If Your Workspace Isn’t Inspiring You, It’s Holding Back Your Professional Growth

 

The American and global workforce is now spread far and wide across a multitude of professional workspaces. Whether it’s your studio apartment, a local library, a coffee shop, or a traditional corporate office space, the space matters. Many remote workers and virtual business owners are beginning to experience increased procrastination, lazy habits, and decreased motivation, especially toward work tasks.

Some of this remote work fatigue is caused by general discomfort with our changed routines and professional settings. But some of it is caused by the atmosphere, aesthetic, and ambiance of your space. In short, optimizing your workspace can inspire you to feel more creative, more positive about your role and responsibilities, more organized, and less overwhelmed. As professional image and development are crucial to success in the modern work world, recognizing whether your workspace is helping or hindering you becomes very important.

Professionalism in a Virtual World 

What creates a professional image in a primarily virtual work world? Whether a business operates remotely or has a brick-and-mortar location that interacts directly with clients, there are a few universal truths about professionalism. Firstly, timeliness, organization, eloquence, and good communication are signs of a professional employee or entrepreneur. 

How does a virtual workforce change the markers for professionalism? Well, on top of the regular indicators, colleagues and clients might also judge your professionalism based on your technological expertise, adaptability, and innovativeness in approaching virtual workforce issues. As online businesses and virtual career opportunities pop up left and right, think about who you prefer to do business with. Many consumers value a company with consistent branding across all platforms, which is easily reachable when they need help. Further credibility can be built with a professional virtual business address, mail handling service, and telephone answering service. 

Combatting Procrastination, Laziness, and Lack of Motivation

An uninspiring or under-equipped workspace can manifest in your workflow as procrastination, laziness, or lack of motivation. Why does this happen? There are a few theories, including that the environment around you heavily influences the way you think and feel. Your office space can affect your professional image, professional development, and career growth over time. Changing your scenery can help you come to work prepared and inspired to find creative and innovative solutions to your biggest business hurdles. 

Subtle changes to your workspace can help promote optimism, creativity, and productivity. Factors as simple as the ergonomics of your space and furniture and the amount of natural light your workspace takes in can make a huge difference in your comfort, which translates to an improvement in your mood. Changes like these can make you feel positive and more optimistic about your professional success. If you’re stuck with a static space that has insufficient natural light, an illogical organizational design, or older furniture that you’re not ready to replace, you might consider renting a private office or coworking space near you. They offer flexibility in rental terms so that you can use them when you feel like a change of scenery.

Part of the challenge for those working or operating a business from home is maintaining a good work-life balance. By now, you may have heard that some remote employees report missing their daily commute, a time-wasting, frustrating, often stressful ritual you might not expect from a society rooted in productivity. The truth is, those workday commutes were the only part of the day for many people to be able to be alone, think critically, decompress, and gather themselves before and after the workday. Remote work fatigue and blurred lines within the work-life balance make short-term private office rentals increasingly common among entrepreneurs and virtual employees.  

What Causes Remote Work Fatigue

The chronic disinterest in your remote work or inability to stay on task, meet deadlines, or put forth the effort and creativity you once had for your job might be the result of remote work fatigue. While many employees report having better clarity of mind in their chosen workspaces as well as higher levels of productivity, those employees and virtual business owners whose work-life balance is blurred might feel differently. Compounding that with the elimination of the daily commute, which serves as mental preparation and a period of self-care for many, remote work fatigue resonates with much of the modern workforce.

Your workspace might play a more significant role in that than you think. Your work area should provide you the comforts of the corporate office, with added comfort because you’re often working from your own home. It should also be distraction-free. If this doesn’t sound like your workspace, it’s likely affecting your creative career now that we’re one year into a remote work culture. 

But fear not! There are many ways to upgrade your workspace without breaking the bank. Consider the environment you work in day-to-day. Are there distracting sounds, smells, or activities happening around you? When you arrive at your desk or work area, is it comfortable? Do your feet, hips, back, or wrists begin to get sore throughout the day? Do you have all the tools you typically need, like working pens, scrap paper, a document organizer or filing cabinet, stapler, reliable headphones, etc.? Is there enough light, ventilation, and space for you to work efficiently? How reliable is your technology?

Begin with the ergonomics of your workspace because your body is your number one tool for investing in the workforce, and nothing matters more than your physical health. Poor spatial design and inadequate furniture can harm your skeletomuscular system over time. Maximize your natural light exposure and ability to stand or move while you work, and set yourself up for thorough and efficient organization, including through potentially purchasing a home filing cabinet. Ensure your space is calm and not chaotic and encourages productivity and creativity through sight, sound, scents, and physical comfort. 

Getting Employees To Come Back To the Office

Sometimes optimizing our remote workspace is not enough to inspire the team. If you feel like you’ve created the best workspace you can for yourself and are still having difficulty connecting with your employees, colleagues, or clients, it might be time to make office life another piece to the puzzle of career success. Inviting your team into office life one or two days per week could give many the anchor in teamwork and the break from remote work fatigue that they need. Meeting periodically with your team can also be a great way to onboard new hires, celebrate business and individual successes, build team cohesion and corporate cultural bonds and give your team a sense of regularity and identity within the company. 

Private meeting room rentals can also be an excellent way for virtual business owners to connect with new clients and professionally network. Short-term conference room rental can supplement your otherwise adequate workspace when you need to extend a more professional or credible image while doing business in the region. It can function dynamically to benefit both your team and your bottom line in professional transactions. 

Explore your options in improving your remote workspace and rebalancing your life with short-term office rentals near you. Whether you’re an entrepreneur trying to scale your business or a corporate employee who’s missing the amenities and comfort of the office and the processing opportunity from your commute, office space rental can help stimulate and promote your professional growth. Make sure wherever you choose to work is inspiring because innovation moves as quickly as virtual business, and so do opportunities for growth.