How your surroundings influence your productivity and mood

August 18, 2024

Welcome to The Productivity Blueprint newsletter 🗞️

Last week we discussed what cognitive bottlenecks were and strategies you can use to mitigate the effects of them. If you missed last week, you can catch up here đź™‚

Today we will be going over the subject of environmental psychology, what it represents, and how you can use it to your benefit!

“A positive work environment will help you accomplish your goals and find happiness in your career.”

Ever wondered how your surroundings influence your productivity and mood? Environmental psychology looks at this relationship, exploring how our physical environment shapes our thoughts, emotions, and actions. This field offers practical insights for creating environments that enhance well-being, as well as productivity!

Let’s look at an example: your workspace. Rearranging your workspace or choosing where to work based on the task at hand can significantly impact your creativity and productivity. Personalizing your desk with photos can increase comfort and a sense of control in your space. The debate between tidy/messy desks highlights how different environments can foster creativity or encourage conventionality.

Here are ways you can utilize your environment to cater towards your own productivity and mood:

  • Creativity: Customize your space with personal items and experiment with different layouts to find what inspires you most.

  • Flexibility: Choose locations based on the task—a quiet office for focused work, a cafĂ© for brainstorming—to optimize your productivity, explore and see what fits your needs!

  • Calmness: Integrate natural elements like plants and prioritize natural light to reduce stress and boost creativity.

  • Focus: Tailor sensory stimuli—silence, music, or white noise—to suit your concentration needs.

  • Comfort: Invest in ergonomic furniture to support good posture and long-term physical health.

By applying these principles, you can transform your environment into a sanctuary that enhances both your productivity and well-being. Whether it's adjusting your workspace layout or incorporating natural elements, small changes can yield significant improvements in your daily life!

TL/DR: Environmental psychology explains how the environment plays a role in human behaviour such as being productive. In order to craft an environment that is suited for your goals, you should focus on building a setting thats helps with creativity, flexibility, calmness, focus, and comfort.

If you focus better with background noise, Coffiivity is a website you can check out where it plays ambient cafe noise! You can choose from different audios like “Brazil Bistro” and “Lunchtime Lounge”.

What we love: It’s simple but effective. The team behind it are cool, own to earth freelancers like us.

MyNoise is both a free app and website that contains a variety of different ambient sounds which helps enhance concentration. There are audios that helps you focus, meditate, sleep and more.

What we love: It caters to a wide audience such as who people with ADHD, individuals who struggle from stress/anxiety, or just a creative mind looking to focus.

đź’ˇ Challenge of the Week

Revamp your workspace! Depending on how you focus, try to organize your workspace by adding personal touches, background noise, plants, and natural lighting.

That’s all for this newsletter! We hope you enjoyed learning more about environmental psychology and how you can make your space more effective for you.

Until next week,

The Productivity Blueprint Team

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