Today, I executed that ever-important task which every creative person must carry out from time to time; the office re-arrangement.
Our workspaces (by which I mean the spaces in which we work) can have a tremendous effect on the quality of our output. When we become too used to a particular furniture configuration, our ideas can begin to stagnate. Like month-old fish-tank water, our environment must be periodically replenished with fresh liquids.
Baby Steps
The most basic/cheapest change of this kind is the computer desktop background. Smashing Magazine, in one of their interminable collections, helpfully provides a wide variety of creative wallpapers that can stimulate several of your nervous systems. Of course, you can’t actually see them while you’re working on anything, but it’s a new configuration of colors and shapes that can be set to change every half hour. Fast, free and easy.
Get Arty
Framed artwork is your next best bet. It’s easily swappable with other framed art, doesn’t require an outlet and comes relatively cheap. DeviantArt has proven to be a repository for all kinds of art from all kinds of mediums. They’ll provide you with frames, but I would recommend writing down the sizes of your favorite pieces and visiting the local frame shop. Compare prices to make sure that the extra cost of the frame and shipping are worth it to you. You can shop online, get them delivered to your office and hang them yourself.
The Great Move
If you find your ideas still all look/sound alike, it’s time to do what I did today; rearrange the office furniture. I transposed the positions of my desk and my couch. That’s all. The guitars are in the same place and I haven’t even gotten around to moving the cork-board, whiteboard or the framed art. I might move that stuff later, but I think the Chi is flowing nicely through the room at the moment. If you’re very lucky, someone will help you move the heavy stuff. Just remember to take things slowly. Don’t try to move a desk with the computer still on it, no matter how much time you think it might save you. Be prepared to spend half a day on this and have some Pledge furniture cleaner on hand.
Exodus
The last resort in altering your work environment is to move to an entirely new locale. This option, for fiscal and time-management reasons, is not typically optimal for most people. But I didn’t want to create an incomplete list. I care too deeply about you people.
Office rearrangement suggestions
- Move your desk to the other side of the room.
- If you have mobile light sources, reposition them.
- Buy a cheap end table to put your printer on so you have more desk space.
- Clean out that drawer that you’re not really using and fill it with useful items that wind up cluttering your desk because you don’t have anywhere to put them.
- Use cork-boards. Computers are fantastic, but being able to physically reposition pieces of paper with things written on them is a powerful tool that humankind has used for millennia. Or since whenever the cork-board was invented.
- Pay attention to your workflow. It will tell you what drawers you use and which ones are wasted. It will tell you if you really need a bookshelf or if you just want one. Try and identify which blank spot on the wall you find yourself staring at and put an interesting picture there.
