4 Tips to Earn the “Best Office” Badge:

You spend at least 40 hours a week in one place, might as well shape it in a way to benefit you and your place of work. However, placing furniture in an office may not be as simple as it seems.

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Studies show that placement of furniture can influence productivity, stress levels, mental health, physical health and your relationship with the company. Not only can you impact the aesthetic of your space, but you can also affect the appeal and comfort. Properly utilizing your space encourages collaboration and productivity, as well as allowing you to feel comfortable, relaxed and calm while you’re earning the big bucks. 

Here are our 4 tips to help ensure more comfort in your office.

The Power Position

According to Feng Shui, your desk should be placed in the furthest spot from the entrance, and you should be seated facing the entrance. This creates a sense of power and control. When your back is to the door, you begin to have subtle anxiety, you are unsure if someone is going to come up and surprise you. As your anxiety builds, you inevitably become irritated at the person that does end up approaching you. Think of it like your bedroom or an elevator. In your room, your bed is probably facing the door, right? People subconsciously do this so that way they can see who comes in, giving them a sense of control, allowing them to feel safe. Similarly, in an elevator, we stand by the buttons, if we can, with our backs to the wall, again, giving the feeling of control. Consciously placing your desk in the position of power, where you can see the door and your back is to the wall, provides relief we didn’t know we needed. If you cannot face your desk and chair towards a door, you could at least place a mirror on your desk. This allows you to see behind yourself, and you can admire your good looks. A desk chair with a higher back can also provide the feeling of safety in your office, making you feel slightly more protected from any unknown energies behind you.

Don’t sit back-to-back or face-to-face

A lot of people share their office space, open floor plans are becoming more popular, generating collaboration and healthy work relationships. However, if you are unfortunate enough to sit back-to-back or face-to-face with someone, conflict might arise. Looking at the same person every day can get exhausting, especially if they have habits that you do not particularly enjoy, like picking their teeth. See if you can turn your desk sideways or put a plant to block their face.

Benching is always a good option. Originally designed to hide wires, benching creates a small wall between you and your coworker without fully separating you. Like previously mentioned, having your back towards something creates anxiety of the unknown and the potential of someone coming up behind you. If benching cannot be the solution, you could stagger your desks, try to spruce it up a little so you are not all facing each other or the same direction.

Use a Bagua Map

In Feng Shui, the Bagua is an energy map and helps to evaluate your environment based off the energy according to the grid and the items placed in each area. This grid helps organize where your things should go based on what they mean to you. The spaces in the Bagua map are called “gua” which means “area” in Chinese, that are connected to aspects of your life and are layered with other means such as colors, elements, shapes, organs, nature and the principles of yin and yang. Organizing the space in each gua helps you tackle those aspects of your life. Using a Bagua map requires a few steps:

• Use an accurately scaled floor plan of your office
• Rotate the plan so the wall with the front door is at the bottom.
• Overlay an equally spaced three-by-three grid, with the bottom of the grid aligned with the wall with the front door.
• Locate all the areas to match up with the bagua.

  You could add plants to your wealth and prosperity area if you are looking to bring more financial abundance into your life. If you want to focus on your career while you’re in the office, placing your desk and chair in the career square is a promising idea. You can activate the areas by doing certain things in each of them, such as:

• Add a living green plant
• Add the color related to the area
• Add an object related to the element related to the area
• Spend a lot of time in the area
• Move the furniture around in that area

Consider flow and balance

• Keep the entryway clear
• Create visual balance
• Leave wall space
• Be aware of traffic flow, place furniture accordingly

Being aware of the flow of movement in your office space and applying that to the arrangement of your furniture can be beneficial. Keeping the clutter to a minimum can help by eliminating things that may get in the way of your natural movement. In addition, placing your bookshelves, desk, chairs, and cabinets clear of your walkway encourages and supports mental clarity, productivity, and personal wellbeing. Visual balance also helps keep you in the mindset you need to help you do your work to the best of your ability. When your office feels off-balance, you begin to feel that way too, throwing you off your work

groove. Balancing your office can mean spacing out your furniture. When all your bookcases are on one side of the room and the opposite wall is completely empty, your brain gets thrown off. You want to keep the door entrance area open and clear, using a wrap desk, like an L-Desk or U-Desk, and placing it closest to a wall to keep it easily accessible in main walkway. Using desks with data grommets, wire management trays and legs helps keep the cords of your office equipment well hidden. To see examples, click here. Organizing loose cords helps eliminate distractions and potential hazards.

Have fun with it!

The most important thing to remember when arranging or rearranging your office is to just have fun with it. Your office is a place where you should feel comfortable, where you should be surrounded by things you enjoy or things that motivate you. Placing your furniture where you feel comfortable is a good way to ensure you’ll like your space.