How Interior Design Affects Productivity at Home

Both hybrid and fully work-from-home models of employment have risen in popularity since mid-2020, and it’s clear that many employees thrive with an increase in productivity at home. From reducing your commute times and gas, better work-life balance, to saving money on childcare, and companies saving on the cost of large and underused office spaces, there are many reasons for this shift having occurred and being here to stay. Carefully designed workspaces lead to less stress and more productivity, especially in work from home employees.

Psychology Today defines several factors or personal characteristics helping to establish how productive individuals are, including motivation, education, personality, natural talent, training, environment, support from others, time management, and luck. From that list, interior design, or proper functional design of an at-home workspaces can impact personality, time management, motivation and environment.

Whether you work from an office all the time, none of the time, or part-time, one thing is for sure: a terribly designed workspace can hinder your productivity and make the workday less pleasant. When considering how interior design affects productivity at home, we should examine everything from lighting and ergonomics to color psychology and climate control.

Workstation layout

Ensuring your workstation is next to a bathroom, near comfortable resting seating, and near a water filter positively fulfills basic physiological needs, minimizing delays associated with having to travel to have those needs met, potentially resulting in distractions. If you’re plagued by thirst or other basic functions, it negatively impacts productivity.

Think of your home office or home workspace in terms of quadrants and consider the flexibility of those quadrants – what are you working on? What do you need to complete the task? What happens if another task comes in? How difficult would it be to switch tasks and work with different materials? Does the interior design and use of the space make sense for the type of job you do?

When designing your office to promote productivity at home, it’s important to consider where you are putting your work desk – if you don’t have a dedicated home-office, you can put your office in your workout/meditation room to promote movement and reduce the amount of time you are sitting stationary at a desk. Multi-use work spaces at home have their own set of benefits.

Speaking of your desk, several considerations can help boost productivity including incorporating a sit-stand desk, having an easily accessible recycling bin (that you empty frequently), and incorporating levels, rests and footrests for your monitor, keyboard, mouse and body to ensure you avoid unnecessary strain.

Avoiding unnecessary strain is another key reason for investing in ergonomic seating. Back pain from poor seating can distract you and prevent you from doing your best work, especially when you are sitting in the same place for 8 or more hours a day. If you are forced to spend time climbing in and out of your desk, less time is spent on the actual work as you struggle to get comfortable and stay that way in your workspace.

Ensuring your working area includes adequate storage is also vital for maintaining productivity at home. Less clutter makes us feel more at ease – out of sight, out of mind; and it’s great to be able to store office supplies somewhere so you don’t have to go running around your house looking for things if you run out. Finally, if you don’t have Wi-Fi or are required to be connected to many different devices to complete the work, then a cable management system is essential. You also want to ensure the room was designed and wired properly to support all the electronic devices you are required to plug in to complete the work.

Quick Interior Design Tip: unless you are using it as a computer monitor, don’t set up a TV in your office, as it causes unnecessary distraction.

The area around your desk

The chosen location within your home for the workspace, outside of the desk itself, should be considered when planning your interior design and layout. If the room is in a busy part of the house or isn’t sound-proofed very well, it can be too noisy, which drives distraction, reducing overall productivity. Investing in tools such as noise-cancelling headphones or setting up mini cubicle walls can help block off everyday noises and other distractions. Additionally, depending on the nature of the work that you do, and whether you have kids or pets that can interrupt you regularly at home, your room planning should include a locking door, in case you need it.

Is the lighting choice of the room going to contribute to, or impede, your success in working from home? If your interior design concept of the home office has inadequate lighting, or lighting that does not compliment the blue screens of many computers, this can affect your productivity at home by causing headaches and eye strain.

Your climate control and airflow are also important – you want oxygen in a potentially stuffy closed-door-room, and a good temperature because worrying about being too hot or too cold prevent you from doing your best work. Breathing pure oxygen, or having access to higher levels of oxygen, for only a few minutes each day can stimulate your brain and increase mental performance when attempting more demanding tasks at work. An air purifier could be a useful accessory in your overall home-office interior design considerations.

Creativity drivers… or lack thereof

Many would agree that sitting in a stagnant boring cubicle all day, every day is not a productivity driver -rather something that can drain you of all your creativity. If you’ve designed your home-office like that, it’s likely to hinder your productivity at home. Consider giving yourself a breakout space or somewhere more open for free form creativity. This can be a different part of the same room, or a corner you have set up with a whiteboard, blackboard, or tablet.

Creating somewhere comfortable with a good Wi-Fi signal can also boost morale and make video meetings more productive. Though you are working from your home, and often alone, the idea of community workspaces enables teams to collaborate and build team relationships, creating a renewed sense of community and comradery among your employees. It’s difficult to put your best foot forward if you are worrying about what your colleagues are seeing in the room behind you – and many would rather just share a space they love with their coworkers, rather than having to use a background filter. Not worrying about how you will be perceived will boost productivity and allow you to focus.

Color can define how we think and feel, especially in our own homes. Your home is supposed to provide you comfort, solitude and be welcoming, not provide unnecessary stress. Neutral and blue shades are said to help with concentration, whereas yellow can help stimulate the creative process in your brain, and reds can sometimes be perceived as more aggressive. Many psychologists agree that a gray and dull atmosphere creates a feeling of fatigue and sleepiness, which negatively affects productivity at home, and more thoughtful colors, or bright accents in the form of paintings and other elements have the opposite effect. Vibrancy can stimulate the creativity in your brain, letting you do your best work.

Personalization and Houseplants

It’s no surprise that people are happier when they get to show off their unique personality and be their true selves. When considering the interior design of your home office in efforts to boost productivity at home, personalization or unique design pieces help the space feel more like yours, promoting more feelings of ownership over the work you are doing. These thoughtful and conscious personal design decisions also help you feel more comfortable and relaxed while at work.

Typically, people are happier outside so placing your workstation near a window and bringing in houseplants will help by providing natural light, and greenery resulting in greater productivity, increasing our moods, easing eye strain, and even help contribute to improved sleep cycles.

Indoor plants can reduce stress and enhance air quality. Vibrant flowers, like overall bright color choices in interior design, can help improve your mood. When picking flowers for the home office, being conscious of specific floral odors will also help you avoid unnecessary distractions.

TL;DR

Comfort + function > trendiness

Open spaces > cramped spaces

Color and personalization > dull and grey

Considering basic human needs > home offices styled strictly for design or cool factor.

Whether or not you are productive can be determined from a combination of your mental energy paired with both internal and external motivations. Employee well-being, the feeling of being content and comfortable in the workplace, comes from a number of interior design considerations including access to nature, views, natural light, and multi-use spaces. Thoughtful design helps us feel connected to the rest of the world, and to each other. If you feel calm, and comfortable, you are more likely to be able to perform your best work. If you’re looking to get inspiration for your home office re-design or other home project to boost your at-home productivity, talk to an expert at an upcoming show.