it doesn’t matter – if it’s a cool workspace, we’ll post about it here.
If you have a great workspace, or know of one, let us know!