Since I first published this list of 25 obvious, yet effective, ways to improve your working environment, all the way back in 2022, it’s become one of the most read posts on my blog. Many of my coaching clients and course participants come back to this again and again, to find new ways to tweak their set up and improve their working environment.
Given that we are once again in January, and given that this week I’d do just about anything to make work a little easier, I’ve gone back to review and update the list to include a few new things and approaches. There are a lot of things you can try to make your day a little more comfortable, calmer and more balanced. What will make a real difference to you depends on the way you work and your personal preferences.
What makes this approach work (for me at least) is that the aim is to start thinking about making very small, incremental improvements, not big or radical changes that new year resolutions so often come with. I can always find ways to make myself 1% more comfortable, even on a bad day. And along the way, I gain a little more awareness and distance from being lost in digital productivity curves.
My “1% better” list
Use this list to find ways to make a small change, or maybe two, and see how things shift:
Working environment
lights for different times of day, i.e. a work lamp, SAD lamp, fairy lights, a candle
a selfie or ring light
A place for a pet to be… if you can persuade them
a place for papers/desk tidy
open window or fan
heated seat pad
Work set up
a new mouse mat or a mouse you like
wrist rest/mouse rest
glare protector
foot rest (cushion or yoga bolster can work, too)
headphones that suit your ears
Stepping away from the screen
an alarm or similar that reminds you to take regular screen breaks
a physical reminder to go to a different room/downstairs/outside
cushioned slippers or shoes (particularly handy for standing desks)
a paper planner/diary you can use away from the screen to think/plan
a lunch date/appointment with someone away from your desk
Engage your senses
scented candle or a diffuser for aromatherapy oils
music
new flavour hot (or cold) drinks to try such as new herbal teas or coffees
a secret snack stash (healthy or not)
something tactile like a soft throw or a fidget toy
a pet
Analogue joys
a plant
a nice coaster
photos/pictures/art
a rock or shell from somewhere you like
record player
Healthy habits
eye mist and glasses that help filter blue light
a water bottle
cleaning products for your workspace, i.e. eco wipes, disinfectant, screen cleaner
find a window sill or high shelf you can use as a place to have meetings with your laptop or a sit stand desk or desk shelf
A few notes…
If you haven’t done so in a while and especially if you have recently moved things around, checking in on your work set up from a basic health & safety perspective and reviewing display screen equipment guidance is a good first step.
Many of us easily ignore or tune out constant factors that make working uncomfortable, like glare, noise, a bad chair and so forth. Try and look at your set up with fresh eyes.
Ask yourself, if someone else had to use it for a week, what do you think they might like or find difficult?
Support from your employer with purchasing office equipment for home working (or if you are self-employed here in the UK, you can apply for support with office equipment costs from the Department for Work) should help with making bigger changes, such as buying an adjustable desk, a suitable chair and other equipment.
What are you going to try to make your day tomorrow 1% more comfortable?
This week took an unexpected turn: first, I decided at the weekend to (finally) dive into building a book nook. I received the kit (Sunshine Town) to create this a while ago and loved the idea, but until now it didn’t feel like a good moment to get started.
But thanks to my new enormous sit stand desk, I felt in the right place to start unboxing and get building. Plus, I also had amazing inspiration from one of my colleagues at Reclaim, Meredith, who recently completed a similar kit and the result was absolutely amazing. So at the weekend I was happily building away, surrounded by a sea of small pieces, glue and paint. Audiobook on, tea at the ready. It was bliss.
What I didn’t know then was that less than 24 hours later my office would move rooms… in a spontaneous effort to create a better space for the postgrad student in our home. Although shifting things around to make a new study space wouldn’t have necessarily meant moving my office, it was a great opportunity to get things arranged in a way that made the most sense given who is using which space when and how. Also, there was a chance to have a floor in the house on which every room has it’s own record player, and who could pass up such an opportunity 😉
Cue a day of shifting book cases and wardrobes, dogs ‘helping’ and me not so secretly regretting the amount of vinyl records that seem to have accumulated on the first floor. Thankfully we have a lot of practice moving things (me being a fan of re-arranging my office…) and moving things around the same floor mercifully avoids lugging things up and down stairs. Needless to say, it was maybe not the ideal time to have trays of drying, tiny pieces of model kits around.
A day later and a relative calm has descended. Hold my calls… I’m blogging… at my newly cleared desk and in my new office space (which I love). Posey the dog has settled in her new nook, surrounded by cuddly blanket and toys. The plants are gently adjusting to the changes in light and position, settling into their new home, too. My yoga mat is stowed in its new corner, ready for a calmer start to the day tomorrow.
Even though so much of my work happens in the digital realm, with collaborators and clients who are continents away, it’s the books, records and stationary that make up the analogue foundation of my practice. And when that foundation is in disarray, I feel it across the whole spectrum of my work. So here’s to making this new space home, so that I can get back to finishing my book nook 😉
It’s my first day back at my desk today after a two week break, and I am happy to report that both rest and fun where had! It’s been a while since I had two weeks off, and my top tip for my future self is to do that more often. One week is never quite enough to really relax, and I loved the extra days before and after travelling to Crete that the extra week afforded me.
My partner and I did plenty of reading by the pool, mini golf, gym, lazy lunches and even longer dinners, enjoying the late summer vibes and Greek produce. Pretty much every picture has me eating or drinking or my face is hidden in a book. I took five books on holiday (I prefer taking printed versions abroad), and all were devoured.
My other activity on holiday was to take A LOT of pictures of plants, and to turn some of them into water colours. Having not done a lot of drawing for a while, and I really enjoyed the creative, easy practice of making a drawing a day. It was awesome to indulge in my love of plants, and to learn more about the local plants along the way.
Here’s a peek at the result:
Now that I am back, I’m busy getting ready for some new projects, including the next run of my podcast based hybrid working course. Join us from 20th October – register free now. Keen to learn a bit more about the story behind the course and how I came to be so interested in all things hybrid and virtual working? Listen to the story which spans from Germany to London in my art school years, and from Athens to Oxford as my work moved from Art to Anthropology and then Education, this episode sets out what I think is interesting about hybrid and virtual working, why it’s important and why now is the time to really find ways of working that work for you.
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Yep, this is another post about houseplants… or rather things we can learn from plants. I’ve previously published leadership lessons from office plants and in the same spirit this post is all about houseplant inspired tips for managing a period of change or transition.
It’s inspired by my own experience of moving between jobs this month and my adventures in caring for a growing collecting of plants in my home and home office. It’s the first time in a long while that I am changing jobs, but the last few years have brought so much uncertainty with them that I feel I have quite a lot of practice of coping with the unexpected. What the last few years have also highlighted for me is how important it is for us to have strategies for periods of transition – and like many I found solace and inspiration in bringing a bit of green indoors.
So in the spirit of open practice, here are my personal reflections and practical tips. You can also listen related episode of my podcast on Apple Podcasts.
Allowing time to be less productive
One of the things I have struggled with a lot in recent months is just how much there is I don’t know or can’t control, both when it comes to changing jobs and also in relation to my plant collection. Although I am looking forward to the changes ahead, it’s still disconcerting not to know what the next day, week or month will bring, how it will feel, if what’s ahead is fun or frightening. While I have plenty of practice in dealing with uncertainty both professionally and personally, the emotional toll of not know is still there.
Hence there is a lot of need to get comfortable with accepting what I can’t control and to sit with my feelings, comfortable with being uncomfortable. Spending time with plants is one way of making that space and time to acknowledge to myself (and where appropriate to others) what I am feeling. I might go for a walk or sit quietly somewhere, or lie on the sofa cuddling my dog. The particulars don’t really matter. What does matter is that in that extra time I need I am not being as productive as usual. I am not achieving or working in the way I usually do. It’s a season of change, and just like my plants aren’t always growing new leaves or in bloom, I am adjusting and trying to enjoy this period for what it is.
Reflecting to gain perspective
Reflecting is a key part of my professional practice. I like reflecting in conversation, by writing in my journal, or just thinking about things. That said, at the moment I am finding it difficult to focus. I sit in front of a blank page and I can’t find the words to start. There seems to be too much to reflect on to know where to start, or indeed everything I can think of doesn’t seem worth mentioning.
Fortunately, I have a coach whom I get to lean on in times when my own capacity to gain perspective is low, but I also found some prompts to help me reflect. What I do is to start on a fresh page, and write down 3-5 questions that I then answer in turn. Here are some examples of the kind of questions I ask myself:
What was hard today?
How would you like tomorrow to be different?
What do you wish you had done or said differently?
Why are you feeling the way you do?
What has changed in the past week/month?
What are you looking forward to next?
What would you wish would go away?
I have some very small succulents at the moment, and they are so interesting to watch. Day to day they don’t really change, and sometimes I give them to much water or too little, and some of them don’t like it, but with patience, they do change and grow and you can also really see those changes over a period of time. Similarly, in my journal, I can usually only spot the patterns when I look back at what I wrote 3 months or even a few years ago. It serves to remind me that my current perspective is always limited by the here and now.
Focus on what stays constant
Even in times of transition many things remain the same and it can help to focus on these. For me, it’s easiest to find constants in my home, my daily routine and my own skills and capacity. Here are some examples:
Home: I like finding my favourite comfy spots to read and have tea. Particularly during a stressful day, I enjoy looking out of the window and observing the outside world. I also have a great fondness for plants, and I have about 10-15 houseplants in my office. Plants change at a much slower rate, as they grow and develop. I enjoy observing them closely and soak up some of their patience and calm along the way.
Daily routine: tea in the morning, walking the dogs, even answering emails can be comforting routines. I really enjoy routines and habits, even though my week is not planned out in every respect. I like having flexibility to decide when I want to exercise or do chores, but doing familiar things is still comforting.
Skills and competencies: one of the things I find most comforting about change is that I can continue to rely on my own skills and competencies even when the context in which I apply them changes. For instance, I love planning and organising things. I enjoy being creative and producing content. My work rate is extremely high, and I get a lot done. All of these aspects remain the same, and I try to lean into those strengths.
This plant, an Oxalis, arrived at my office from a local plant fair very recently. It usually grows near water, like a brook or stream, and is used to having some sun, but not too much, and to be kept moist and not dry out. So far, I am happy to say, I haven’t managed to kill it, but there’s always a high probability of failure with a new plant I am still learning about. I don’t know yet how the plant will adapt to my office, or what it might need. Context is everything, and with a change in environment there’s always a risk of failure. Like with plants, people, too, need conditions to thrive, and they provide a constant reminder of that.
There are other strategies that work for me at the moment, including making time to practice gratitude, taking breaks, planning for a holiday and re-inventing some of my weekly routines. In short, everything I do when moving at ‘plant pace’ (slow, intentional, balanced, looking after my needs) feel good and are helpful in this period of transition.
There are also some things that aren’t working for me:
Can’t rush settling in
One of the aspects about change that frustrates me is that you can’t rush it. Things take time to adjust, and other people and processes need time to catch up. Most importantly, I need time to adjust. And yet, my mind would like it to be sometime in the future when everything feels settled and the new routines have become familiar.
Feeling unsettled is hard and most of the time actually making a plan happen takes a lot longer than conceiving of it in the first place. Although I can comprehend that things simply take time to change, and that I need time to adjust and process everything I still find it frustrating at times.
Digital difficulties
The other part of transitions that I find difficult is in how many different places information needs to be updated. From social media sites to email footers, to life admin and address books, it feels like a mammoth task to even change my email address. That is one aspect of changing roles that I really don’t enjoy as it’s simply tedious to go through and unsubscribe, update or delete everything.
I am going to check back in on this in a few months, partly to report back on progress, and also to get a feel for how my perspective is shifting as the transition continues.
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