How to personalize and make your work space happier

I have been working from home way more than I would like to be, before the pandemic my home was a place of unwinding and getting over the busyness of the day, but now every type of structure and routine has overlapped to one continuous day of constantly telling myself to get out of bed and work on something and then continuing to scroll on my phone for another 45 minutes. 

I know this must sound familiar to the everyday pandemic student. Our work spaces are now also our sleep spaces, our kitchens are now our cafeterias  and our Zoom calls are now our classroom and it’s, frankly, depressing. 

I won’t gloss over it, it really sucks and for me pretending that it’s fine doesn’t  make me feel better. The thing that does is embracing it, making the most of it, but then also telling myself 100 times a day that this isn’t forever. 

The pandemic has taught everyone to make the most of what we have, so I am going to take that quite literally and give some suggestions to make the most of our at home work space. 

We have to spend all this time at home stuck on laptops and computers that are tucked away in the corners of our houses so it remains quiet and we can stay focused, so maybe these spaces that we crawl to every day with dread can be made better, more personalized and happier spaces that we don’t dread going to everyday.  

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I’m not expecting these ideas will make you wanna run to your desk everyday with excitement just because you added a new candle or picture frame to it, and I don’t expect myself to either. 

But giving it a spruce up could make it easier to concentrate and could brighten your day. Think of it as your own little island in a sea of glitchy Zoom calls, bad news alerts hitting your phone and pandemic hysteria.  

So for this article I am going to also take my own advice and clean my desk, try to personalize and make it a happier, more appealing space, because who knows how long before we get to be in offices and schools into the real world again. 

Personalize Your Space: Obviously, that was previously mentioned, but how do you personalize your space on a tight to nonexistent budget? 

Start with figuring out what you like, what sort of vibes speak to you and what you like. I personally like a fresh white look but with pops of colour in the form of lots of books that inspire me or my bright marker pens (that make me happy whenever I take notes). Things I want to add that would make myself happier are to add more polaroid pictures to remind myself of happier times.

But maybe you’re a plant lady or like to keep it super minimalistic, so by channeling what you like and the things that make you happy, it can resonate in your space. Bring your favourite trinkets from your bedroom or living room to your desk or add those plants and get some more oxygen flowing in your space! Whatever makes you feel good and like yourself, bring it into your space. 

This doesn’t have to be expensive either, thrift picture frames or scavenge your house for some pieces that may not be shining as much with their normal spot on the shelf. 

Sitting near a Window: You may be thinking that I am pressing my luck with this one and that it will not change anything, but there are major benefits to sitting by a window. I can vividly think of the classrooms and libraries that I have sat in with little to no natural light and time slows down and sitting there feels like half an hour when it’s only been 20 minutes. Which is not what we need when being stuck at home, on our own clock to complete tasks. 

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By sitting near a window it makes you feel more productive by making you feel more awake. It can also make you feel happier (especially one with direct sunlight). It has to do with Vitamin D that the sun emits that makes you more naturally happy. That is why people can get seasonal depression as well from the lack of sun.

I also find for myself, it helps me to feel more creativity, looking onto the views out my window helps me generate more ideas and gets me thinking outside of the box (which is my bedroom).

Keep It Clean: I can tell you to add all the trinkets you want to your work space, or place your desk directly under a window with the best view in your house, but none of it will matter if you can not keep your space clean.

 Once it is overflowing with papers, you can’t find your agenda and everything is just completely disorganized, there is no way you are going to want to get work done there. You may even be like myself and procrastinate that work by cleaning up your desk. 

The best thing to do when organizing your space is to make sure everything you need has a spot and stick to keeping everything in their spot when you are done for the day. Whether you tidy up and put everything back at the end of the day or place it back in the exact spot you found it the moment you are done using it. This can be for your  big stack of binders, to your laptop (the life blood of doing work during a time like this). All the way down to the little things that you might not think may need a spot. 

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For myself, that’s my chapstick, which is always kept  on the left side drawer of my desk so I can reach for it whenever, so I don’t need to get up and  scramble around looking through my purses. I also always have my agenda and my “ideas notebook” in the same stacked spot so I don’t misplace it somewhere else in my house. 

I’m not perfect at keeping up with this system but writing this inspired me to make some more organization at my desk, hopefully it got your motivation flowing as well!

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