Whether you work in your home, an office or a coffee shop, you’re waging an ongoing battle to improve productivity — whether you realize it or not. Whether you own your business, just started in a new entry-level position or are anywhere in between, your earnings and career advancement hinge on your ability to get more high-quality work done in less time than anyone else.
There are a lot of issues undermining our productivity that we have little or no control over. For instance, if your work assignments are confusing, overly challenging or under-explained, you don’t have much choice other than to go back to square one. Or, if you have too much on your plate, or not enough, you’re going to be underproductive until you have a manageable workload. If you work for a large company, smoothing out your workload could involve weeks or months of navigating the inner-office bureaucracy. If you’re self-employed, working out the proper productivity balance must come from within, which may be an even tougher task.
There is one area of productivity over which we have a great deal of control, and it’s right in front of our eyes: Our personal workspaces. Your desk and immediate surroundings affect productivity in a big way, and it’s an issue you may not have given nearly enough thought to. The infographic below, How to Create a Productive Workspace, does an excellent job of conveying the importance of the workspace on productivity, and offers five very solid ideas about how you can get more work done — more quickly and more happily. It’s valuable information for anybody who works at a desk all the time or some of the time.
If there’s one common denominator among the five tips presented in the infographic, it’s comfort. Clearly, you won’t perform at you best when your back hurts, your eyes are strained, you’re fighting off a cold, you’re unable to concentrate or your mood is somewhere between grey and black. To perform at your best, therefore, you should do everything you can to enhance your physical condition and state of mind.
These are ideas few would argue with, but in all too many cases, workers put up with uncomfortable workspaces. Why is this? If you’ve never sat in a well-designed office chair, maybe you simply don’t know what you have been missing. It could be a lack of connecting the dots: Maybe you feel sluggish and haven’t tried putting a few plants on the desk to improve the air. Maybe you’re so focused on the forest of your overly-bureaucratic workflow that you’ve never paused to see tree-size piles of paper on your desktop. Whatever the reason, this infographic will give you a solid game plan for overcoming drags on your productivity. For more insight, please continue reading.