Enhancing Productivity With Feng Shui in Garden Offices
Feng Shui principles can provide the ideal environment to ensure productivity levels remain high when working from home, by creating balance between home and work environments and encouraging creativity and healthy working practices.
Plants are essential components of garden offices, bringing Wood element energy associated with growth and prosperity into the space. Consider selecting upright plants such as Snake Plants or Money Trees that help bring balance as well as round-leaved ones with soft edges to soften monitor edges.
Natural Light
Feng shui is often associated with interior design, but its principles can also be applied to garden offices. The ancient practice asserts that your physical surroundings have an effect on your mental, emotional and spiritual well-being; by adding simple design touches such as Feng Shui elements to garden offices you may increase happiness, productivity and overall well-being.
Light is one of the key ingredients to creating an efficient workspace at home, and natural lighting plays a pivotal role. Not only does natural light illuminate your workspace but it can also help regulate your sleep-wake cycle for a more restful night’s rest and improved concentration throughout the day.
Location of your desk is also of great significance in feng shui; for optimal energy flow and positive vibes to enter into your life and home life, its placement should face the front door and visible from its view. Floor-to-ceiling windows in an expansive garden room provide ideal lighting at ground level while bi-fold doors create an open and welcoming working environment in tighter spaces.
Storage solutions can be an excellent way to expand your workspace, from well-organized shelving systems that create space saving advantages, to built-in shelves which offer storage without taking away from desk space. Built-in shelves make an excellent addition to garden offices as they give additional storage without taking up desk real estate.
Add an extra touch to your garden office and increase productivity by including some feng shui plants in your desk area. Jade Plants (Crassula ovata) are believed to bring prosperity and financial abundance. Or try placing a Rubber Plant (Salix nigricans) in the northwest corner as this location symbolizes mentors and supportive connections.
Plants
Add natural decor, like plants and nature-inspired displays, to garden offices can elevate the experience and boost productivity. Studies have revealed the significant positive effect plant displays and natural lighting have on focus and mood; larger plants may even act as noise barriers against distracting background noise.
Feng Shui, or Feng shui, is often associated with interior design; however, its principles can easily translate to outdoor spaces as well. Garden Feng Shui involves strategically positioning objects, natural elements and water features so as to foster positive energy flows within your garden space.
To accentuate a path or walkway, incorporate soft rounded shapes and textures that soften its layout, providing a gradual transition between areas. Feng Shui suggests softening harsh angles at entrances and exits with organic forms for an inviting ambience.
Feng Shui practitioners believe that every object, color, material and layout has an energy of its own. Plants fall under the Wood element which symbolizes growth and vitality. To promote wealth try placing Money Plants or Jade plants near an entrance or in your office – Feng Shui believes these symbols of prosperity symbolize productivity within an area and increase productivity accordingly.
Utilizing the Bagua system–which divides any room or yard into eight sectors that correspond with different life aspects–can help you organize and plan future landscaping projects more easily. For instance, the northeast sector–related to spirituality or reading nooks–might benefit from including seating or reading nooks while its west sector counterpart, representing creativity and children, could use some wooden accents.
Mirrors
For centuries, mirrors were held in high esteem by Chinese culture as spiritual guardians, a belief stemming from the yin and yang concept that opposing forces are interconnected and equalizing them creates harmony. This ancient philosophy also holds that doors and gates act as channels of positive energy or chi, which can affect the balance and flow of your home or garden. To keep chi at a healthy level, feng shui practitioners believe that doors should be painted in colors that align with their directional element (for example, white for the north and metallic shades for the west).
In addition to natural light, mirrors can help create the illusion of space in your garden office by reflecting surrounding greenery and sky. They are also a smart choice to enhance dark corners of your space, helping to improve overall brightness and creating an inviting atmosphere. Garden antique experts Travis and Katie Nettleton stock a range of decorative mirrors perfect for feng shui garden settings, as well as an impressive collection of outdoor antiques.
Having a designated garden room to work from can help you strike a better balance between your professional life and family obligations. Embracing the principles of feng shui can also ensure that your garden office is a productive, calm and welcoming space where you’ll be motivated to get stuck in.
Space
Feng Shui may sound like an intricate, mysterious system for optimizing performance in your environment, but it’s actually a set of practical, proven strategies for relieving subconscious stress and feeling more in control of your life. Many of us already employ some Feng Shui strategies instinctively – like clearing away clutter on the desk to help focus more easily or choosing seats away from doorways in coffee shops for increased security and focus – your garden office can easily adapt itself to fit these principles with some clever changes.
Wood-topped desks are highly recommended in feng shui as they bring in Wood element energy that enhances growth and vitality, whereas glass or metal desks may create harsher edges which make you feel stressed or uneasy. Plants also add the Wood element into any space – vertical plants like Snake Plants and Money Trees signal progress, while trailing pothos soften monitor edges.
Feng shui recognizes that colors exude specific energies that can help boost creativity and enhance productivity. Blue hues tend to promote calmness and communication while green signifies equilibrium and growth – adding some of these color accents into your workspace can increase productivity while keeping you focused on meeting goals.
Feng shui places great emphasis on keeping work and home life separate, so your garden office can serve as an effective space to achieve maximum results in your work. At the end of each day, close its door behind you so that when it comes time for relaxation and family time – or health and wellness goals – your time at home should only ever be dedicated to doing just that!
Personal Touches
Garden offices can be an effective way to boost productivity by providing a comfortable space to work in and providing an atmosphere conducive to productive work. By employing Feng Shui principles such as natural lighting, plants, and seating – combined with aromatherapy with lavender, chamomile or eucalyptus essential oils – garden offices can create an ambiance conducive to productivity.
Feng Shui makes your desk arrangement an important consideration that can have an enormous impact on how effectively you work. Positioning it so it faces away from the door will decrease subconscious stress levels and make you feel safer and secure, while choosing a wooden desk helps connect us with nature, which in turn may ease tensions.
Personalizing your workspace can have a dramatic effect on productivity. A small plant on your desk or a photo of family and friends can provide a sense of stability and support, while keeping your space organized can reduce subconscious stress levels to help clear thinking. If using a hot desk or sharing workspace with someone else, having systems set up whereby reservations can be reserved in advance and your space wiped down after each user clears out will help ensure you can start each day feeling fresh and focused.
As part of your overall wellness regime, take regular breaks, stay hydrated and consume nutritious meals to maintain high energy levels throughout the day. Also ensure you take time out for relaxation as part of finding balance between work life and home life.