Everything You Need in Your Space

It’s great if you can operate even under the most dire and atrocious circumstances; that makes you unstoppable. However, deterring yourself like that when you have the option not to is only sabotage. So put some thought and strategy into your surroundings. What is the formula to pushing and maintaining your optimal productivity?

Everybody is different, so what works for some may not work for you. This is why you must see what does and doesn’t suit you, then tailor your space accordingly. And funnily enough, what may be paradise to you could be hell to somebody else. At least if they prolong their stay beyond what they can tolerate.

This brings into focus an important fact: Everybody needs their own space. Even if by nature or by nurture you are the type of person who meddles and intertwines with others as if your life depended on it, clinging desperately to anyone and anything that’d keep you from being by yourself, you require your own space. You may not know it yet, and you may even deny it, but it’s something you must look into and have (even if you don’t need as much time there as others do in theirs).

Your space must consist of what is essential, beneficial, and convenient to you. Too often, people stop and stick with only the essentials. And while that, in certain situations, can be applauded, it is ultimately depriving you of what would lead to reaching your potential.

So, if you can afford to, and depending on what your job is, make sure you have an environment that:

• Gets you in the state that allows you to optimally function. Whether that’s one with high or low stimulation, cluttered or not.

• Has all the tools and materials that you frequently use, nearby, placed where you know they’ll be (or at least where you can figure you’ll find them), and accompanied by what would charge or otherwise enable them.

• Is comfortable for you. If you’re standing, sitting, lying down, or moving around. It’s a disservice to give yourself terrible posture or horrid circulation.

• Is secure for you. And this also means just the sense of it. If you have to worry and stay vigilant for threats or disasters, something’s lacking. And maybe you can’t make it 100% safe and impenetrable, but you could put more into it.

• Reminds you of who you are and what your role is. This can be done implicitly through decoration and adornments (including colors, patterns, and textures), but also explicitly through posters and post-its. Try having mood and vision boards.

• Contains illumination that is just right. Straining to see or overexposing to an unnerving degree is no good. Lights should be in the tone, intensity, angle, and coverage that allows you to do you. If they can be inspiring and indulging too, that is a plus. E.g., neons, outer space, underwater, fairy lights, etc.

• Takes other senses into account, like smell. No scents or scents that are pleasant to you. The latter is catered to in a wide range of aromas via soap and wax items. But you can bring in natural objects like rocks, plants, and fruits. Or just spray something artificial every now and then.

• Allows you to have control over the sounds. So you can leave unwanted noises out and choose what fills up the silence inside.

You may now notice that your space isn’t yet all that it can be, but go at your pace. You can tend to it by bits, improving it little by little. Until it becomes your ideal haven.

You might be particularly fulfilled by devoting to this if you previously endured significantly harmful settings that kept you down. It's as if you finally get to live your life on your own terms and make your world yours.