Use feng shui to set up a home office

Fresh flowers and an updated calendar keep the feng shui new year energy fresh in your office.

Feng shui is the ancient art of aligning objects in the external world to support us on our internal journey, our life’s work. It’s operating whether we’re conscious of it or not! If your work is leading you to set up a home office, then taking into consideration the correct alignment of objects is a way to boost your productivity and set yourself up for success.

A home office is more than just a desk in a room. According to feng shui, for maximum productivity a home office should

  • Support the work you do – physically and mentally
  • Reflect your personality

    Fresh flowers keep the energy fresh in your office.
    Fresh flowers keep the energy fresh in your office.
  • Enhance your financial goals
  • Serve your current needs and goals while keeping you open to future possibilities.

Here’s how to get started:

  • Find the right space. At home, it could be the guest room or formal living room that never gets used. A separate space is ideal so you can close the door at the end of the day. Feng shui believes that to live fully, we must balance our lives with work, rest, and play so you don’t want to see the work on your desk while dining with your family. If you must use an open area to the rest of the home, like a formal living room, then consider room screens to separate the space. In addition, if you will be meeting with clients at your home office, consider the area that they must walk through to reach you; that unused formal living room at the front of the home might be perfect.
  • Love your desk. You will be spending a lot of time in relationship with this piece of furniture so treat yourself to a desk that you love and works for you (right height, material you’re drawn to, shape where you can reach everything you need). Do you prefer an open or closed front desk? An open desk is one that enables others to feel more connected to you. A closed front desk helps to create boundaries between you and others. There are also hybrid desks, with partial fronts.
  • Place your desk in the command position. The command, or power, position of a desk is one that helps you feel safe, comfortable and primed for work. It’s one where, when you are sitting,
    • You can view the door (or doors) into the room.
    • You are out of the way of the energy flow from the door.
    • You have a solid wall behind you.
    • You have a wall (or some other barrier) to one side of you.

      Put your desk (and you!) in the power position.
      Put your desk (and you!) in the power position.
  • Place other furniture based on how often you will use it. Need your printer on an hourly basis? Then it goes close to the desk. Do you see clients in your office frequently? Then set up chairs for clients in the place where you want to meet them.
  • Make room for enough storage. The bane of most home offices is not enough storage, which often means that stuff gets piled on the floor or on chairs. In feng shui, clutter equals stuck energy and stuck energy means stalled finances. A healthy financial life is all about flow; clutter anywhere clogs the flow of energy. Use both open and closed storage; open storage (bookshelves) intentionally invites new energy, like future clients; closed storage (file cabinets) keeps work confidential and secure.
  • Use plants and art to beautify and personalize your space! Plants are a great way to fill in a corner to soften angles or make an odd-shaped space feel more rectangular. Select art that you love, says something about you and supports your work.

 

These simple feng shui recommendations will help to make your home office a place you look forward to going to every day!

Energize your cubicle workplace with Feng Shui!

I recently had the opportunity to volunteer at the Veteran’s Administration for their employee Diversity Day 2012 “Perceptions, Stereotypes and Conversations Leading to Understanding”.  Topics were wide-ranging and fascinating from What Our Names Say About Us to a display on how to raise Koi (with live fish)!  For those employees who stopped by my table on Feng Shui, I learned that many were interested in how to energize their cubicles. Office cubicles offer both opportunities for ease in working and problems to solve for the Feng Shui practitioner. 

What’s great about working in an office cubicle?   Office cubicles have been designed and arranged to maximize storage and optimize workspace. Most cubicles are built with plenty of storage space above and below the desk so you have clear space to work without having to store your files on your desk.  Another great option in cubicles is open, useable wall space either with a built-in bulletin board making it easy to place artwork that supports and enhances your workstation or a white board for making notes and keeping organized. Plenty of storage and a built-in art or planning wall are two good Feng Shui reasons to enjoy working in a cubicle.

What about the challenges of cubicle office space?  Most challenges revolve around feeling uncomfortable and dealing with noise.  We are at our best in terms of creativity and productivity when we are spatially comfortable and confident.  This can be achieved when we are seated in, what’s called in Feng Shui, the power or command position.  This is the place where, when seated behind your desk, you can see the door.  It’s also preferable to have a wall behind you or next to you for support.  In most cubicles you are facing one of the walls with your back to the open doorway when seated – exactly the opposite of the power/command position!  And, because it’s all built-in you can’t change the location of the desk.   What do you do?  With Feng Shui there usually is a way to “fix” an arrangement problem.   The fix is to place a mirror on the wall where when you look up from your work with a quick glance you can see if someone is coming into your space from behind you.  This easy fix can immediate give you the confidence of having control over your space – and you will be able to work more productively.    In addition to using sound cancelling headphones or placing a sound machine or water fountain on your desk (if allowed), mirrors can also be helpful to mitigate noise.  A mirror placed facing away from you toward the wall where the noise is coming from is a way to intentionally “reflect” back the noise away from you without negativity or judgment.   Obviously it’s also important to speak to your co-workers about keeping the noise down!

It’s always rewarding and fun to share Feng Shui and I particularly enjoyed meeting the open-minded, enthusiastic employees working at our local Veteran’s Administration during their “Diversity Day” many who said they’d be putting these Feng Shui recommendations into practice!