I’ve been thinking about physical spaces lately; the places in which we live, work, and relax. Specifically, about how to shape your environment in the ways that work best for you.
I’m not talking about putting a ball-pit in your living room or rock-climbing holds on your ceiling here. Although, I’m not not talking about them either. However, I want to start by asking you a clarifying question:
**What is the highest level of work that you do?**When do you need to be at your most focused? This doesn’t have to be for your regular job, by the way. It might be when you create art or music. When you read and learn. When you relax and spend time with your family. When does the world need #1, AAA-certified, 5-Diamond Award-winning version of you?
Answering that question is important. The real work begins when you decide to make it happen.
A thought experiment If you had Jeff Bezos yacht money to spend on designing your environment, what kind of focused workspace would you design?
https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/0*C4Fr3gW98BUnkARr
Some ideas:
Personal preferences for social and environmental dimensions aside, all of these examples are designed around optimizing your ability to concentrate for long periods of time. While focus is not guaranteed, you can certainly increase your chances by reducing distractions.
Trying to concentrate in a less-than-optimal environment can make any of us… grumpy. Or, in a direct translation from the Chinese word for anger, it can make our qi rise.
To keep that anger/qi down—which is important for doing our best work—we need to think about exerting more control. Hence my question about designing your environment.
I like to run-blue sky exercises like the one above because: