How your working environment affects your productivity

Where you work can affect how you work, which means finding the right work space is essential to your businesses. In this post we look at the different ways your work space could be affecting your productivity.

Check your air quality

Working in an environment with bad air quality can affect your concentration and reduce your energy levels[1]. This is because the more oxygen the brain receives the more effectively it will work.
A good way to create oxygen is to include plants in your workspace. This is because plants are great at creating good oxygen. It has also been found that working near green environments can help with productivity and mental health.

Get some light

Low levels of vitamin D can make us depressed and weaken our immune systems making us less productive. Find work spaces with as much lighting as possible or invest in SAD lamps. Poor lighting can cause fatigue, eyestrain and headaches. Windowed offices have been found to be 15% more productive than windowless ones. [2]

Turn up the music

Research by MusicWorks found that 65% of owners of small and medium sized businesses say music in their workplace makes employees more productive and 40% believe that it can increase sales or results for the business.[3] Whilst it may be hard to find music to everyone’s taste, having music playing in the background can help make your business more productive.

Get the right temperature

When office temperatures are low workers are likely to make 44% more mistakes than people working at optimal room temperature. [4] The appropriate office temperature should be set between 16 – 24 degrees, who knew?!

Embrace the multi screen

Multiple screens can increase productivity by up to 50%, a VIBE study has found. [5] Make sure your desk is wide enough to consider extra monitors that may be needed. Having access to multiple screen will help you ease from application to application with ease.

[1]http://www.areasq.co.uk/news/impact-working-environment-productivity/

[2]http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/resources/newsroom/pdf/2003/Daylighting&productivity.pdf

[3]http://www.areasq.co.uk/news/impact-working-environment-productivity/

[4]http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/Conferences/EECE_IEQ%20and%20Productivity_ABBR.pdf

[5]http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/vibe.aspx