Hi, it's Beth beeler with hope Unlimited, where we help overwhelm professionals Excel and Excel. So let's get started with our presentation today. Is your workspace slowing you down? assess, align and activated for extreme productivity. Let's settle in and talk about some things to do with our workspace and our desk. Where do you spend the majority of your time?

There's a few suggestions here. It may not be exhaustive, but some people spend a lot of time in what I call cubicle world. They have their spot in up to 810 hours a day they're in there. Some of you may work from home may be watching from home, you may telecommute for your company. Sometimes you may go to a public or a shared space. I know I like to get out to a coffee shop once in a while and just be out among people instead of just working from my own office where I'm just, you know, kind of working alone in my own office.

And speaking to that, you might have a problem. have an office where you work with door shut and by yourself a lot of the time. But wherever you work, you are creating a space around you and workspace a cockpit of sorts that is kind of like a plane's cockpit where you do your main work, and whether it's portable, or it's more permanent, like in a private office. You have the space and this is about thinking, how can we make it very productive for us? our actual workspace, how can we assess it and align it and make it work better. So today we're going to look at three different approaches.

We're going to assess our workspace. We're going to align it with the important values and distinctives. And we're going to have some practical steps to activate a change that will help increase your productivity. Now the key to activate in your workspace to be an effective place to get things done is this You need to have a setup that gives you the energy and the resources, you need to be productive. So you want to sit down and be able to feel energized, where you're going to work, inspired, and that you have the tools and things that you need around you to not have an interrupted flow of work that you can have what you need to get it done. But you also need to think beyond that.

You need to have a setup that allows others around you to do their best work, which may be a new concept, because you may think, well, this presentation is about how I can make my desk workspace more efficient. What do you mean to set up it allows others to do their best work. What we want is an approach that unites the two because it really are connected as you have a setup that works for you. If it interrupts the people around you, then you're going to disrupt the overall productivity of your staff in your office. So let's say you know, if somebody He's more productive if they're listening to rap music. But other people need quiet if you're all in the same area and one person is the, the one to put some music on and they play it loud in their cubicle, it will have an effect on the productivity of other people.

So what you want to have is, is an attitude and approach that will unite you creating your workspace that works for you, while also being considerate to the setup that will benefit others because really, when everybody's productive, like oh, you know, when the water the tide rises, all boats rise Well, when you are productive, and they can be productive. It's really better for the entire organization. So stop and chat for a minute, if you want to pause this and you're looking at this as a group, perhaps a lunch and learn or staff meeting. stop and pause now and talk about that a little bit. Is this concept of organizing for the benefits of others a new thought to you and is it practical In your workspace to think about how to be considerate to others. When you're done discussing, you could bring it back up and play on and we'll continue on with the next concepts.

All right, let's take a look at at some things in some statistics to do with desks and workspaces. Entrepreneur did a little bit of information on this and had an article your ugly office might be costing you. And within the infographic they presented as you can see here, they asked when they do their poll of a group, they asked you when you visit an office what's most likely to give you the negative first impression? Well, you can see that a lot of things are about equal, you know, you got your new 2420 and 19% here, but the biggest 130 3% of people were turned off by cluttered workspaces, like wires hanging out all over the place and all that when they walked into an office. Now, I don't think people expect that every office is going to be different stained and you'll have nothing on the surface.

But there is something to be said for the first impression that you have when people walk into your workspace and whether it's not whether or not it's a mean office or they're just walking into your office or working into your cubicle or workspace. It does give an impression and they also have some other facts on that infographic there that it only takes a 10th of a second, you know, apparently for people to start thinking about, you know, their impression of your workspace. So you might want to go to this, there's a link below you can search entrepreneur for it. But the point of this is that there is an effect on people when they see your workspace. Now, if you are one that works totally by yourself, and no one ever visit you, I suppose you can just do whatever you want with your office but a lot of us don't or a lot of us need.

Like I don't want people visiting my office very often. Yet there is still some Visual through videos and there's just I'm the one that has to enjoy it or not. So there is always can be a journey to make it a place that is more productive for you. There are seven questions you could ask yourself as you try to assess and align and activate your workspace for maximum productivity. First of all, does your workspace inspire and energize you? Second, are you reminded of your mission and values?

Third, is your workplace healthy and sanitary? Four, do you have the supplies you need? And can you find them? Five? Does the arrangement fit logically into your workflow? Six does it incorporate your style?

And seven does it align with your business or employers culture and purpose to help your colleagues do their best work? So we're gonna take a look at each of these seven questions today and take them a bit deeper. First of all, does your workspace inspire and energize you. There was another article in Fast Company about this same type of thing. clutter and how it creeps up in this sort of can be overwhelming. As you can see from this picture of this desk.

It's just like all what's in there that hasn't been attended to that's really important. Well, some of the things that affect whether you're energized or inspired by your workspace are lighting is your lighting poor clutter, like this picture, you know, when you visually see, you know, your mind can think, Oh, goodness, there's something in there that may be important, but I don't have time to dig through all of it. And this is where so many things can get buried and not taken care of. And then noise levels of different things that are going on, whether it's the white noise in the buzz of your office or music or other things. So let's think about light. Some people prefer light like this, that's a little bit lower light.

I've got a lower light on right now because I'm recording it. feels better for recording. Then in the afternoon when the sun is kind of coming through that back window more, some people prefer this and some of these pictures people shared with me some anonymous friends. Others prefer a more bright, natural light, open space kind of thing. And then still others maybe like a combination. This is what my desk area formerly look like I now have another table over by the windows, but there's times I like it.

Great and the times I like it cozy. So you really have to decide what works for you and talk with your employer because some of you may need to ask if you can put a lamp at your cubicle or something like that, to lend a little bit of warmth to your workspace. But the important thing is to figure out what light gives you energy as opposed to putting you to sleep. What would feel welcoming to you to go work at visual clutter to clutter taxes the brain as it constantly says What is important or not that Shelly row is a speaker and leadership and insightful speaker and visual clutter. When you walk in and you see visual clutter. Your brain has to continually sort through is this important?

Or do Can I dismiss it? And so here's, here's a picture of the similar desk where we just showed about lighting, where there's a ton of clutter, things are thrown everywhere, willy nilly. They've unpacked some stuff, it looks like maybe in the middle of all kinds of things, and the person worked hard to get this office straightened out. And now we go back to this, I mean, isn't that wonderful? I mean, she still has things on her desk and all that but she has found spots for things. Notice that she just used just open shelving and some like a big basket and some boxes, doesn't mean that all those boxes are neatly organized within the box, but she's been made something that she could make stackable boxes that she could get to it.

I'm not opposed to a junk drawer at all. Junk box, but she's Got it, where you can tell it's stacked and she's over here, you know, she's got samples or things. It's not like they're there, everything's hidden away, it's just that there seems to be more of a spot for things. And that is really helpful. And as I said, it's okay to have a drunk drawer, but they shouldn't be in your main cockpit of work. When you have a junk drawer of receipts, like you can have a collection of receipts that are all for the month of say, March or April or something, and you don't have to get where you file them down to so so many levels of files where it's difficult to keep up with.

I see people do that with email too. You have a million different files of different vendors and all that there's so many good search functionalities in electronic things. Make it bigger, you know, your file system less unwieldy and less detailed. So and so in the case of a junk drawer. You can have it but just don't have it in your main area of work and then I've got here a few tips of how to clean out a desk drawer. And let me just confess that I am not I don't always work in the neatest environment to this is a journey for me and there's times that things get cluttered for me in a mess in certain drawers that I haven't touched in a while.

So but this just gives you a few steps where you empty everything into another container, wipe down the door, and then only return the items you have regularly use and put the rest in storage or give items away which is even better. And sometimes you have to do this or on a regular basis because if you have a certain drawer like this particular drawer can get refilled a lot for me and the drawers of my desk are actually not set up in the most efficient way. So you know, these are lessons for me as well. And this works for electronic files to where you can empty you know, put all certain kinds of emails or files into one general muscle, one general search file. And you could find search and find whatever you need and then divided out more if you actually have to divide it out, you know Do you really have to put all receipts for 2017 sort them out by week and category and all that, could you put them in a receipt file electronically, that's just by month, and then you can go within that month, or maybe just one receipts for 2017.

And then you can go in and search for what you need, if you ever need it. You know what could work for you, but I'm just encouraging you to allow yourself to have a miscellaneous folder or junk drawer once in a while. noise is another consideration whether it's white noise, your music or you know, what have you, your noise, the noise, something that works for you may bother somebody else. So you really have to think about what helps you be productive and whether you should use these things in your phones. Some people like white noise that's a more steady rhythmic noise and no lyrics behind them. I know it's hard for me to listen to any music with lyrics because I'm If I know the song, I'll think of the words.

Other people need upbeat music depends on the work that you do. I know my husband works moving around a lot, he works in an automotive field and is around cars in the garage and fixing things and all that. So for him, he likes upbeat music in the background, but I can't do that sitting at a desk. Often I don't even have music on I just need a quieter environment. But think about what makes you most productive. And you can assign certain types of noise and music to certain types of projects, you know, perhaps you are energized you know, a little bit of energy music at the end of the day is better for you to keep you as you go through your email inbox, for example.

Whereas at the beginning of the day, you need it quiet. So pay attention to that the next several days and figure out what works for you as to which types of music and but if you are listening things and it's going to bother somebody else, you know, this is a group discussion, you can figure out how you want to handle this. Think about using earphones so that you're not bothering The person in the cubicle next to you. Another question for assessing and aligning your workplace, are you reminded of why you even work. A lot of people work obviously for money. But there's other things that go on.

Like, for example, you might be affected by you work so that you can have reached certain family and lifestyle goals. That's my husband, there's our 25th anniversary, which was several years ago. You may also want to have a small picture when you are mobile. I'm giving you this example of this frame here because if you work at a coffee shop, or if you're mobile and you don't have a set office that you're in a lot, it might be nice to have a little picture that you can set up next year your laptop and also that you can still be reminded of what's important to you, or your family, your family, or somebody your pan or whatever that's special to you. Some of your desk setup will reflect your values this person Obviously, because it's set up on a treadmill probably has the value of exercise and fitness.

I knew someone who had has one of these in their office and they put in, I think it's like five miles a day because they rarely sit at their desk. So that reflects the value of wanting to stay fit. Another thing that you might have some awards or appreciation things, certificates. This was a plaque of appreciation for a nonprofit board I set up for a few years, and I still am an advisor to the advisor when they need it. So that hangs at my desk to kind of remind me of that public service. You might have quotations or motivational posters, or the recognitions that inspire you to keep focused on your work.

These are all things that you can hang in your office or cubicle that are inspiring to you. You can get over cluttered with these, but you know, put them up as they we'll remind you of why you're working and not just about the money, but other reasons to be doing your best. Also, companies sometimes will have a company mission statement hanging up, like or they'll put their logo like here's a logo for my business. They'll have their logos around, I collect things that have the word hope on them. And so I've got quite a collection. And I've got my office decorated with that.

I've got cards like these that I've colored and laminated that I keep in my portable little office so that when I go to a coffee shop or something, I will often take out one of those cards, just to sort of decorate the area that I'm working in. All right now stop and chat again. Share with one another, your main reasons for working and try to go beyond thinking of money. Obviously people want a paycheck. sure you've been talking about other reasons why you work in the field. You do while you're working for the company you are and stop and chat about that, and how maybe your desk reflects some of the whys behind why you work.

And then start the video backup when you're ready to move on. All right, next question. Is your desk area healthy and sanitary? Well, you might be surprised or not at this, but what do you think is one of the areas that's least sanitary compared to this? According to a reader's digest? your cell phone and laptop are actually dirtier than a toilet seat.

And that may sound disgusting, but when you think about it, you really are your hands are all over your electronics all day long. And other people sometimes share it and all that and if you have been washing your hands in a while, you know, you're more More likely to handle with your hands there. Whereas sometimes might be a little more careful. Maybe in the restrooms and the average desk according to life hack harbors 400 times more bacteria than an average toilet. So think about you sitting at your desk and your colleagues that come by and put their hands on your desk and all that it's a good idea to be a little more sanitary on her desk perhaps. Here's another example.

We often do this at our desks we often eat on our desk and not think twice about it. So something you can do on a regular basis is to do something like with Clorox wipes or if you have essential oil spray or something like that and wipe down that desk on a regular basis wipe off. You know, be careful with what you use on your keyboards and things. But find something that you can use to you know, wipe down keyboards, wipe down phones, and that kind of thing and clean up your food, clean up crumbs and all that. So because you already adjusted already covered with bacteria ways, so do your best to kind of disinfect your desk on a regular basis. All right, let's move on to a more pleasant subject.

Do you have the supplies you need at your desk, you'll see here I've got just random pictures. But if you use something regularly, you should have it at your desk or at your drawer or at a desk organizer. That way you don't have to keep getting up and going to get something. Now I don't suggest hoarding office supplies. Some people like to do that and get a bunch of put in their desk. That's not you know, budget friendly for your organization.

But I would say you know, having a backup of a few files or a backup tape or pens and pencils is not a bad idea to have at your desk because sometimes things get, you know, they walk away if you have your pens out, somebody picks one up as they gather their files and things like that. So make sure you have the supplies unique to you. You may have specific tools that you need. Make sure you have the supplies handy and within arm's Reach or a drawer so that you can get to them when you need them. Because that leads to what we're going to say in a minute or two here. I just wanted to show this one because this is just a fun way somebody had has some supplies nearby, but they like frogs.

And so they've taken a theme and are also using it to store paperclip. So they have kind of a mixed use for this. And I love that. Sometimes you can use things that bring you joy, as as inspiration and energy, like we talked about a few minutes ago, but also have a practical purpose. At the same time. They're basically multitasking.

Here's another here's a setup that I have when I work outside of my office, and again, having everything I need, plus some things that inspire me. Let's take a look here I've got my Chromebook. I'm a big fan of Chromebooks. There's that little card of hope I have several of those. I'll put one of those out there. I actually carry in this pouch.

I love the pouch. I just love what it says. But I carry some things in the pouch like a coaster that is inspiring, a little notebook to jot down maybe a little time schedule for when I'm at the coffee shop. I even have a little plastic butter candle so that I can have some ambience when I'm working there and I carry a scarf with me. That can be as a lap blanket in a way or put over my shoulders. If the coffee shops a little cooler.

I keep it's thin enough to keep inside the laptop bag. And then I have my earphones and so on. So you see I've got a setup that I've got a I've got what I need with me in that pouch, so that I can have everything accessible that I might need for working. Then now you want to set things up where can you find what you need. That's we talked about if it's in the drawer, here's it's a junk drawer, but at least it's there. It's there you can reach and get what you need this person He has a basket where she keeps some of the things that she, she works in with a couple of different pieces of tech.

So she keeps a basket. And some people keep things underneath their desk and really just just set it up where you can conveniently get to what you need, but also have some space to breathe. And that leads into does the arrangement of your desk and workspace fit your logical workflow the way you do your job? All right. So here's a tip assigned certain spaces or objects or types of tech to similar types of work that can act as a brain trigger to get you into the flow more quickly. So for example, with a Chromebook, there are certain things that when I go to a coffee shop, I'm limited to certain types of work.

But on one hand, I could leverage that to know that okay, this project is being worked on with the Chromebook pretty much Always with a Chromebook. And so I can have that be a trigger that I can sit my Chromebook around anywhere. And that's what I'm going to be working on for that particular project. Like, in the mornings, I start my mornings in my master bedroom suite, and I'm in there for quite a while I use my Chromebook in the mornings to do a little bit of writing, some professional engagement on, you know, social media, birthday greetings and so forth. I generally do all that kind of work in the morning with the Chromebook, it's kind of that space is now that area is where I spend to do certain types of things in the morning. So if you can arrange your office or your workspace or the workflow of your week, which coffee shops you're working at, to trigger you to get into that mode.

Like if you go to a coffee shop and work on Tuesdays on blog writing, you know, continue to do the similar type of thing and have a similar setup so that your brain straight up we're getting ready to do blog writing mode, we're getting into that lane. So that can help you with your workflow other things. That helped with the workflow are where you put some of your supplies, what types of reference materials you keep. So and basically where you put things so that it goes along with the flow of your day. So let's look at an example of a friend of mine who works as a research at a library and historian. Let's take a look at her desk a little bit, and how she's got things set up.

Obviously, she has plenty of things going on. It's not, it's not like you know, she just keeps everything pristine and nothing on her desk. But she's got it set up in a way that she can turn her chair to the different things over to the left, she's got some of the materials she's working on archiving. Over to the right, she has her backpack and her personal calendar it looks like so she can turn one way or the other and then in the center. She's got the supplies right in the middle that she might need regularly. She's got a couple of monitors.

She's got a printer over to her right so that she can pretty quickly print you know, rich everything she needs. And then she's got her inspiring items up on top here of different, you know, people in our life that are important. She likes owls so she you know, she does some seasonal decorating it looks like and she's got a whole tea she loves tea. So she's got that been inspiring and then she's got folders to her left and and her inboxes. So she's got a pretty well organized, where she can turn and she had a recycle bin below and turn to the right to just chill left you see there's a kind of a logical flow, easy access to the various things that she wants to use both personal and professional. So and you'll see that with her having done the inspiring things at her desk, she has made it fit the style of her own and that's our next question.

Does your workspace fit your style? Now again, if it's, you know, just certain things you may be limited in working for certain employers, but I encourage employers especially bosses that are listening today Let your employees have a little bit of freedom with their workspace because they have to spend a lot of time there. And it's nice if they can reflect a little bit of their personalities like this person has this fun little wastebasket. And you they set up a desk where they can stand a lot in work. It looks like a standing desk. Well, here's some other styles.

Here's an example of a minimalist style this individual does has a few things that are there to inspire them, and just what they need at their desk. Another one might be a little bit more on the inspirational side, they've got a few more things hanging, you know, hanging on the wall, they've got flowers, it looks a little bit more, maybe a little more traditional and a little bit more where they want to be inspired by the things hanging on their wall. Still another maybe perhaps a little if you want to call it geeky, very tech oriented lots of technology at their desk. I use the watch and the phone and the apple fires and all that stuff. It's not about a lot of decoration, it's about a lot of functionality. With tech, it really is up to you what your style is, as long as it stays within reasonable boundaries and doesn't have a negative effect on other people.

So let's have another stop and chat time, stop the video and chat a little bit with one another to identify the styles each other has by what you all see at each other's desks. So have a little fun with that and see talk about what's important. What you've noticed is important to somebody else, and what their style might be, and then come on back when you're done discussing that. All right, the next question. And the last one is, does this setup that you have aligned with your business or employers culture and purpose? And does it help your colleagues do their best work?

You see two examples here. got somebody got a really neat, traditional office and then you've got somebody here who's just got it got a corner and they're stuffing all kinds of work into the corner. Let's take a look at some pictures that reflect and help you reflect on what that business might be and why they're set up that way. Here's an example of a front desk, a front lobby area to kind of a modernistic and although I can't ask you to respond to me live, you know, yell out to each other, you know, what do you think this desk might represent? Where might it be? I'm gonna take a guess.

And I may maybe educated guess if I recall when I got this picture, but it might be a good desk for like a spa. You know, it's got clean lines, modern look, looks like you know, with the stones here, I'm not even sure they might even have a fountain built into it. If I wouldn't see it as a bank necessarily, but you never know in a more modern bank but it's a it's a place that's clean and neat. But the another thing to notice about this is that there's not a lot of clutter. I used to work for a marketing firm and I worked at their front desk part time. And the owner of the firm was fairly firm about they wanted that front desk area to look very much like this, you know, very presentable, very neat.

So any of the things that I had on my desk, I had to either be working on them or if I left for lunch or something like that they really prefer like if I had a notebook open or something that I close it and keep, keep it to that if people came to the desk and look down, it was still neat and clean. I couldn't put a lot of a lot of personal things out. I could have a few personal pictures and kind of tucked into the corner. But it was pretty much that you know, wasn't just my space. It was the space for the office greeting area. So they had some rules about that.

Alright, now the key is Activating the workspace you have into an effective space to get things done is a review of our principle we said way at the beginning. You need a setup that gives you the energy and resources you need to be productive. But you also need that your setup allows others to do their best work. If they need to come to your desk regularly to get things they shouldn't have to be rifle around to find whatever it is if you have an inbox, outbox, and you allow them to pick up something out of the outbox, they need to be able to get to that outbox without digging through all your stuff or having to deal with your leftover food or listening to music that's going to distract them. Again, you want an approach and attitude that unites your most productive setup with a setup and overall office that will help others do their best work.

Because what happens if you don't? What happens if you you don't have the courtesy to work with someone else? Let me tell you a little story. Then I read that a gentleman was working at a coffee shop And there were some people having a discussion about their new business they were launching and domain names and all that. And they were being quite rude. With the there were I believe he said they were rude with the waitstaff, but anyway, they were being kind of rude.

And I don't think they were willing to stop even even if somebody mentioned to him the details of the story a little vague now, because it's been a while since I heard it. But the essence of it was, he sat in there and he was overhearing and kind of bought, you know, the approach to how they were working was rude enough. And he heard what they were talking about for domain names and so on, that they were wanting for their business. He went and bought while he was there at the coffee shop, he went bought the domain name that they wanted, so they wouldn't be able to get it. Now. I'm not sure that I would recommend that.

But the point is, if you don't consider other people and have some courtesy sort of other people You may end up suffering whether you know it or not, in some way, because you're treatment of other people, even in how you have your desk set up, and how you conduct yourself while you're in your workspace. They may not say anything to you, but they may have there may be a negative effect on you that you'll never realize that it was because you were rude to them so that I don't know how that story played out with the domain name, but they would have had gone and find that that domain name was taken and if they wanted to buy it from him, he probably would get some money for it. And it was all because of how he saw how they were treating the public workspace how they were dealing at the public workspace.

So just keep that in mind. You want a teamwork approach. You're all a team in your workspace and if you're watching this and only work by yourself, well then you're a team with yourself. So you need to benefit yourself and how you set up your workspace so that you can be most productive Now some practical challenges to activate to say that, how am I going to take what we've learned today to learn today and make some practical changes to your workspace life. So maybe get something new for your workspace that might energize you kind of like that frog, something that would just be fun, update or create an item specifically reminding you of your mission, maybe a personal mission statement and frame it. Do a deep cleaning of the surfaces in the technology, you might want to designate a day a week where you do a little bit deeper, cleaner cleaning, like on Fridays that you really wipe the desk down well, even if you have somebody coming to clean at night or something takes responsibility for your own death surface.

Gather a mini stack of backup supplies not a huge doctor ordered but a mini stock of supplies that you will eventually need especially if there's a tendency for those to run out quickly at your office. Three position items to match your normal flow of work. This can change over time. I know I change things around on my desk when I feel like things are not flowing well replaced one item of outdated decor or technology product kind of forget current with something, give a colleague something nice or useful for their desk just to thank them for how your team work together or how they help you out. Now take a moment and stop and chat. Which of the Activate challenges will you put into place this week.

Now to be convenient for you. I'm going to put this slide back on, and you can pause this and that way you'll have the challenges right up on your screen as you discuss them. And when you're done, come on back and we'll finish up. Okay, you've had your stop and chat challenge. Now we're going to take and look at the next three slides together and I want you to pause and discuss So what you would advise each person who owns that desk to do to be a little more efficient with their workspace, given maybe some of the thoughts that you've learned in this presentation. So here's your first picture.

Now hit pause and look at this and discuss with each other. What would you recommend to the owner of this desk? All right. All right. Now here's another one. To hit pause and discuss.

What would you recommend to this for this office that would make it easier and better to work in? And now, this desk, what would be something that you would want to improve this or what would you recommend if you were coaching In this person, and you can pause if you want to discuss further. All right, a quick word about digital clutter. We didn't get into that today. But you can tell by this is an actual screenshot of somebody who let me share this, they have 38,000 emails that were sitting in their box when you see that, I mean, I don't know about you, but that would be, I don't know, either I get to the point where I just ignore it or something. That's a whole lot of emails that she's just kept.

So they think about digital clutter can also happen to just have the apps on your phone that you're really using. You can always swipe over to another page to get to one that you don't use as much and do some things about your email, emails, a totally different topic. You'll find information on email and courses on email as well at our our Learning Center. I'm not going to get into that now. But just pay attention to the visual clutter on your phone that you have to look at right here. or on your desktop too, because that can affect your energy level as well.

All right now take a final stop and chat with one another. I'll leave these questions up. What points today most resonated with you commit publicly to someone else on your staff that a one small change, you'll make it your workspace and then plan to check in with each other at the next meeting? And then how can you help others be more productive in your workplace? I leave these up and this is the final slide. Thank you very much for your listening to this.

I hope this prompted some great discussion. And feel free to contact me via my website at Beth Butler comm if you have any other questions or thoughts about this topic, thanks so much.