Setting up your workspace: How to satisfy all 5 senses?

Sight, touch, hearing, smell, and taste are the basic human senses. The body always reacts to stimuli from the surrounding environment, creating interactions and experiences for us.

A workspace can also have positive effects on the senses, helping users enjoy and quickly improve their performance and work efficiency. So, what makes a workspace setup that satisfies all 5 senses?

Sight

Light, color, arrangement, and the external design of furniture and equipment are what "hit" our eyes when we enter a space. To set up a workspace that both protects your vision and enhances your visual experience, you can pay attention to:

• Lighting: The workspace should have a window or be near an entrance to utilize natural sunlight. This not only helps users focus and stay alert while working but also provides quality light for the space, preventing eye strain. Additionally, when using artificial light from lamps, it's important to balance the light-dark cycle throughout the day, use electronic devices that reduce blue light intensity, replace fluorescent bulbs with LED lights, etc.

• Color: Depending on your preference, you can set up colors to create different vibes for your office space. Some popular setup tones include white-black (modern and luxurious), blue-white (peaceful and elegant), green-white (airy and sophisticated), brown-gray (warm and minimalist), red-black (personal and powerful), gray-yellow (luxurious and energetic).

• Arrangement of furniture and equipment: An impressive space is often one where furniture and equipment are neatly and tidily arranged, serving their intended function and providing convenience for the user.

• External design of furniture and equipment: This factor relates to the material, color, shape, etc., of the items. For example, an ultra-thin keyboard will bring a modern, dynamic feel to the setup, or a dual monitor arm supporting two screens will clearly demonstrate a streamlined, expansive feel for the desk space.

Hearing

A space with limited noise helps us concentrate better, improve performance, and even protect long-term health. Additionally, using music as a mental therapy in the workspace will also provide a more relaxing, comfortable, and inspiring environment.

Touch

A chair with a cool, soft mesh back; a wide, soft mouse pad; a wooden keyboard wrist rest will provide a warmer feel, while a stone keyboard wrist rest is suitable for summer, preventing stuffiness and sweating. All these tactile contacts positively or negatively affect mood, experience, and thus increase or decrease work performance.

Taste

Many people have a habit of snacking on some treats, coffee, or tea to "boost their mood" while working.

Smell

Surely everyone prefers an airy workspace with a subtle, pleasant scent. According to many studies, each scent has a different impact on our emotions, concentration, or memory. Choosing fresh flowers, natural herbs, or essential oils and scented candles is a way to improve the office space. Besides, don't forget to regularly clean your desk and shelves to keep your workspace tidy and organized.

 

Feeling

Feeling is not strictly a sense but encompasses many physical and mental factors, creating a comprehensive human experience.

Your workspace will often be where you spend many hours, especially during the busy days leading up to Tet. Therefore, it should be a place that brings comfort, helps you focus, increases work efficiency, or even does better by inspiring endless creativity.

To improve your feeling during work, you can experiment and make small changes to create a truly satisfying setup. This could simply be adding a footrest to avoid dangling feet and leg fatigue; adding plants to your workspace for a stronger connection with nature; or replacing an old, termite-ridden shelf with a desk-clamp pegboard that is both flexible and helps manage items, keeping equipment neat and organized, for example.

Find a job you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life. Similarly, creating a personalized workspace that satisfies many physical and mental factors makes the daily work process much "lighter" and more chilling.