Episode 17

It’s Thursday! There is no podcast episode up. We are having technical problems on this end but I am hoping that by Friday evening everything will be good to go again and I will be able to upload the episode 🙂

Until then, here is the script for Episode 17: What is Your Perfect Workspace?

Script

We all have to work. Whether it is in a cubicle, in a field, in a classroom, in a giant office, on your couch, in your car, on a plane, we all work. When we have to work we want to get stuff done. Not just sit and stare at the wall or out the window. 

I was surfing on YouTube the other day and I saw a video about redoing their office so they wanted to work on it. 

I have what I call my “back room.” This backroom is my office, storage, laundry, and closet. I never wanted to work in that room. My desk is always a mess and used as a mid spot before things are put away. When I want to work on anything I carry my stack of paperwork and books downstairs and set up a folding table in the Library or I spread out on the dining room table. I never wanted to work in the backroom. I would try but I never felt like I was getting anything done. After watching the YouTube video I finally realized why I never wanted to work in that room. There was too much going on. Space was not just the place to get anything done it was my everything room. If you wish, my junk drawer room. A little bit of everything is happening in that room. It is definitely not ideal. 

Once I move my office to its own area working with be much better 🙂

What else makes a work environment? Noise. For me I need music going. And not just on, I can work if it is on but I prefer it loud. As in, you can hear it from a distance away. When I work downstairs I do always have something on. It does get loud. My house has fantastic acoustics! I can put my speaker on the stairway half wall and I can hear all around downstairs and a little bit upstairs too. It is perfect! I can blast my music and get stuff done. If you ever need my attention and you are not getting my attention but you here music so you know I am there. Call me. The music is probably playing from my phone so if you call me the music will stop and so will I 🙂 I don’t have those days very often but maybe once a month. 

Another environment point is your utensils. Do you like black and only black, maybe a highlight. Are you a pencil person? Are you a multi-colored person? That’s me. I use multiple colors of pens, markers, and highlighters. I have different colored sticky notes I use. I have folders, tabs, binders all different colors. If I have something the same color the label on the front is in multiple colors. This is how I stay organized and wanting to work. I can use gel pens or different color markers to have my brain on paper. I give myself a table to follow so for instance, red would be total and blue is the adding number. Green would be the signs (plus, minus) and purple would be double-checked. 

When I am using sticky notes maybe I have two colors, so yellow would go back to for the project and pink would be for future reference. I would have paper, scrap or otherwise, making notes for myself on anything or everything of course not always the same color 🙂 

Now, what about space? How much space do you need to work efficiently? I take over tables. If I have a lot to do and I am cranking out all sorts of work, I am spreading out wide and high. I use the whole table, sometimes the floor or chairs. I have a list somewhere telling me everything I need to get done and as I check stuff off the piles shrink, the room grows and my cozy crowded workspace becomes bigger and more open. I am slowly able to breathe again and not just because the room is growing but because I am coming to the end of the pile. I take over the space that I am working in much of the time. 

What about the time? Do you know how long it will take you to finish what you need to finish? Estimate, now say it will take a little bit longer. Now if you finish at your estimate you will feel amazing (great guess by the way!) If you finish at the lengthen time you picked, that is fine, you had the time blocked off to get it done all is well. Now if you finish before either of those times, man don’t you feel amazing! Maybe a little like you missed something, but you didn’t, and you feel amazing! Always block off more time than you know you will need to complete your work. This way you are never rushed to finish or have to leave and you can’t finish. If you finish with time you can get to your next appointment early, hand in your assignment early or just get to the weekend early 🙂 

Planners. Who else needs to have planners? I have a friend who if she lost her planner she would just sit on a chair in her super soft PJ pants curled up in a ball under a blanket looking out the window with no emotion on her face. Would anyone else be that way? Would anyone else be completely lost without their planner? For me, it isn’t so much my planner as it is my calendar and notes. I make notes. Today at work (church) I sat down and used a scrap paper and I wrote down everything I needed to do today and the rest of the week. I knew I wouldn’t be able to remember everything off the top of my head so I wrote it down before I did anything else. I was thinking of what I needed to do on my walk to work and once I got there I wrote them all down, adding to the list as the day went on. 

My perfect Workspace has a big table with stools or chairs scattered around it, with a jar or bucket of colored sharpies, colored pens, and pencils in the middle of it. There would be a comfy chair or couch off to the side with a fun yet settle soft rug underneath. There would be baskets trays and shelves for neat storage along with drawers and cabinets. There would be a giant magnetic whiteboard and a corkboard for random thoughts and important notes posted. 

I’m curious, what is your perfect workspace? Is it small and confined or is it large and spacious? Is it bright and colorful or is it dark and focusing? Do you prefer to have your notes on your phone or written on a piece of paper or do you prefer them on your computer or on a board written out? Comment on our Instagram or our blog. What is your “#perfectworkspace?