MGA&D’s Megan Luce Wants You to Feel Good While You Work From Home
COVID-19 has given us a new perspective on live-work-play. We asked Megan Luce, our Director of Interior Design, for a few suggestions on improving our work-from-home environment. She backs them up with performance-based research from the WELL Building Standard®.
In the workplaces we design, we like the WELL Building Standard® for the way they emphasize the human experience. WELL recognizes that buildings profoundly impact health, well-being, and productivity. Like our heroes at the World Health Organization, they define health as physical, mental, and social well-being and not just the absence of illness or disability.
WELL’s seven concepts – air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort, and mind – each contribute to our well-being. There’s a lot of advice out there about your behavior: keeping a schedule, standing up from your desk and moving, getting some fresh air, staying hydrated and well-fed. Here are a few things you can do to improve the immediate work environment in your house or apartment.
- Put your desk by a window. Daylight has been shown to improve alertness and foster learning, productivity, and faster healing. Its biophilic qualities, like the greenery you might view from your window, take advantage of our innate connection with nature.
- Pay attention to the angle and height of your chair relative to the floor, your keyboard, and your monitor. Your legs should be at right angles between the seat and the floor. Your elbows should be at right angles to your keyboard. And your eyes should be aimed at the middle of the monitor so you’re not craning your neck.
- Add a plant or a candle to your desk to stimulate other senses. They’ll also give you a break from screen time, which has been known to disrupt our bodies’ natural circadian rhythms and cause us to lose sleep.
- Re-arrange your desk every few days, and add some personal touches, like inspirational pictures or photos of loved ones you can’t see right now.
- Clear off your desk when it gets cluttered. Clear desk, clear mind. Clear mind, well-being.