Making Your Office Work for You

You work in your office, but is your office working for you? If not, it's time to make some changes.

You wouldn't put up with an uncomfortable mattress for very long. A few sleepless nights would be enough to convince you that you need a mattress that is comfortable and allows you to get a good night's rest. We can't go without sleep - our bodies won't let us. And the better rested we are, the better we can do our work. A comfortable mattress isn't a luxury, it's a necessity.

A well-designed office space isn't a luxury either. Think of your office as your "daytime mattress." You probably spend about as much time in there as you do sleeping, if not more. Yet some people work in offices that are uncomfortable and don't help them get their work done. Their offices are the equivalent of a lumpy mattress.

Luckily, a well-designed office doesn't have to look like a candidate for an article in Architectural Digest. A lot of the things you can do to improve your office's design won't cost you a cent. A well-designed office has to do with the arrangement of your furniture and equipment, your lighting, and other factors that can make the difference between an office that feels like a prison cell you can't wait to get out of, or a serene retreat where you can work to your fullest.

First of all, you need an actual office - a separate room where you work, and where all you do is work. This is important so you can close the door on your office (and your work) when it's time to quit for the day. This serves as a symbol to yourself that you aren't working any more, and helps you keep your work separate from the rest of your life. (And if you're in your office, a closed door tells others that you are working - do not disturb.) If your office is tucked into the corner of your living room or bedroom, your work will always be staring at you, tempting you to turn on the computer and do just a bit more tweaking. Before you know it, it's three a.m. So close the door when it's time to quit and walk away from your work and into the rest of your life.

If you don't have the luxury of being able to devote a separate room to your office, create a symbolic barrier that you can use to hide your workspace when you aren't working. A curtain you can draw across part of a room to hide your office area or a screen you can unfold to shield it from view will accomplish the same psychological goal.

OK, now name the single most important piece of equipment in your office. If you answered "my computer" you have failed this impromptu exam. Sorry. The correct answer is "my chair."Unfortunately, really good office furniture is expensive, but remember—it’s your daytime mattress. If you can afford to splurge on anything, now is the time. Your chair should be comfortable, of course, but it should also allow you to adjust its height and the position of the arms. The height of seat that you need depends on the height of your desk and how tall you are. When looking for a chair, go armed with a tape measure and the knowledge of how high your desk is. In the store, find a desk that is the same height as your own, and wheel any chair you are considering over to this desk, adjust its height and try it out. Take your time. Type at an imaginary keyboard to see how that feels, and ignore any funny looks you may get. Remember, you will spend hours a day sitting in this thing. If your legs can't rest firmly on the floor, look for a chair that has a footrest, or get a separate stool you can rest you feet on. And a chair that swivels is a must.

When I was looking for an office chair I had my heart set on an Aeron chair, the designer's choice because it is adjustable in so many dimensions. But I admit it - I really wanted one because it just looks so cool. But my work surfaces are oak turn-of-the-century architectural drafting tables that are higher than typical desks, and the Aeron can't be raised high enough for comfort. Goodbye coolness, hello factory closeout store. I found a definitely less-cool chair for about $160.00 that adjusts to the height I need. It was a closeout and would have sold for about $800.00 new. So the chair I ended up with is pretty cool after all, since it adjusts perfectly to the height I need, has arms, and a ring around the base to put my feet on when I want to change my posture to avoid getting tired. It's not as pretty as an Aeron, but it's working for me, not against me.

Now that you are sitting at a comfortable height relative to your desk it's time to look at the thing you will spend most of your time staring at - your monitor. In fact, I'll bet you’re looking at it right now. The conventional wisdom is that the vertical center of the monitor should be just an inch or two below your eye level when you are looking straight ahead. This height seems to be the most relaxing for you neck and shoulder muscles. Position the screen at a distance so that you can see details easily without hunching forward. Anyone who spends time in a graphics program tweaking pixels knows how sore they can get from hours of leaning into the monitor to scrutinize the fine details. Set your monitor's distance from you so that you can see everything clearly from a relaxed, upright posture.

The next important factor is the lighting in your office. Monitors are bright, and in order to avoid eyestrain you should ensure that the rest of what you see when looking at your monitor doesn't present too much contrast. Usually the problem is that the area surrounding the monitor is too dark. Your eyes have irises just like a camera's that open and close in response to how much light is in your environment. In a dark room, the irises open to let in more light so that you can see. In a bright environment they close down so that you don't get too much light. We're usually not aware of this unless we do something like walk out of a dark building into bright daylight. Everything seems too bright for a few seconds as our eyes adjust to the new light level. If you are looking at a bright monitor surround by darkness, your eyes don't know what to do. Should the irises open up to try to see into the dark areas? Or should they close down to see the much brighter monitor clearly? This conflict is one of the sources of eyestrain. So adjust your office's lighting so that the area of your visual field surrounding your monitor is about as bright as the monitor itself, or perhaps just a bit darker. This may mean that you will have to adjust your lighting several times a day as the daylight changes if your office has windows. Do it. Your eyes are worth it.

Another way to avoid eyestrain is to make sure that light sources (i.e. light bulbs) are not directly in your field of vision. Use lamps with shades and make sure the bulbs are not directly visible from where you sit. Also avoid the contrast of very bright light and dark shadows. I find that several lamps directed down onto my work surface provide both concentrated pools of light where I may place notes or sketches, and light that reflects upwards to provide indirect, soft light for the entire room. Recessed lighting in the ceiling can also provide soft, diffused light.

Light affects us emotionally, so make that work for you. By bouncing light off of various surfaces you can give it a color or tint that can enhance your office environment. I find that nothing beats wood as a surface to reflect light. It adds a subtle warm quality that I find very relaxing. If your desk and other work surfaces are made of something else, consider painting them or covering them with a material of a soft shade which will create a relaxing "color mood" in your office. Painting the walls with specific colors will also affect the quality of the light, of course. Just choose the colors or colors that you like. However, make sure that the surfaces you see around and behind your monitor when you look at it are not intensely colored since this may bias how you perceive the colors in any graphics you may be working on. (I set my computer desktop pattern to a neutral gray for the same reason.)

I recommend not using any overhead light fixture at all. I do have one in my office, but I turn it on only when I dust and vacuum. (I.e., never.) Overhead fixtures tend to cast strong, harsh light and create shadows where you don’t want them - on your keyboard, for example, as you type. Several sources of indirect light will be better on your eyes and provide more control. In my office I have five different light sources, which I turn on and off as required.

So you're sitting comfortably in your chair, you're working with your monitor at the ideal height, and the room has a warm, soft glow that makes you feel calm and relaxed. Now it's time to think about space. Not the philosophical conundrum of how space is related to time and how many dimensions it has on the quantum level - we'll leave that to some other article. I mean the space in your office.

Think of yourself as the center of your very own solar system. You are the sun. Objects in your office are positioned in "orbits" at various distances from you. Are they in the right orbit? If not, they aren't working for you - you're working for them by making too many unnecessary round-trip space flights. Time to take control. After all, you rule this solar system. Decide where things should go by thinking about everything in your office in terms of how often you need to look at or use it.

Many times a day? Objects like this belong in Mercury's orbit in your solar system. You should be able to reach out and get them without leaving your chair. Stacked trays for paperwork, desk drawers and neatly-arranged document boxes are good places for this kind of material. You might consider putting up a bulletin board on the wall nearby that you can swivel to for charts, schedules and other things you need to see often. Or you could even cover part of a wall with cork tiles that will not only serve as a bulletin board but also make the room a bit quieter. (And they look good, too.)

Once a day? These things can be further away but still easy to get to. Send them to Earth. You may have to get up from your chair, but once you do you can get at them easily.

Once a week? Put these in the Mars orbit. Harder to get to, but you don't have to go there very often, and remember, you are reserving precious space closer to you for the things you need most often.

Once a month? These might be things like invoices to fill out, bills to pay and so on. Jupiter should about do it, but watch out for asteroids on the way. Keep all of your paperwork here, and everything you need to deal with it. Stamps, pencils and everything else should be right here. No wasteful trips back and forth between Jupiter and the sun to get a pen or pencil. Visit Jupiter once a (terrestrial) month to work in your entirely self-sufficient space colony to get that pesky paperwork out of the way. Then teleport back to your main workspace. An alternative arrangement would be to have an L-shaped work surface so you can just swivel and roll to Jupiter. But however you arrange it, the ideal is a completely separate, self-contained area where you handle paper work.

Once a year? Send this stuff on a Voyager trip outside your solar system. Your attic or basement is a good destination. Tax returns and receipts are good candidates for this, and with any luck you'll never have to see them again.

Once a never? Throw it away. Really.

Horizontal space. Can you ever have too much? I doubt it, so you have to treat it as precious real estate. Always save enough space on either side of your keyboard to lay an open book, sketches or reference materials. I never have to do much typing, but if you do, look into the stands that are available to hold a book or page at eye level.

Most of the offices I have seen (including the one I'm in right now) tend to accumulate piles of paper that are somehow related but which don't need to be dealt with right away. (Sometimes the only thing the sheets of paper have in common is "I think I can ignore this for a while.") There is something psychologically calming about an unbroken horizontal surface, so try to tame this mess. Set aside time to deal with all of those stacks of paper. Sign it and mail it, read it and throw it away, file it… do whatever it takes to make it go away or at least get it out of sight.

So now that you have your office arranged to work for you, what does it actually look like? Some of this depends on whether you ever have clients meet with you in your office.

If you meet with clients in your own office, first of all the space should reflect your business persona. If your profile is someone who makes "bread and butter" sites for local businesses, your office should look business-like and efficient, and be a reasonably attractive environment, but don't make it too fancy. Save the old master paintings and priceless antiques for the other rooms in your house - your client may think she is paying for them out of what you are charging her. She'll feel much more comfortable if your office showcases your organizational skills, design sense and efficiency.

Also, try to carve out a space where you and the client can meet away from the computer. If you always meet in front of your computer, there is an apparently irresistible urge for you both to stare at whatever is on the monitor. There are times when you have to do other things like work out contracts, go over content, sketches and site designs and so on, so you need a place where the computer screen won't distract you. Two chairs and a simple table with good lighting are really all you need. If you can manage it, a small side table or shelf where you can put beverages and snacks like fruit or pastries make the space feel hospitable and welcoming. Try to come up with a way to separate this space - your "conference room" - from the rest of your workspace. This can be as simple as a half-height room divider, screen or a thin curtain you can pull partway across the room. This is a symbolic barrier, not an attempt to make one room into two. It sends a message to the client that you are doing a particular kind of work now, and helps you both focus on that rather than on the computer screen.

Of course, there will be times when you need to show the client work on the monitor. If this is going to be part of the meeting, arrange the space in advance. Provide comfortable seating - something that at least looks as nice as what you sit on. Don't just grab a folding aluminum chair from the backyard. You need to send the visual signal that you think the client deserves as much comfort as you provide for yourself. Turn the monitor so that it faces where the client will be sitting, not towards you. Then, before the client arrives, turn off the monitor but not the computer. Don't just let a screen saver kick in since these tend to be mesmerizing. You want the client to see only what you have to show her at any given moment. When it's time to look at the screen just turn it on.

So now that I've given you the prescription for the ideal office, you are probably wondering what my own office is like. Do I have the office that I describe above? Nope. I've attended to the necessities - I have a good chair, my monitors are in the right position and I have enough control over the lighting to avoid eyestrain. But, because of the furniture I have, my solar system is a bit out of whack. Some things I need often are a bit too hard to get to. And my printer is too far away - I have to get out of my chair to get the printouts. But I put up with that since I don't need to do much printing. And I have to walk about 100 feet to use my FAX machine, which is somewhere in the Van Allen Belt.

And my horizontal surfaces… well, let's not go into that.

I think I've done the best I can, given the space I have and what I have to work with. And, most importantly of all, I like being here and feel comfortable in my own space. You probably won't ever achieve the ideal office either, but by thinking about the issues I have described here there's a chance you can make your office work better for you than it is now.

Finally: remember - it's your office. Family photographs, favorite artwork and other personal touches will help you feel that you are not slaving away alone in some dank cell but inhabiting a part of your life that is productive and rewarding. When it’s time to close the door on your office for the day, it should be a place that you will want to come back to tomorrow.