Refreshing your workspace: Turn your business goals to dollars

With the economy feeling like its on a downturn, it’s important to feel good about yourself and your work. Dollars matter, so your focused intentions and goals matter even more. If you are familiar with the Law of Attraction, then you know that directing energy towards your life goals will make a difference.

At Natural Balance, we encourage you to focus on your workspace as an extension of yourself. The design of your office should excite you and make you want to work, light a fire of creativity, and function efficiently. Your physical surroundings affect not only your level of productivity, but your motivation as well.

If you work every step below and believe in possibility, you will create positive work/life changes now and in your future. The new energy and efficiency you’ll feel doesn’t have to take months to accomplish. It can be easy and fun and give you a sense of control at this uncertain time. You just have to jump in and start.

The steps to refreshing your workspace are simple: be clear about your goals, declutter, organize, and then design for functionality, good energy and your personal style.

Let’s break it down:

1) First, you’ve got to clean up the paper chaos. This first level of distraction leads to many workflow clogs and unnecessary mistakes. Go through your paper piles, one item at a time. File things away while tracking your Next Actions and Projects through an organizing system such as the Getting Things Done method, www.davidco.com/ When you’re done, there will be NO MORE PILES!

2) Next, clear everything inside and off your desk, filing cabinets, bookshelves and side tables, one at a time. You’ve got to clean the arteries to get the energy flowing. Recycle and toss old magazines, pens that don’t work, and knickknacks without significant meaning. Sell or donate books no longer referenced and Craigslist the extra printer and equipment you no longer use. Be sure that the items you’re putting back within arms’ length are used daily or at least weekly.

3) Radically clear your walls and bulletin boards. You want to start fresh with the work and personal items that you place around you (no more year-old Happy Birthday banners). Step 6 will discuss how to consciously place your art and objects in your space.

4) Practice good housekeeping. Your lungs will thank you when you dust and sweep. Water your plants, and if you don’t have any in your office, go get at least one! Plants give your space natural life energy and also clean the air.

5) If you know you need a style update now’s the time. The quickest way to refresh your workspace is to paint. If you’re willing to do the work yourself, it doesn’t have to cost a bundle. Be aware that choosing the right color takes time, as well as choosing furniture that you want to live with and supports you ergonomically.

Whatever your taste in color, do your research, put color swatches on the walls and make sure to look at them during different times of our gray and sunny days. Light will change how the color looks. Also when choosing furniture, “measure twice and buy once.” Be clear about the function or multiple functions of your furniture. Choose the styles that turn you on and decide how the furniture will work together. Then shop for the best deal.

6) Choose the finishing touches. Remember the items you cleared from your office in steps 2 and 3? Now take a close look at your personal items and artwork to see what still inspires you and what has become dead weight. It may be sad to admit that a beautiful statue you bought for your office a year ago no longer does it for you. But life moves on and you need to too. Keeping the statue out of guilt won’t help land the new client, will it? You want to feel a spark of inspiration and energy or a clear calm feeling when you look at the personal pieces on your walls. Using the feng-shui bagua to decide the best placement for these items can amp up your energy even more. Download a bagua, or life-theme map, www.naturalbalance9.com/feng-shui.htm/

7) Finally, and very important, set new intentions for the last quarter of 2008. Sit quiet and focused in your refreshed space and write down your business goals on a clean piece of stationery with a brand new pen – no old energy allowed into these goals. Do you want a promotion or a raise, a new or better client? Write it down! Use the positive present tense.

Then do the same for your personal life and place the documents near pieces of art that visually inspire you to accomplish your goals. If you placed your artwork according to the life-theme areas on the bagua these goals will become more potent. It always feels good to be clear with yourself and the Universe! On a personal note, I’m consistently amazed at how effective it is – I tripled my business last year by working this process and many of my clients have done the same.

It takes time to work through every step thoroughly, so mark it on your calendar. If it’s not on your agenda, it likely won’t get done. Also commit to do every step, and particularly setting your intentions. Having done this before, I know you will be much more effective and energized if you do them all!

Good luck with your office. And let me know how it’s going. Sharing stories of our sticking points can be a learning opportunity for all of us. And on the flip side, the more motivational Workspace Refresh stories we all hear, the more success we’ll all have. Let’s ramp up our Collective Work-Consciousness.

For more support and focused planning time, join me at an interactive and inspirational Biznik workshop class called Refresh Your Workspace, get motivated and inspired at work on October 8th at Office Nomads, 7-9 PM.