Your office environment can have a profound effect on your creativity, especially if you work from home. If you have a home office, you need to do everything you can to keep it as separate as possible from the rest of your home, so you don’t find yourself distracted by thoughts of laundry or other household tasks.  I’ve covered how to Feng Shui your home office in a previous post, but there are other small changes you can make to ensure that your work space is a source of inspiration.

Designing Your Office For Maximum Creativity

Here’s how to design your office for maximum creativity:

Choose the Correct Colors

We all react differently to different colors, but some colors are known to generate the same reactions across the board. For example, orange is known to stimulate creativity. Perhaps use orange as an accent color, using cushions, picture frames or small appliances (like a desk lamp). You can also go a little bolder and paint one wall of your office orange. Other colors to consider are red, which energizes, green, which has a healing affect on the body, or yellow, which heightens motivation.

Adjust the Lighting

Your body is more sensitive to lighting than you might think. Too bright and the room can be jarring and too dark and you’ll find yourself getting sleepy. The trick is to ditch fluorescent lights for full-spectrum tubes, which simulate natural light. If you can, use the room in your home with best natural light as your office.

Create Ambient Noises

While a high noise level isn’t ideal for creativity, neither is absolute silence. Ambient noise level is the sweet spot for encouraging creativity. What exactly are ambient noises? Basically the murmurs of a coffee shop, where conversations are happening but not to the point that they distract you. I love Coffitivity for simulating the sound of a coffee shop at home.

Keep Your Desk Clean 

This is easier said than done, but you probably know that clutter is very distracting. You also probably know that it’s impossible to eliminate clutter completely, even if most of your work is digital. The easy solution is to keep a separate desk for stuff you need to keep but don’t need to have in front of you every day. You can also keep separate desks (or separate parts of your home) for different responsibilities, so every time you sit down, you know what you should focus on.

Keep Your Room Temp Comfortable

Ever walked into an overly air conditioned office or store and immediately noticed how uncomfortable you are? It’s hard to be creative when you’re expending huge amounts of energy just to keep warm. Keep your air conditioner at a reasonable level or forgo the artificial air altogether and use fans instead. In winter months, keep sweaters handy!

How do you encourage creativity in your office?