As human beings, our senses are in charge of detecting any stimulation that influences our behavior in each area of our lives. The soft and pleasant smells, the organized spaces, and the relaxing decorations have countless benefits for our personal and professional performance, but, as work is a common stress generator, it’s necessary to fill our workplaces with elements that reduce this tension, to clear ourselves and keep us motivated.
It’s important to know the advantages of adapting your workplace to make it more relaxing and inspiring, so we will share our best tips here to help you create a healthy workspace!
Keep your Desk Organized
From the accumulation of bacteria, the waste of time looking for a paper or object, to the bad impression that mess caused in the workplace, having a messy desk has several disadvantages. While this is a fairly personal matter and depends on your work style, it is recommended to keep your desk organized and clean.
The organization allows you to stay focused for a longer time and helps you optimize your work rhythm. Furthermore, cleanliness and order have a calming effect on most people, since working in a clean, organized area, can increase your productivity level.
It’s important to us that our workspace is always kept neat, therefore we incorporate cleaning utensils, gel alcohol, and disinfectants to keep our desks clean, and our freelancers always make sure to tidy up every space in our office.
Some Easy Ways to Organize Your Desktop:
Throw Away What you Don’t Need
Is it really necessary to keep on the desk the wrapper of the snack you had a while ago? Or the documents from three weeks ago that are no longer a priority? I don’t think so. It’s recommended to keep a trash can near your desk, where you can discard what you no longer need and accumulate space that you could optimize.
Set Areas for Everything
A great way to start organizing your desk is to experiment with different ways to distribute space. For example, in the center, or in front of where you sit, there may be space for your computer, on the left, folders with documents and objects of primary importance, and on the right may be pencils or other utensils, or souvenirs from some trip with which you decorate your desk and you like to look at once in a while while you work.
Clean Daily
At the end of the day, be sure to throw away what you have accumulated, put things back in their places, and disinfect your keyboard, mouse, and desk to keep your work area clean and organized for much longer, and you’ll see, that little by little, you’re going to have the habit of doing it.
Plants in the Office
It is not a myth that having contact with nature reduces stress in unimaginable ways in almost all human beings. There is even a scientific theory called “biophilia“, which suggests that human beings feel an innate tendency to connect with nature and other life forms.
Having plants at work benefits us in every possible way. Studies show that, both biologically and psychologically, contact with nature, besides being present in almost all relaxing and inspiring places, reduces stress, tension, and noise accumulation in the office, and enhances motivation and mental relaxation.
Several researchers demonstrated that contact with nature enhances mental health in employees and workers, by conducting a study with two control periods, one in which the group worked without plants, and another, in which they worked with plants at the desk, discovering that any type of interaction with plants, had calming effects, and significantly decreased worker anxiety.
In addition to its effects on mental health, and enhancing productivity, it was scientifically proven that having plants in the office also has biological benefits, reducing the accumulation of toxins in the air, carbon dioxide, and various other chemicals, and helping to clear the space of exacerbated noise, due to its ability to absorb sound.
There are a variety of plants that you can keep in your work environment, however, at Freelance Latin America we recommend finding and caring for the plant that feels right for you, the one you feel connected to, also depending on climatic and geographic factors. For example, in our office, we have several variations of cacti that accompany us during our workdays. You could start with one of these adorable plants!
Scents’ Effects
Assistant Professor of Psychology at Brown University, Rachel S. Herz, speaks on the topic of why aromas influence human behavior, explaining that the effect of these depends entirely on associative learning since a smell will affect as long as there is a memory or learning with which to associate it, and this will determine the nature of the stimulus.
Despite how subjective this is, it has been proven that certain smells cause common sensations in a group of people. For example, the slight scent of mint, or fresh herbs, are popularly liked scent, regularly associated with cleanliness, freshness, and relaxation.
This is why we learned about some of the pleasant smells for most people, to set the common space that our freelancers share with a light, pleasant essence that can have a positive effect on them. Some of the essences that we recommend are:
Lemon or Orange
Citrus smells are excellent remedies for stress, as well as being extremely pleasant for most people.
Jasmine
The aroma of this plant reduces stress and anxiety levels and has a great calming effect.
Vanilla
Although it may be too sweet for some people, this odor is usually associated with positive experiences and tends to help relax the mind.
This was a simple overview of how you can improve your work environment, giving the same tips we’ve integrated into ours, to offer the best workspace to our freelancers. Keeping cleanliness, order, and mental health is important to performance, productivity, and success, so be sure to give it a try to these recommendations!
