How Lighting Boosts Productivity and Focus

Photo by Des Récits

Every Halloween, the ghosts and goblins come out when it turns dark. The darkness is part of the alure of the event.

However, working in the dark is ineffective. When we all worked in an office (remember those days), there was specific thought behind the lighting in the general office area (brighter), the conferences rooms (a bit softer to promote collaboration) and the break room had something different (I wish I could remember what it was when I read the article last year). This was all balanced with natural light from the outside.

Now, we all wish we could work outside (at least on the nice days) but often times the glare doesn't work well on our computer screens. As a result, most of us are hanging out in our virtual offices trying to be as productive as possible.

Side bar thought- I remember when I was a kid, I had my room so bright, I am sure the little electric meter dial was turning, and the bills were adding up for my parents.

Today, with the new lighting technology, we have energy efficient bulbs that are much more cost effective where you could replicate (as best as possible) being outside for not that much cost.

I would encourage you to do your research (and there is a lot of it out there) on what the best lighting is for you. To help you get started, I will share what I did. When I started working in my home office, I always tried to sit facing the window. Unfortunately, the way my basement is set up, my window is underneath my porch and doesn't provide a lot of natural light. Couple that with all of the trees in my backyard, it is not as bright as I would like it to be. As a result, I have to augment my office with my own lighting. I outfitted my 4 lights (2 overhead and 2 behind me on the wall) with the brightest "daylight" light I could find at the store.

This set up for me worked great up until I needed to go on video. The two lights behind me produced a big glare and I needed to shut them off, replacing it with a small desk lamp in front of me. I found this very frustrating as it was always dark and having a boss that wanted everyone on camera made it even more challenging. With the new computer my company issued earlier this year, I had a better camera and the virtual backgrounds worked much better for people to see me without that cardboard cutout look I had with my old computer. By moving to the virtual background, I was able to the lights on behind me and keep my office bright...thus keeping my productivity as high as possible.

Now, when you are ready to go to sleep, things are different with lighting. My recommendation is to have a softer bulb in your bedroom to help your body calm down from the day putting your body in the mode of going to sleep.

Lighting matters to your productivity and sleep!!!

Cover photo by Phil Desforges

5 Simple Habits for Happiness Backed by Yale Research

Photo credit by Chris Curry

If you are finding you are being weighed down by the news or other life events, here are 5 super simple things each of us can do. They are based on Laurie Santos' The Science of Happiness course at Yale University.

I took the free version on Coursera about 5 or so years ago.

Happiness boils down to only 5 things:

1) Gratitude (keep a daily journal)

2) Savoring (slow down)

3) Kindness (perform an act of good)

4) Social Connection (meet with friends)

5) Exercise and Sleep (this one is self-explanatory)

Last year, when I took over a larger team, my company had just gone through another round of layoffs. To counterbalance the negative feelings people were having, I asked everyone over the next two weeks to do an act of good.

This act of good didn't have to be anything special. It could be donating to your favorite charity, participating at a local food bank, or even helping a senior citizen with their groceries.

This single ask started to change the negative feelings that were consuming the team as they lost friends and colleagues.

In a world where there are negative things happening every day, sometimes focusing on one or all of these 5 things can make a huge difference in your mental and physical attitude...and maybe help change the direction of someone else's as well.

My ask of everyone is to do an act of good over the next two weeks. It is not necessary to post what you did, here or elsewhere, but just know the act will make a difference.

My hope is that this post can get some viral momentum as acts of good can be contagious😀

#Gratitude #journaling #Savoring #slowdown #kindness #actsofgood #socialconnection #friends #exercise #sleep

Copying Jaime Diglio and John Barrows who both posted similar topics recently and inspired me to do this post.

Cover photo by Raymond Petrik