Work SmartrAdvocating safe online habits at home, school and the workplace

photo credit: geishaboy500

Bored of your standalone desk or cubicle at work?  Tired of relentless problems popping up over and over again because you’re trapped in an inefficient workspace in your workplace?  If so, you don’t have to settle for the status quo.  With a few intelligent and creatively applied upgrades to your desk or cubicle, you can give yourself the gift of a smarter workspace environment.  Sure, it may just be a space designed to help you get your job done, but with every greater ease of burdens, you’re bound to be one step closer to ending your workday on a more positive note.

Start by figuring out the lighting.  Poor lighting can be a detriment to your work performance in multiple ways.  Using fluorescent lights may be efficient, but fluorescent tubes produce harsh, uninviting light that can be distracting.  Incandescent bulbs aren’t much better, though in a different way.  Though the light they produce is warm and gentle, if you have to sit under a collection of them, chances are the heat they radiate will make you uncomfortable (plus, they’re not very efficient lighting sources).  Instead, if you switch to LED lights, your lighting situation will improve dramatically.  Compared with fluorescents, LED lights are similarly efficient but less grating to look at.  Compared with incandescent bulbs, LEDs waste less energy and produce similarly pleasant light.

Once you’ve got your lighting figured out, optimize the rest of your workspace.  Throw away that uncomfortable office chair and replace it with a cushioned swivel chair.  Just be sure the chair isn’t too comfortable, as you don’t want to spend half of your workday lounging around.  Also, get rid of as much paper waste as possible.  The more you can computerize, the easier it will be to juggle everything, and the less mess you’ll have to deal with as your desk will be far less cluttered.  And of crucial importance, don’t forget to keep both a sweatshirt and a miniature fan around.  That way, you can optimize your workspace temperature no matter whether it’s too hot or too cold to function.