Site5 Tips for Creating an Inspiring Workspace
This is my first week in my new office space in downtown Concord, New Hampshire. As you may know, on January 2 we welcomed Traver Maxwell to the world. Eric and I turned the home office into a nursery, and moved all my office furniture and equipment into Eric’s game room.
Now, Eric is no ordinary boardgamer — he’s the owner and editor of BoardgameNews.com, and the proud owner of more than 1,000 boardgames. New review copies of games arrive every week. In other words, the game room is crowded — and I can’t work in a disorganized space. On top of that, I have trouble working when there are things in the house that need to be done, like laundry and vacuuming. So when my Pilates instructor mentioned that she was not renewing the lease on her beautiful space, I snapped it up.
My interior designer friend Shawna helped me do the initial decorating — we went for a Zen look — and my writing buddy Elaine Grant (who teaches our Magazine Writing Basics class, which starts in next week) helped me move in. And voila! I have a relaxing, clean place to work.
Since I’ve been doing a lot of reading and thinking about how to create an inspiring work space, I’ve gleaned a lot of tips that other freelancers can use. Here they are:
1. Get Inspired
One thing I can do now that there’s no one else in my office to disturb is listen to motivational podcasts when my energy lags. I like the podcasts by personal development experts Steve Pavlina and The Morning Coach (thanks, Elaine!). If you don’t have your own space, you can download the podcasts to your iPod and listen to them using headphones.
2. Go Green
I think plants are very important for fostering a calm yet creative atmosphere. My old office didn’t have any plants, and I missed having them. I now have a money tree and a lucky bamboo — how’s that for perfect plants for writers? — and I plan to get even more. I bought these plants already potted at Home Depot.
3. Stock Your Shelves
Besides the usual writing books (like The Renegade Writer!), I have motivational books on business and productivity like Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog, Take Yourself to the Top by Laura Berman Fortgang, and Work Less, Make More by Jennifer White. These are books I can pull out and skim when I need a little boost.
4. Sound On
Music can set the stage for a productive day of writing. Some writers like energizing music with a good beat, some prefer classical, and some like nature tracks like the sound of ocean waves. Me, I go for world beats like Thievery Corporation and Gotan Project, and albums like Buddha Bar, The Rough Guide to Indian Music, and Sahara Lounge. I brought an old CD player to my new office and have these CDs playing all the time. If you can’t play music in your space, can you listen to it on headphones when the mood strikes?
5. Keep It Neat
As the co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Cleaning, I love to clean — which is lucky for me, because nothing is more distracting than a messy office. It also hurts your productivity, since you waste time digging through stacks of junk to find that contract or magazine you need. If your office is overwhelmed by clutter, spend just 15 minutes per day clearing it out. On Day 1, you can clean one shelf of your bookcase; on Day 2, you can clean out a drawer of the filing cabinet; and so on.
Another tip: The “broken window” theory says that when a neighborhood has a house with a broken window that the owners neglect to fix, it starts to attract vandalism and other crime: people assume no one cares, so they treat it that way. The same can be said for your home: Ever notice that when you toss a magazine onto the chair in an otherwise clean room, suddenly that chair starts to attract all kinds of junk? Nip it in the bud by doing a quick neatening of your workspace every day before you leave work.
What do you love about your workspace? Post your comments below! [lf]
12 Responses to “5 Tips for Creating an Inspiring Workspace”
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stephanerd
Said this on May 13th, 2009 at 10:06am:Love those windows!
I have to admit, I don’t love much about my office at this point. My husband and I work back-to-back in a small room that was meant to be a dining room. It opens up directly into the living room (a standing screen is the only thing that partially separates the two rooms; this screen sometimes doubles as a drying rack). I’m squeezed between a china cabinet (which my chair keeps rolling into), two litter boxes, and the shredder.
What I do love are the pictures I’ve hung, which make the space seem much nicer. I have two Warhol prints, a triad of Boston scenes, another print of butterflies in a dramatic frame, and a drawing of E.T. and Batman hanging out (don’t ask). The prints are colorful and vibrant, and I love that they bring a spot of brightness to the room.
Star
Said this on May 13th, 2009 at 12:42pm:Don’t forget the four-leggers. I have a Himalayan secretary–sits right on my papers on my desk
and is esp helpful during interviews, knocking the pencil out of my hand as I try to scribble. Her name is Chonie because she has panty-markings on her stomach. Yes, I have a cat named Underpants, doesn’t everyone?
LindaFormichelli
Said this on May 13th, 2009 at 1:31pm:Stephanerd, great idea! I should have mentioned pictures. That’s something I need more of.
And Star, you’re right…I miss having my three kitties around the office! But at least I don’t have to clean cat hair off my desk anymore. ;->
wordwych
Said this on May 13th, 2009 at 4:20pm:Great post, Linda. Although the office depicted here is lovely, it’s a leeetle too stark for me. I find my creativity is stimulated by having goofy things I love around me. I’ve got wonderfully tacky Halloween signs on one wall (“Black Hat Society,” “Black Cat Apothecary,” and so on), and fave movie posters (Clue, Young Frankenstein, Rocky Horror, etc.) on another. I don’t conduct interviews here, so I feel like I can be as goofy as I want.
I had my office tidy – except for the scary, scary closet – until a few weeks ago, and I really loved it. Walking in to face a neat desk each morning really is inspiring, and I’d managed tidiness for about six months. My four-legged “editors” helped inspire the tidiness, by the way. My furry little friends apparently don’t trust the Earth’s gravitational pull, so they check it several times a day by knocking stuff off the desk. When something hits the floor, they shoot me a reassuring look, as if to say, “Yep, gravity’s still on. All is well.”
Alas, the desk has cluttered up again, and I’ve got to wait until Sunday before I can really do anything about it. The file cabinet I’ve acquired (for free) is a fixer-upper, and it is crying out for spray paint. Although I do not love to clean, I am looking forward to attacking the scary closet as well as the clutter, and getting things organized so I can again enjoy walking in to a tidy space each day – and no longer fear the scary, scary closet. I’m envious of all the space you have (my office is small, especially with 35 feet of books on shelving mounted to the wall) and the fact that you had an interior designer helping you. I’m afraid my goofy decor ideas would prompt an interior designer to run screaming into the night.
Hanna
Said this on May 14th, 2009 at 7:24am:My workspace is in boxes right now, and I am thinking about what I will do, and not do, to make it productive. Any ideas will be helpful. It is a pale blue room, that looks out on our backyard. Due to getting rid of old make-do furniture, I don’t even have a desk or bookcases or work table. So, I really am starting over from scratch.
When I am doing certain work, like setting up a website or cleaning up a presentation, having a TV or radio on helps me stay out of the content and just get the visuals done. The TV especially keeps the monkey-fun part of my brain busy so I can work.
And yet when I am doing idea genearation, editing and writing, the TV and radio, interfere with the words I need to focus on. Even music can interfere, still looking for background music that staus in the background. But, absolutely no distractions will drive me crazy.
I am going to try something new. I take close-up pictures of nature, that get just the shapes. I plan to put one of my digital picture frames right in my sight line and have it display pictures that are just shapes and colors. Perhaps it will draw enough attention to keep me working but not enough to take over.
Hanna
Susan
Said this on May 14th, 2009 at 9:15am:Inspirational podcasts and books are great, but what about inspirational images? When I got my first from the Boston Globe, I kept the envelope, because it has the NYT logo on it. It’s on my bulletin board along with a list of dream writing markets (the NYT among them). I also have some pretty cards I’ve gotten from friends and other items that make me smile.
Harry
Said this on May 14th, 2009 at 12:12pm:From the other side of the animal kingdom, I have a Cairnoodle (a Cairn terrier/Poodle mix) who feels as if he must be in my lap when I’m in the office. Our old Dachshund/terrier mix is a great dog for cat lovers. He takes the world on his terms, including me.
Although I have a great home office with all of the windows, books, sound system, etc – I find myself working on the back porch more often than not. It seems the only time I am actually in the office is for post-production work on my photography. Writing is done in the great outdoors.
mimi
Said this on May 14th, 2009 at 1:29pm:My workspace is constantly in a state of emergency. That’s just how I work. I have a photo of it at http://www.whatmimiread.com actually. I took a photo of it as I was leaving the office last night. The messiness even amazed me!
The thing is — I know where everything is! When it comes to record keeping, grading for my adjunct classes, and banking stuff I’m so organized it’s scary. I put things in folders and binders even. But my work space is littered with pens, bottles of water, media kits, lip gloss, magazines, hot cocoa packets, CDs — you name it. And I am one of the most productive people I know!
Go figure.
Gwynneth
Said this on May 14th, 2009 at 6:10pm:Oh my gosh, I love my study although my writing space can be limited when Sammy the cat decides to comfortably park his politician’s gut across it.
Other than that, I have a nice view (windows open to catch the breezes) loads of paintings, my landscape photos and other interesting stuff I’ve picked up from traveling. The room reeks of creative possibilities!
Dwayne Phillips
Said this on May 15th, 2009 at 8:01am:Where do you put the guitar? A necessary item.
Hanna
Said this on May 15th, 2009 at 11:08am:To Dwayne, and the rest. The guitar. Was it a real question or rhetorical?
We just moved into a new for us but old house. It has these things on the wall that we could not figure out. On close inspection I found some writing “off the wall.” I Googled the words plus “hanger” and pretty quickly found out they are for holding a guitar away from the wall.
Pretty clever.
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Said this on June 8th, 2009 at 3:23am:[...] 5 Tips for creating an inspiring workspace got me thinking of ways I can set up my own corner. Right now, there’s a stack of books, papers, a phone and a lamp. I’ll post a pic up soon, and you’ll see that decorating skills are absent in me [...]