Designing Your Environment to Work for YOU

Creating a supportive environment is essential to both your productivity AND your wellbeing. 

We feel successful when we’re happy and supported. 

As you set up a space that feels supportive (or evaluate your current #wfhsetup) consider where you work, what you need to do in this space, what supplies you need, and how you want to feel so that you are setting up a supportive and functional workspace.

Where? The first order of business is establishing your home base. If you’re designing a space to support you, start by taking note of where you find yourself throughout the day: do you have an office space but conduct your day from your kitchen table, bedroom, or couch? 

Note where you work and where you like to work - are these the same places or different?

Embrace where you like to be and work with your habits. Too often we work against our natural inclinations instead of embracing our natural rhythms.

WHAT FUNCTIONS DO I NEED WORKSPACE FOR? Consider what you need your space to support. What do you do? What would you like to be able to do? Write all of these things down so that your space is able to support your needs. Do you have accommodations you need to make for yourself to be successful?

In my workspace, I need to be able to record meditations, hold meetings, maintain my blog, and create art.

I’m also #ADHD so I thrive with options, therefore my workspace is equally fixed and flexible to meet my needs. 

CONSIDER HOW YOU ACTUALLY LIVE: Remember, we’re not setting up for our ideal life, we’re setting up for our real life. In my ideal life, I’m a minimalist with no clutter. In reality, I have to have everything I need out for me to easily see and reach. If something is out of reach or out of sight = it does not exist to me. Is that maybe ridiculous? Sure, but it’s how I operate. If I set up my desk to be a minimalist wonderland, I would be working against myself. A workspace should not create barriers.

When curating your space to support you, spend some time considering how you live, and observe yourself in action. What are the things you can streamline and where can you bring in more joy? 

What + Where go hand in hand - feel free to switch the order of these as you create your workspace. The What (what you do to work) informs the where and the where informs the what.

Once we’ve established what and where, we move on to supplies, vibes, and set up:

SUPPLIES: Make note of what supplies you need and use to do your work and set them up so that they are usable - your space should be easy and effortless once it’s set. 

I have a ton of supplies - recording and sound equipment, papers, reference materials… crystals, card decks, pens and markers, and paint. If you use it regularly, it should be close at hand. If it’s something you use less often, it can be a little more out of reach.

EASE OF USE: We’re trying to make life easier. I’m #blessed to have a husband that works in IT and likes to physically make things. He wired my desk set up so that all I do is plug in my laptop or iPad and magically I can do all the things. I can also unplug one thing and roam around and do work on the couch.

Ask yourself how can I create ease of use and flow?

I was getting up and walking across a room multiple times a day to grab a reference book until it dawned on me that I could create a tiny library on my desk of books that I frequently turn to so that I don’t have to get up.

Have all your supplies with you so that you can keep riding your flow state when you’re in the zone and ready to go. The worst thing is when you have to break your concentration to find something.

HOW DO YOU WANT TO FEEL? Your space should be inviting to you. Consider what kind of environment makes you feel energized, relaxed, and settled (or whatever feelings inspire you to work and feel genius)

I like music, smells, and beauty so I have a selection of crystals, incense, and candles on my desk to warm my environment and make it feel good. I have taped some of my old work to the wall which reminds me that I am creative.

What makes you feel creative? What smells do you like? What light do you like?

Start playing around and see what works for you!

How do you #wfh?