Office Feng Shui Tips To Maximize Your Productivity & Creativity

If your home is a mirror of your life, your office space is a mirror of your work, career, and oftentimes your wealth. Therefore, office design is incredibly important. Feng shui can help us make choices about how to personalize our workspaces, whether they're at home or in a shared office. Here are my top tips for increasing the feng shui in your office, one step at a time:

When you’re setting up your room (or cubicle), you'll want to first look at its layout. Is there an even distribution of furniture on both sides of the room? Is there art only on one wall, or is it sprinkled throughout the space? Is it too bright? Is it too minimalist? How balanced and even do you feel in your workspace? Where and how do things feel off? Start with your own assessment of what you love and what needs to change. From there, the feng shui tweaks can follow.

Get rid of the nonessentials in every cranny—this includes those drawers you rarely open. Clutter (even the clutter that's hidden away) keeps your work feeling stuck. This includes digital clutter and scheduling clutter, too! You may want to try to spend time every day looking over your schedule and visualizing what’s to come, clearing away or canceling anything that’s unnecessary, and preparing for the day to flow more smoothly.

Your desk is your home base. First, you'll want to look at the material it's made out of.

Metal desks are great for focus, but they may be cold. Warm them up with a houseplant (more on those later!) or wooden fruit bowl.

Speaking of backs, sitting with a solid wall behind you—or a very solid chair backing—is always great feng shui!

Ergonomics matter a lot, especially when you have a desk-based job and spend lots of unavoidable time sitting. You may not be able to get a new chair at the moment, but inexpensive ergonomic cushions can be game-changers too.

Yellow-tinted and fluorescent lights can make us feel fatigued and dull, and people prone to migraines may find them problematic. Research finds that Compact Fluorescent light bulbs (the twisty ones) may cause skin damage. LED bulbs, the more energy efficient choice, have upsides and downsides as well. They flicker in a hard-to-perceive way that can be disruptive to our eyes and mind, and they contain lots of blue light that can cause eye damage. After a lot of research, I've come to the conclusion that old-school incandescent full-spectrum light bulb may be the best way to go to promote a healthy, harmonious energy. Be sure to shut them off as soon as you leave a room to save energy.

Fresh pops of your favorite colors will always be more meaningful than a "symbolic" color that you don’t like, especially in a small workspace. Energetically bright art is also spectacular. If you lack a window in your space, you can use landscape art to create one. Anything that makes you feel deeply energized and inspired will do!

Crafting some sort of meditative space—be it your desk chair, a floor cushion, a sofa, or a beanbag—is always worth it. Not only will it encourage you to practice more meditation, but it can remind you to circle back to that calm place during stressful workdays. Your favorite coffee mug, a family photo, or an inspiring book can also do the trick to help you feel more settled and relaxed in your space.

Actually, let love rule all your choices. Bringing more of your heart to your workdays can be the most innovative and magnetic choice you make. Start by surrounding yourself with much more of what you love—color, art, scent, space, feel, memories, sparkle, nature—and let that inspired energy fuel all that you do.

Clear, bright energy unlocks more brilliance. If you have a home office, you can do any type of space clearing that appeals to you. Burn sage, Palo Santo, incense, herbs, salt, or all of the above to clear the air and lighten the feeling in your space. Plug-in USB aromatherapy diffusers have brightened many a corporate office I’ve worked on too.