By Bond Collective Staff
A productive working environment is a unique mix of personal habits and surrounding influences. So how can you, as a team leader or solopreneur, create the best working environment possible?
In this article, we’ll discuss 10 ways you can improve productivity, focus, and engagement by tweaking your habits and your workspace.
10 Tips For A Productive Working Environment
1) Promote Wellness
It’s the new truth in business that a healthy team member is a happy and productive team member. Whether you work as a team of one or you’re part of a larger group, personal wellness plays a vital role in your success.
Simple ways to improve your health include:
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Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables throughout the day
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Snacking on a handful of healthy raw nuts between meals
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Drinking eight cups of clear water every day
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Moving periodically throughout the day
To promote health and wellness at work, stock the pantry with nutritious foods and have water readily available. Move the furniture to make room for yoga classes. Go for a walk. Or offer in-office kitchen events where team members can whip up a healthy meal and eat together.
These and other wellness practices promote a happy working environment and help keep your team members more focused on the tasks at hand.
2) Focus On Teamwork
The importance of teamwork should never be underestimated. To do so chips away at the bedrock on which all successful businesses are built. Don’t make that mistake.
Take time out of your workday to promote a sense of unity — an enthusiasm for common interests and responsibilities — amongst your team. It doesn’t matter whether it’s you and one other person or you and 100 other people, building teamwork will improve the way your business functions.
If you’re struggling for ideas, try these simple, fun, and quick activities to keep your team members working well together:
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Organize a team crossword puzzle race
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Do 10 minutes of group calisthenics or stretching
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Play a quick round of Pictionary or Taboo
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Hold a one-minute typing contest
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Organize a work happy hour
These and other team-building activities will promote unity and ensure that your team members are able to handle any challenge that comes their way.
3) Engage With Different Personalities
We’re all different. And while that may seem like a negative statement to some, those myriad differences provide a more diverse and productive working environment. Rather than promote one way of thinking, behaving, and working, encourage diversity of thought and action.
From a manager’s point of view, this requires that you get to know your team members. Find out what motivates them and tap into that drive to help them succeed.
4) Take Regular Breaks
As a busy manager or solopreneur, you know that it takes energy to stay focused and working at your highest potential. The same goes for your team members.
To keep everyone’s energy levels high, encourage short breaks from the working environment throughout the day. This will allow your team members to stay fueled and hydrated and help them recharge their mental batteries during difficult tasks.
Even just five minutes away from the task at hand can improve focus and creativity upon return.
5) Keep The Working Environment Clean And Comfortable
Do your best to keep your working environment as clean as possible. In this case, clean means free of dust and dirt (we’ll talk about clutter in the next section).
You may need to hire an outside company to come in and clean your office space so the responsibility doesn’t fall on any one team member’s shoulders. You can also encourage team members to tidy up after themselves (in the kitchen and the bathroom especially) in order to maintain a clean and healthy working environment.
As to comfort, that involves both air quality and seating options. Here are ways to help your team members stay comfortable throughout the day:
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Keep the temperature relatively cool in your working environment so that team members don’t get too hot
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Provide comfortable, ergonomic chairs and a variety of alternative seating and work-surface options
6) Minimize Clutter
Clutter may not be inherently unclean (as in germ-ridden), but in the minds of many, it produces the same effect as a dirty kitchen counter. It also gives the impression that your business and working environment is disorganized. That can have a serious effect on the productivity of your team. It may also send the wrong message to your customers and clients.
But making your working environment as tidy as possible is not a one-person job. It requires the efforts of all your team members. To help get everyone on the same page, sit down with your team and brainstorm ways to reduce the amount of clutter that is visible in your office.
Here are some simple suggestions to get you started:
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Go wireless if possible
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Reduce items on your desk
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Invest in storage solutions
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Corral and hide the power cords
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Provide each team member with a personal storage space
7) Create Separate Spaces For Quiet Work, Collaboration, And Socialization
Sometimes, productivity requires quiet concentration. At other times, productivity requires collaboration. And at yet other times, productivity and inspiration come from socialization.
That’s why it’s essential to provide spaces for each of these unique activities. Here’s how to make this possible:
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Set up a quiet space at one end of the room or in a corner.
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Set up a socialization space at the opposite end of the room away from the quiet space.
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Carve out a space in-between for work-related collaboration.
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Separate these distinct areas with screens, dividers, plants, or storage units.
With this office setup, your team members can change working environments as their needs demand and won’t disturb those who require quiet or collaboration.
8) Liven Up Your Space With Nature
Natural accents like plants, exposed concrete and wood floors, reclaimed wood desktops, and painted steel are simple ways to liven up your working environment. These natural touches have the added benefit of making team members feel more comfortable.
When employees are more comfortable, they’re more focused, creative, and productive.
9) Incorporate Windows And Natural Light
Whenever possible, incorporate windows and natural light into your working environment. The human body responds better to this type of light when compared to the white fluorescent light that dominated offices for so many years.
While you may not have control over the number of windows in your workspace, you can provide lamps with softer wavelengths. This helps mimic the light you get through windows.
Some modern office lighting even changes automatically from the cooler greens and blues that occur in the morning to the warmer yellows and reds that occur in the afternoon.
10) Alternate Between Sitting And Standing
In recent years, medical professionals have begun to recognize the negative health impacts of sitting for long periods of time every day.
You can avoid this issue becoming a problem for your team members by giving them the choice to work in a variety of positions. The easiest way to do that is to provide different heights of work surfaces, adjustable-height desks, stools, couches, and other standing and sitting options.
Encourage your team members to change from seated to standing at least once an hour.
The Best Working Environment Is A Coworking Environment
If you want to create the best working environment possible without the stress, strain, and expense of building your own from the ground up, base your team or solopreneur activities in a coworking space like those at Bond Collective.
Each of our shared working environments incorporates inspiring design elements like natural light, open floor plans, tasteful and professional decor, and multipurpose workspaces.
At Bond Collective, the benefits don’t stop with the office space. In addition to our unique work settings, members also enjoy amenities like:
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Daily on-site cleaning
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Guest reception and greeting
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Private-label mail service
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Daily on-site cleaning
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Lightning fast Wi-Fi
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Concession food market
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Conference Rooms
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Black-and-white printing
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Networking and curated events
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24-hour access
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Bike storage
If you’re looking for a working environment that is sure to increase your team’s happiness and productivity, become a member of Bond Collective. Tour our gorgeous coworking spaces in New York (Bushwick, 55 Broadway, 60 Broad, Gowanus, Flatiron) and Philadelphia (The Station House). Then take advantage of our coworking spaces, dedicated desks, and private offices to suit all your business needs.
To get started or to learn more about the advantages of coworking spaces for digital nomads, remote workers, and businesses of all kinds, visit BondCollective.com today.