Your office space has a direct impact on focus and productivity. Learn simple changes that make a profound effect on how you feel and function in your work place. Bring some LIIFE into your office for big impact using lighting, plants and workflow organization.
LIIFE is Lighting, Information flow, Inspiration, Feng Shui, and Elements of Nature.
Lighting
Work is stressful enough. No one needs to have their work environment add to this. A client of mine was troubled by severe migraines at work. We set her up with lamps with incandescent bulbs and minimized the overhead fluorescents. Her migraines disappeared.
If you are working under acres of fluorescent panels or just one fixture, this can cause eye fatigue and headaches. The solution: a 60 watt incandescent light bulb. How can a simple Edison light bulb help? Fluorescent lighting, and this includes an “energy-saver” or compact fluorescent bulb, operates by flicker. Usually you only notice it when a tube is dying. The light flickers 60 times per second, as the fluorescent gas is “excited” by the pulsing 60 cycle per second electric current. When fluorescent lighting was invented in the 1920’s it was thought that 60 times a second was too fast for the eye to see. Recent research has discovered that the human eye-brain connection can see 50-80 times a second. Therefore you subconsciously “see” the flicker of the fluorescent light.
By placing a single lamp on your desk with a 60 watt incandescent bulb you will have a constant source of light on your work area, and this will counter-balance or minimize the flicker effect. I recommend a table lamp rather than a “desk” lamp. You want a translucent shade that creates a warm pool of light on your work area. Avoid a desk lamp with an opaque shade that creates a sharp line between light and dark on your desktop; that alone is a prescription for eye fatigue.
As a bonus, the combination of the “warm” color of incandescent light and the “cool” color of fluorescent light makes an approximation of full-spectrum light.
A simple change can have profound effects. Try this for yourself. You will be delighted by the improvement it makes.