Your Workspace Can Make or Break You: The Power of Context
By: Rajat Dangi
Tags: Self Improvement, Workplace Culture, Productivity, Self-awareness, Creative Process

Here are some tips that will help you set the tone for your workspace. Ideas that you can plug and play with. And test them yourself. Tweaks that will help you do more, faster and better.

Note: These tips are suitable for your corner-of-creativity at home. Because we don’t get much control over the office space, mostly.

1. What’s your schedule type?

Managers schedule vs. makers schedule.

There are two types of schedules. Paul Graham named them managers schedule and makers schedule. People on managers schedule can cut their days into hourly intervals. But for those who are on makers schedules, they prefer to divide their time into units of half a day at least.

Creators (makers) need distraction-free long hours. A couple of hours are not enough for them to even get started. Writers, designers, developers etc. work on makers schedules.

If your workspace puts you in a distracting environment. Or there is always someone patting on your shoulder every couple of hours. You need to let them know about your work process. For home, find a place where you can lock yourself up for long hours. If you tell them, they will understand your professional needs. It’ll save you time and energy that you’d have wasted in circling back to your ideas.

2. How do you want to feel at your work desk?

Innovative, focused, playful, energetic, artistic, happy, inspiring, calm, soothing…

Put up a poster or two, that triggers those feeling. Or some decorative props or tools. Or get a musical instrument to play in between. There are no hard and fast rules. A trigger, as small as upbeat music or bright lights is enough to make you feel energetic.

The triggers are not to force you. But it’s your job to cautiously set them as they suit you. You need to honor your taste.

Those feelings reflect in your work. They also lead to physical comfort and reduces distraction. For example, at my work desk, I want to feel organized. And for that, I keep my desk clean (that’s it). One simple improvement will impact the quality of your work for a long time.

3. Does chaos lead you to creation?

Your productivity is linked as much with the surroundings as it is with the physical comfort, your mood, and deadlines.

There is a minority of blessed people who can work while standing on a leg, under the Niagara fall, with EDM in the background.

I know, you are not one of them. But once in a while, it doesn’t hurt to experience chaos.

Chaos leads to order. It doesn’t need to reflect in your workspace though. But only in the process. Experiment with the timings and experiment with the locations. You’ll find out that starting your work from different initial conditions would result in completely different processes and creations. It is not for everyone. But some creators thrive in chaos. And others (like me) can’t hold a single thought for 10 seconds.

4. Creativity fluctuates and so does your work-zones

Creative process requires working in small rooms, big halls, with groups or alone.

Your creative work/process demands that you work in multiple modes. You need discussions, brainstorming, alone time, feedback and a period of reflection and revision.

It is preferable to have dedicated work-zones for each of those situations. Adobe’s office has dedicated spaces for each of these requirements.

You don’t need to dedicate mutually exclusive work-zones, an overlap is fine. Most of the creators already have this habit of getting off their chairs for discussions or brainstorming. It is a good habit. And you may try to add specific locations or contexts to those habits.

5. What’s your color pallet?

Colors are important. Very few of us are neutral towards colors. If you have your own reasons behind your choice of colors — extend them to your workspace.

It’s up to you in which manner you prefer them. I incline towards white: laptop, mobile, headphones, pens, walls. Things that soothe your eyes just blend into the environment. The weird looking, oddly colored objects don’t.

Pick your color pallet. Most of us don’t have the freedom to modify the environment we work in; it is an office or your rented room. It is tough. But cultivating a corner with your favorite colors slowly won’t kill your bank balance or your time.

Don’t go at your desk lightly

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

Approach your work (craft) with passion, anger, joy, hate, guilt, despair, fear… but not lightly. Emotions fuel art. Focus fuels your craft. A mind, when empty on emotions and dull on ideas is never a right time for your creative pursuit.