How Your Workspace Reflects Your Health And Lifestyle
You spend a lot of time at work – whether that be in a corporate setting or home office. It’s all to easy to fall into bad habits and not get out for lunch, or use the office snack machines and this can have a detrimental effect on your productivity and health. In this article Christy Scott looks at 10 things you can do to shake up your office health routine.
The benefits of working in a minimal, productive, and healthy workspace will reflect in your own life. When you are present in a space like this, it’s much easier to make the correlation between the space and habits in your own lifestyle.
In many cases, those who have a very healthy inspiring workspace will carry those habits into their life for good.
When you put your health first and that’s reflected in your space, you’ll feel more energized and everyone’s positive and productive energy will bounce off of each other. This keeps the morale up and encourages people to put their best foot forward in the office where it matters most.
When you make the changes to create a workspace for employees that will reflect your healthy lifestyle, you’ll notice right away that there will be happier people in the office, more work will be completed, and not as many people will call in sick!
But it can be hard to determine if your workspace is a healthy space to promote health and lifestyle. Especially if you spend most of your time there, it can be very easy to ignore what’s going around you on a day to day basis.
This is why we’ve written this article. We want you to be able to easily tell if your workspace will promote a healthy lifestyle. We’ve created a list of points you should pay attention to because they will almost act like a checklist. Not only will we be telling you what exactly you need to be looking for to make a great office space, we’ll also be discussing how to bring in these elements into the space.
We want you to be able to reap the benefits of a healthy and inspiring workspace, so let us know your thoughts when you finish this article!
1. Stay Active
One of the most important ways a workspace will encourage and reflect a healthy lifestyle is how active the individuals are in the office. This doesn’t mean everyone has to work on a treadmill desk, but there should be encouragement to sustain a healthy lifestyle.
This could mean creating a running group after work or even a morning early riser yoga class in the office for those who want to join in!
2. The Hues
It’s important to know what colors work and what ones don’t. Colors play a huge role in the interior mood of an office. If you want an office that reflects a healthy lifestyle we would suggest sticking to pale blues, white, red, orange, or even a subtle green. These colors promote health and productivity!
3. Keep It Green
Keeping plants around the house is a sure way to improve the overall appearance and freshness of the space but it will also reflect on the health of the individuals using the office. It adds color and interest without major distractions.
4. The Food You Choose
Swap the office snack machine for a healthy choice. Group together and walk to the nearest supermarket and make your own food in the office, or have designated groups of people to bring in a healthy lunch twice a week. Whatever works for you and the overall office, but one thing’s for sure, a healthy lunch changes everything.
5. The Way You Sit
The key is to be ergonomic in as many ways as possible. Whether that means you encourage the use of standing desks, or even just purchasing new chairs that will actually be comfortable and help improve productivity. By being able to properly sit at a desk, you’ll feel much more healthy and ready to work throughout the day.
6. Is There Fresh Air?
While we know it’s not always possible in an office to open a window or two, but if it is, you should as often as possible. Allowing fresh air in the office will improve blood pressure, improve mood, and can clean out lungs. This small detox should be taken advantage of whenever possible if you want the office to reflect a healthy lifestyle.
7. Are You Listening To Music?
Listening to music, personal music from headphones is a great way for some individuals to work. Some offices have rules against this, but we aim for you to reconsider, because this form of motivation and inspiration individuals can find through music they love is a real way to boost the mood of the office.
8. Create Mood Lighting
Lighting is a key way to play up the mood to encourage health and positivity. Generally when people are surrounded with natural light, the lighting is diffused and it is very gentle on the eyes, while also allowing you to clearly see what you’re working on. This is key for an open office, plus it’s a wonderful mood setter for the rest of the day.
9. Community Fruit Bowl
This might seem simple, but food is such a big part of health in general, it’s important to encourage healthy snacking in the office as often as possible. Provide a fruit bowl in a common area of the office instead of chips and chocolate, and you’ll notice people starting to get involved and boost their energy with apples, grapes, or oranges!
10. Keep It Simple
Keep the office clean, throughout the day. Don’t wait till the end of the day to tidy up. When you put in the extra effort to clean the space throughout the day, other individuals in the office will as well. Just taking a small 15 minutes to straighten up so everyone can keep their focus throughout the day is key.
Conclusion
Overall, introducing health into the workspace and having a healthy lifestyle reflected in an area of your life you spend quite a bit of time in, is key to being able to maintain positive energy and flow. These are excellent ways to encourage healthy behavior for everyone in the office?
Will you be making some of these changes in the way you create your office space for your employees?
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