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Eliminating Stress from Your Environment
If your living and working environments are badly organized then
they can be a major source of stress. If you have made them well-organised
and pleasant, then they can help to reduce stress and increase
productivity. Remember though that while it may be important for
people under stress to have a calm environment, others may enjoy
the raised levels of arousal associated with the 'buzz' of a busy
office.
Individually the points listed below may contribute only in a
small way to creating a more pleasant environment. Taken together,
however, they can have a significant effect in reducing stress:
Air quality
Poor air quality can make life unpleasant. The following factors can contribute
to the problem:
- Smoking
- Air conditioning
- Heating
- Ionization by electrical equipment
- Overcrowding
- Pollution
- Solvents in e.g. carpets and furniture
- Excess humidity or dryness
You can do a number of things to improve air quality and reduce
the stress caused by it:
- Ban smoking (if it isn't already illegal in public places in your country)
- Open windows
- Use an ionizer. This helps to freshen the air by eliminating
positive ions created by e.g. electric motors powering computer
fans.
- Use dehumidifiers where humidity is a problem
- Introduce plants where the air is too dry. Evaporation of water
from the plant pots or from the plants themselves will help to
raise humidity. Plants also raise the amount of oxygen in the
air and reduce stuffiness. Plants can also help to mop up unpleasant
chemicals in the air.
Lighting
Bad lighting can cause eye strain and increase fatigue, as can light that is
too bright, or light that shines directly into your eyes. Fluorescent lighting
can also be tiring.
What you may not appreciate is that the quality of light may also
be important. Most people are happiest in bright sunshine - this
may cause release of chemicals in the body that bring a feeling
of emotional well-being. Artificial light, which typically comprises
only a few wavelengths of light, does not seem to have the same
effect on mood that sunlight has.
Try experimenting with working by a window or using full spectrum
bulbs in your desk lamp. You will probably find that this improves
the quality of your working environment.
Decoration and tidiness
If your environment at work or home is dirty, uncomfortable or neglected, then
this can cause stress. Similarly if your living or working area is untidy
and chaotic, then this can be distracting.
It is important, however, not to be dogmatic about tidiness: while
it is very difficult to successfully coordinate many tasks in an
untidy work area, it is perfectly possible to work on one task
very effectively. The recent trend of 'clear desk' thinking ignores
one of the most important lessons about human beings: that different
people work most effectively in different ways.
Noise
Noise can cause intense stress.
In a working environment a high level of background noise can
severely impair your ability to concentrate. In an open plan office,
the sound of people talking casually, of office machinery, or of
meetings going on can undermine the quality of work done. Ringing
telephones disturb not only the person to whom the call is directed,
but also other people in the same area.
Large amounts of background noise during the day can cause irritability,
tension and headaches in addition to loss of concentration.
Solutions to noise at work can involve:
- installation of partitions to deaden sound
- use of meeting rooms separate from the main work area
- use of quiet rooms when concentration is needed
- and, if all else fails, use of earplugs!
In a home environment, unwanted noise can be even more stressful
and irritating as it intrudes on private space.
Where noise comes from neighbors or someone sharing the house,
it may be effective to try a pleasantly assertive approach. Ask
that music is turned down or that a different room be used as a
child's nursery.
Where noise comes from outside the home, double glazing may be
effective in reducing it.
Furniture & Ergonomics
Another source of stress is muscular tension and pain caused by bad furniture,
or by bad use of good furniture.
This normally shows itself in backache caused by badly designed
chairs or by bad seating positions in properly designed chairs,
although it can come about in other ways. It is important to take
the time to arrange your working environment so that it is comfortable.
For example, when you consider that you may spend a large proportion
of each day sitting in a particular seat, it is worth ensuring
that it is not causing you pain or damaging your body.
If you work at a computer, then make sure that the monitor and
keyboard are comfortably placed, and that you are well-positioned
relative to them. If you find that tendons in your hands get sore
when you type for sustained periods, then it may be worth experimenting
with a 'natural' or ergonomic keyboard. If you find that your eyes
get sore when looking at a monitor, or that you start to get headaches,
then try taking breaks periodically.
If you feel that you are experiencing pain from your environment,
it may be worth looking into ergonomics in more detail.
Personal space
It is also important for people to feel that they have sufficient personal
space at work and at home. You may have experienced the dissatisfaction,
stress and irritation of working at a different desk each day, or of sleeping
in a different hotel room each night. This unpleasant situation is largely
caused by the lack of power or time to organize and control the space in
which you operate.
Other people can also cause you stress when they impose themselves
on your personal space, perhaps entering it uninvited.
The ideal way of establishing personal space is to have a room
or office of your own, into which you control access. If this is
not possible, you can block off areas with furniture, screens or
blinds.
You may be in the unpleasant situation where no personal space
is available. In this case you can establish some feeling of ownership
by bringing objects such as small plants or photographs of loved-ones
into the workspace.
Key points:
You can often significantly reduce stress by improving the quality
of your environment. The following actions can significantly reduce
environmental stress:
- improving air quality
- introducing plants
- improving lighting
- maintaining a reasonably decorated, tidy environment
- baffling noise where possible
- ensuring that furniture is well-positioned and comfortable
You can do most of these things at relatively little cost. Taken
together, they can have a major effect on your stress levels.
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