Welcome back!
Over the last few lessons you learned how to reduce distractions in your environment. Starting with this lesson and the next few lessons, you’re going to learn how to create an environment that inspires you, motivates you and keeps your productivity high. Read on…
Choosing an Environment that Inspires You
Here’s the ideal situation: You want to carve out a corner of your home that you can call your own. If you’re lucky, you’ll get your own office. But if not, you need to find space in your home that is semi-private and for your use only.
If you’re unable to have your own room, then here are some ideas of how to carve out your own space:
- Separate part of a room (such as a bedroom) with tall furniture, decorate dividers, and curtains hanging from the ceiling. In other words, if you can’t permanently create a separate room, then at least try to do so temporarily.
- Turn a walk in closet into an office. Obviously this won’t work really well if you have a small closet. But if you have a large walk-in closet, you may be able to turn it into a small office for yourself.
- Claim the corner of a room. Again, you may need to use tall furniture and decorative dividers to stake out your corner. Ideally, this should be a corner that’s not near a doorway. That way you won’t have people walking by constantly.
- Stake out a little-used room. Do you have a room in your office that’s relatively quiet because it’s not used very often? For example, if there are just a couple people living in your house and you only do laundry a couple times per week, then you may consider using the laundry room as your office.
- Use the dining room. Some homes have formal dining rooms that are rarely used. Generally, the family eats in the kitchen or breakfast nook, and the formal dining room sits unused (except for special occasions and holidays). If that’s the case with your dining room, then you may be able to use the table as your desk.
- Check outside spaces. This doesn’t work if you live in an area with climate extremes. But if you live someplace where you can count on good weather for the majority of the year, you may want to create an outdoor “office” on your patio. You should have a backup plan of where and how you’ll work if the weather doesn’t permit you to be outdoors.
Again, the above are just suggestions to help you brainstorm ways to turn one part of your existing living space into your office. The key is to choose a place that makes you feel comfortable. For example, some people like the cozy feel of converting a large walk-in closet into an office. Other people feel claustrophobic and can’t stand the lack of windows.
Here’s the point…
You may stake out a place that seems perfect to you. For example, maybe you even have a small room that you can convert into an office. But if you don’t feel comfortable in there (for whatever reason), you’re going to be unproductive. Maybe you’re a really social person, and you feel cut off from the rest of the family when you’re in that particular space. In that case, you may need to choose an office space that’s private… yet doesn’t make you feel quite to isolated.
Now that you’ve selected a room or even just a corner of your home, your next step is to turn into a place that inspires you. You’ll find out how to do that next time!