Think about your work. Does it cause you stress, or does stress affect your productivity at work? Here are some ways to improve the situation.

Transform your workplace. If the workplace seems gloomy and uncomfortable to you, try to create a small corner of harmony: for example, decorate it with houseplants, placing them according to the rules of Feng Shui - the Eastern system of organizing space. If your window does not offer a beautiful view, hang a picture or a poster (at worst, a postcard) on the wall with a landscape - the eyes rest best when they look into the distance.

Put things in order. If you have lost a document that you were holding in your hands a minute ago, it means that it is time to clean up your desktop. Sort documents and papers according to their importance, putting away those that have not been used for a long time. (Getting rid of unnecessary things calms the nervous system.) Keeping the documents in their places will streamline your thoughts.

Organize your time. Scheduling your work time with a wall chart or diary entries will save you from feeling helpless in a situation that is out of control.

Repair the equipment. Repair broken office equipment (or tools) or buy new ones. Fixing a copier, a wobbly shelf, or buying a new filing cabinet will make you feel like you've done something useful and things are looking up—especially if you use those things yourself.

With these simple yet effective tools, you'll be surprised at how quickly you can find the things you need, how convenient it is to work with working equipment, or how pleasant it is to glance at a flower or a soft toy. The calming effect of these simple tricks will significantly reduce stress at work.

Relaxation

Relaxation of the body occurs due to the parasympathetic nervous system, which restores the internal resources of the body. Watching television is perhaps one of the best ways to relieve mental and physical stress. But there are other ways too.

Read a book: a classic 19th-century novel, a memoir, a traveller's note—in short, anything that distracts from everyday life.

Listen to some music before bed that will soothe you and put you in a state of serenity.

Before falling asleep, do the following: tighten all the muscles, then slowly relax each part of the body in turn. Relax your feet first, then your legs, stomach, torso, arms, hands, neck, shoulders, and finally your face. This exercise induces a state of physical rest.

You can also seek help from professionals. They will advise you on how to improve your well-being. For example, you can take a course:

Aromatherapy, which includes a massage with aromatic oils that relieves tension;

Deep massage (kneading), which consists in intensive massaging of the whole body. It improves blood circulation, improves skin elasticity and ultimately relaxes;

Reflexology, such as foot massage. There are points on the feet where many nerve endings are concentrated. Impact on these points is beneficial for the body.

Relaxation techniques combined with occupational therapy will help you improve your well-being and replenish the energy you need to overcome stress.

Drawing conclusions

To learn how to control stress, you need to regularly perform exercises that reduce tension and promote relaxation of the body. You can use the recommended techniques to improve your well-being, but you will achieve more results by creating your own relaxation program.

Having put things in order in the workplace, you will quickly find any document without getting upset or falling into a rage. With a beautiful picture in front of your eyes, you can dream for a few minutes and return to work inspired. Voluntary tension and relaxation of the muscles of the body before going to bed will relieve the tension accumulated during the day.

After seeing the first results of resisting stress, you will feel a surge of strength and can move on to the next stage.

Ask yourself

As you answer the following questions, think about ways you can reduce stress.

Are you ready to decide on measures to combat stress?

Are you ready to try simple physical exercises to reduce tension?

▲ Do you want to improve your workplace and work style?

▲ Are you going to rationally organize your working time?

▲ Do you understand that working with faulty equipment leads to stress?

▲ Do you agree that exercising before bed can reduce the stress of the day?

Everything will work out if…

● understand that resisting stress is better than sitting back;

● take immediate action;

● improve your workplace;

● understand that good equipment helps reduce stress;

● realize the importance of physical exercise for relaxation;

● understand that by learning some relaxation techniques, you will increase your resistance to stress.

How to improve your workplace - each specialist decides for himself, because. In principle, there is no single methodology for improving the place of work. However, most of the rules for the rational organization of the workplace come down to the same requirements, both on the part of the employees of the enterprise and on the part of existing employees. Therefore, in order to improve working conditions, the applicant needs to clearly form a list of the main components of success, including in relation to organizing his own workplace.

After a clear idea of ​​​​the ideal workplace is formed, it will be much easier to compare the proposed workplace with those that have already been encountered in practice and allow you to make the right choice in favor of one or another offer. In particular, when the entire proposed database of employers has been studied, it becomes possible to compare and make a balanced choice, taking into account one's own capabilities and priorities.

On the basis of existing knowledge and own experience, you can radically improve the resulting workplace. The main and auxiliary equipment, working tools, technical equipment, level of automation - all these components characterize the workplace in accordance with the Technical Specifications (TU). To improve working conditions and results, it is necessary to study all the requirements for the organization of the work process, determine the degree of compliance with the standards and, according to the circumstances, determine the amount of possible workload.

Working hours, labor productivity, the duration of the production cycle, the time of each work operation, the duration of the maximum and minimum loads - these and other indicators need to be worked out and your own plan should be drawn up. After working through each item, you can understand how the deviation for each parameter will affect the overall result of the shift. Taking into account these indicators, employers plan the workload, after which they form a task for the specialists of the recruitment agency: looking for an employee.

Recruitment agency specialists will help you choose an employer, taking into account the degree of automation and the quality of the organization of the workplace. A lot of works have been written in industry standards about how to ensure the achievement of the best indicators in labor, increase the volume of products, improve the quality of goods (services). However, it should be obvious to a qualified specialist when familiarizing himself with production, what shortcomings can be identified and eliminated in order to improve the performance of the company's core business.

One of the most important criteria of the workplace is the internal hierarchy, the system of subordination. In most cases, this is the decisive factor when choosing a place of work. If within the team it was possible to create a positive atmosphere of mutual assistance, respect and trust, then many tasks can be solved together, including how to improve the workplace.

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candidate of psychological sciences

How open space affects employees

If a in terms of content, the workflow is associated with routine actions and consistent execution of instructions, then open space is a very good solution, as it allows you to control the actions of employees and, more importantly, makes you constantly feel control, even if it is not real at the moment.

If a the workflow includes at least some creative elements, then the open space turns out to be “neurogenic”. The fact is that any arbitrary choice, any independent decision-making is, to a certain extent, stress (even a girl who chooses which earrings to wear experiences it). In open space, this stress increases many times over: a person projects his emotions onto all those who can see him at that moment.
As a result, he is involved in experiences of aggression, shame, guilt, etc. This triggers irrational conflicts in the team and at the same time greatly reduces the pace of the worker. Therefore, open space can be good for a team of telephone operators, accountants, tellers, but unsuccessful for the editorial team, programmers.

Correcting the situation is almost impossible. To mitigate the negative impact of open space, you can, firstly, set up a fence so that at least part of the workplace is not visible. The more the workplace is fenced off, the better. Ideally, the space turns out to be practically not open. Secondly, you can create a complex corporate culture so that each employee has a very large number of rights. If a person feels very secure (a lot of strictly observed rights and an absolute minimum of prohibitions, everything is unambiguously interpreted and written down on paper), then his sensitivity to open space decreases. But I have not seen completely successful solutions of this type. Typically, 10-15% of employees relax and begin to work almost as efficiently as in a desk placement, while the rest do not believe in their security and constantly break the rules.

Anastasia Panibratova

architect

How to improve your workplace

Open space, unlike a separate office, does not give complete freedom in the design of the workplace. Lucky is the one whose boss worked on the design of the workspace with a professional interior designer and took care of the comfort of his employees. However, in such an open space, external uniformity will be strictly monitored. No one will forbid you to put a photo or a couple of toys on the table (which I do not welcome), but otherwise you will have to accept the given conditions. In spontaneously designed open spaces, there is more room for individual creativity, since changing furniture or plants will not disturb the stylistic chaos that reigns in this space.

If you are uncomfortable in the workplace, then first of all pay attention to what you are sitting on. A comfortable chair is the basis of productivity and well-being. The chair should fit you in height, width and depth of the seat. The angle between the back and the seat should be just over 90 degrees, and the back itself should be curved to provide good back and lower back support. In a good chair, not only the height and inclination of the back, the height and length of the armrests and the distance between them, but also the depth and height of the lumbar support should be regulated. Seat and back materials should be resilient, breathable and easy to clean. And, of course, it is absolutely necessary that the chair in which you spend 8-10 hours a day gives aesthetic pleasure. For those who appreciate a healthy lifestyle, I advise you to try the latest achievement of office furniture developers - a chair that allows you to train your muscles while sitting. In addition, a footrest can be an unexpectedly effective and elegant solution to discomfort.

The second pillar on which employee comfort is based is a large, stable desk. If you don't wear microskirts, it's best to use a table with four legs rather than one with solid legs. If the office space does not allow each employee to accommodate a spacious desk for personal use, you can team up with a friendly colleague. There will be fewer legs and more legroom.

It happens that cause of discomfort not in the wrong furniture, but in a large number of people around

The right monitor will save your eyesight, save you from headaches and optimize your workflow. It is better to choose a widescreen monitor with a diagonal of 23-24 inches. In this case, the entire screen area is placed in the field of view - provided that the monitor is at a distance of 30-40 centimeters from the eyes. A laptop screen is usually closer to the eyes, so a 15- to 17-inch screen is sufficient. Screens with a matte finish are considered more comfortable. For office workers, it is better to choose monitors with PVA or S-PVA matrices. They have a wide viewing angle, excellent color reproduction, and they are less tiring for the eyes during prolonged use. Usually more expensive monitors are more comfortable, but if you are not comfortable working on Retina, you should listen to yourself. It is convenient to have not one, but two monitors on the desktop - for example, connect an additional display to a laptop. In this case, you can place information blocks on different screens. The monitor stand is more than just a device that allows you to support the monitor in a vertical plane. With its help, you can finely adjust the position of the screen depending on the comfortable position of the body at the moment. If you have to work with large texts, including program code, the function of rotating the screen by 90 degrees is useful.

It happens that the cause of discomfort is not in the wrong furniture, but in a large number of people around. If you feel tired of the company of colleagues, try isolating your workspace. Install small partitions on the sides of the table: they do not create the feeling of an enclosed space, but prevent inquisitive neighbors from studying what is happening on the screen of your monitor. With the help of curtains and soft partitions, you can come up with a variety of options for zoning space and quickly respond to changes in relationships in the team. Great for softening the urban landscape of the office, plants can be placed on the floor between tables or placed on the nightstands that zone the office, or even on the desktop. Particularly forgetful can order pots with automatic watering. If you need to concentrate on working in silence, soundproof construction headphones will save you. Just explain to your colleagues and boss why you need such an extravagant accessory.

If you are cold in the office, you think about how to warm up, and not about what is happening on your computer monitor. If the light bulb dims, the lack of a daily dose of light causes drowsiness.

But even if you're not allowed near the office thermostat and you can't teleport your desk closer to the window, you can make your workplace more enjoyable.

Look at your workplace: does it seem cozy and comfortable enough for you? If not, you need to urgently change something, because your productivity depends on it.

1. Perfect cleanliness or creative mess?

If a cluttered table means a mess in the head, then what does an empty table mean?

The table is a reflection of your workflow. A cluttered table often sets a person up for a creative atmosphere, helps to feel more comfortable and relaxed. A perfectly clean table, on which every thing lies in its place, is considered a sign of good moral qualities - accuracy and precision, but not every job requires just that.

Maybe a creative desk clutter is just what you need for the perfect workplace?

2. Closing the open floor plan

An open-plan office is a large space in which each desk is separated from the other by a partition. This layout is considered modern and progressive, but in fact it has a bad effect on productivity.

Workers are often distracted, get daily stress from the hustle and bustle, and even get sick more often. You can suggest redevelopment to the authorities - if this improves work efficiency, everyone wins.

If redevelopment is not possible, there is another way to increase concentration - to surround yourself with familiar things.

3. Home atmosphere

Studies have shown that if you decorate your workplace with your favorite poster, hang your photos or just funny pictures, your well-being improves by 32%, and productivity - by 15%.

Psychologist Craig Knight of the University of Exeter argues that if a person surrounds himself with familiar and pleasant objects, his concentration increases - he is less distracted by noise and works more fruitfully.

4. Curved lines for a cohesive team

Work furniture affects not only your personal comfort, but also the relationship with employees. It has been proven that people feel more like a team at a round table than at an office table with right angles. If you can choose, opt for furniture with softer shapes and curves that create a more comfortable atmosphere in the room.

5. The power of plants

Green is soothing, improves memory, and sets you up for productive work, so a potted plant will come in handy in your workplace.

OU Platform/flickr.com

In addition, plants normalize the humidity in the room and have bactericidal properties.

More plants in the office means less bacteria and disease.

Try, think and experiment. You spend most of your time at the workplace - is this not a reason to seriously take care of his condition?

About the importance of the environment in which we work and advice on how to change your workplace before it changes you.

Few things affect productivity as much as our environment. Yet few take the time to critically assess their workplace and make adjustments. Instead, we accept everything as it is.

We come to the same office, coffee shop or co-working space and try to set ourselves up for productive work. But no matter where you are, there are quick and easy ways to make your workplace work for you.

Source: Medium

Why the environment matters

Research proves that often our habits in the workplace, both positive and negative, are caused by some external trigger, among which the conditions in the workplace are increasingly singled out. We visit the same places, sit at the same table, and are constantly influenced by the same factors.

Sounds good, doesn't it? Create the right conditions around you and you will automatically enter the state of flow. But, unfortunately, not everything is so simple.

Through evolution, the human brain has learned to keep us safe, even if we don't realize it. If we are threatened, we need to make decisions quickly, for which our brain uses a technique called “subtle division”. Its essence is that one small element of reality is selected, which is then generalized and determines which behavior model to choose.

Thus, various triggers and external factors in the workplace influence you even at the level of subconscious judgments and actions.

Don't believe? Here are just a few scientifically proven facts about how powerfully our thoughts and actions are influenced by the environment:

• Students who were given a cup of hot coffee in their hands and asked to rate a stranger after a few seconds were more likely to describe them as warm and friendly than students who were given cold coffee.
• People felt more competitive if there was a briefcase in sight, or even a picture of a briefcase on the wall. This effect was observed even if the person could not remember seeing the briefcase.
• If you're talking to someone who frequently uses words like "down", "depressed", "low", "meaningless" and "disappointed" in their speech, chances are you'll feel something similar.
• Even the faint smell of cleaning fluid makes people cleaner than usual.

So how do we create an environment that makes us feel the way we need to throughout the work day - motivated, productive and creative?

Defeat Interfering Factors Before They Defeat You

Neuropsychologists at Princeton University have found a correlation between people's productivity and desk order. The results showed that clutter in the workplace is a distraction, which lowers productivity and increases stress levels.

Physical clutter affects the brain in much the same way as multitasking: it overloads the senses, causes stress and interferes with creative thinking.

However, it's not just about getting rid of unnecessary things around. We don't create clutter just because we're lazy or disorganized - discarding scattered things literally hurts us.

Researchers at Yale University recently found that two areas of the brain responsible for sensation of pain are activated when we reject personal items that we feel connected to.

The same areas of the brain are activated when we feel physical pain from a paper cut or too hot coffee.

Your brain reacts the same way to the loss of any of your personal belongings and to physical pain.

How can you reduce your stress levels due to distractions?

• Use delimiters. Twitter followers, open tabs in the browser, notebooks, magazines - setting yourself a rigid framework and self-control will allow you not to be distracted by new factors.
• Use small storage spaces. According to Parkinson's law, we fill all our free time with tasks, and the same can be said about the mess. Less space means less room for clutter.
• Every month, arrange an audit of the surrounding space. Set aside time to clean, sort, and dispose of unwanted junk each month.
• Get in the habit of cleaning your work area daily. Crew CEO Mikael advises cleaning up your workspace at the end of each day so that nothing distracts you from doing important things in the morning.

Look for places that inspire you

It is not without reason that we feel inspired in spacious rooms and energized sitting by the window. In addition to the dose of vitamin D, architecture can greatly affect productivity.

You may not have the right to choose your own workspace, but there are some simple tricks: find a place with natural light from a window, go outside if you feel a drop in productivity, or just find new places.

A new environment can really lead you to new ideas. And what’s even better is that, according to research, it’s easier to develop new habits in a new place.

Use different places for different mental tasks

We know that different places affect us in different ways. So why not use it to your advantage?

Our brain loves habits, and if we can create associations between certain places and certain properties of the mind, this will help us increase our performance. This technique is called "association of tasks" - that is, we find ourselves in some place, and the brain understands that now we will be doing a certain type of work.

Writer Gregory Ciotti gives a great example of how he brings himself into a state of working capacity simply by changing the device he is using. He tells how he trained his brain to engage in meaningful writing at his desktop computer, such as writing articles. The laptop is designed for more superficial work, for example, checking e-mail or personal correspondence. Finally, the tablet is read-only.

Source: sparringmind.com/changing-habits

It is such a powerful technique that it has even been used to treat insomnia. People suffering from it were told to come to the bedroom only if they felt tired. If they failed to fall asleep within a set amount of time, people had to leave the bedroom and switch to another task until fatigue did not reappear.

If you can train yourself to do certain activities in certain places, you will be able to tune your mind in certain ways just by being physically somewhere.

Another person who has adopted this approach is the writer and artist Austin Klion, who has two desks in his office - “analogue” with paper, pens and markers, and “digital” with a laptop and tablet. Only an analog table is used for creating ideas and “playing”, while a digital table is used for design, editing and publishing.

Set yourself up for success

We may think that willpower and self-control allow us to cope with even the most difficult tasks, but deep down we are all lazy. But it's not 100% our fault. Our brains are trained to conserve energy at all costs and make subconscious decisions based solely on how easy or difficult the task is.

So if you want to create a workplace that encourages productivity, focus on making it easier for you to do what you want to do and harder for you to do what you don't want to.

Stanford professor and psychologist B. J. Fogg calls it "design for the lazy."

Sometimes it's enough just to turn off the phone and put it in a drawer, so that every time you want to check your messages you have to go through a long process, and sometimes you even need to turn off the TV and hide it in the closet.

Another trick I recently started to use is to close all but the most important tabs in my browser at the end of each day. The next day, it's easiest to continue working on what's left from the previous day.

Of course, I'm not the first to do this. It is known that even Hemingway often interrupted in the middle of a sentence, so that the next day he would not puzzle over where to start.

Follow your feelings

In addition to the physical environment and the mental associations with it, there are some additional things that can also be controlled.

We've written about the power of music and how to find the right composition for any given task, but it's important to remember that some sounds can be extremely detrimental to your productivity.

Research shows that snippets of speech—small parts of conversations you hear—can have a negative impact on your ability to concentrate.

One meta-analysis looked at 242 studies on the impact of noise on performance. It turned out that when doing mental work - one that required attention, it was necessary to read and process text or numerical data - fragmentary speech affected productivity more than continuous conversation (even with a slight change in volume and rhythm) and noise not associated with speech .

Bad news for those of us who work in offices or co-working spaces.

However, there are options. If you can't get to a quiet place, noise-canceling headphones and music that overrides speech can help you regain focus.

When nature and habits struggle in the process of work, the latter almost always prevail. The rules we form and the triggers we surround ourselves with have a huge impact on the quality and performance of our work.

But if you approach the choice and arrangement of the workplace wisely, you can make it so that you can go into a state of flow faster and more often.