How to Feng Shui a Workstation
You don’t have to be a Californian to use feng shui, the ancient Chinese philosophy or arranging one’s home or office to create a harmonious environment. While consultants with specialized training can help you rearrange your workplace so that you can work efficiently, you can do some basic things yourself to boost your productivity and get home early on Fridays.Feng shui means “wind” and “water.” It has been traced back to 3,300 B.C., when the eight trigrams, an esoteric aspect of feng shui, were devised. The first book on feng shui was "The Green Satchel," written sometime between 221 and 207 B.C.Popular in eastern China where many ethnic Chinese live, feng shui is still so favored in Hong Kong and Singapore that corporations routinely consult feng shui experts before building or renovating offices. Let’s apply some basic guidelines to feng shui your workstation.
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Instructions
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Place your chair so that you can see who is entering your workstation. Whether you sit in a cubicle, a cluster of desks that forms an arc or your own office, sit where you can always see who is entering your space. Literally keep your back covered. Sitting with your back exposed to the doorway or cubicle entrance enables every visitor to surprise you. This is disruptive and can create a subtle sense of insecurity, as you cannot see behind you while you are engrossed with your work in front of you.
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Remove “shars.” This term is translated loosely as sharp objects, or areas where chi (energy) cannot flow because it becomes “pricked” by the sharp object. An example is having scissors or a letter opener pointing outward toward you, or having any plant with thin, pointy leaves that literally “prick” the chi around your workspace. Remove these sharp objects or place them in drawers or on bookshelves.
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Observe the five element theory in selecting shapes and colors for your workplace. The five elements are wood, fire, water, earth and metal. For a workspace, emphasize wood to signify growth. Emphasize stability by choosing items that are yellow, cream-colored, beige, or made from stone or terra-cotta.Use pink, red, purple and peach colors (sparingly) to signify the fire element and yang energy: upward moving, as in the season of spring.
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Remove clutter and trash. Though obvious, this bears mentioning. Consider assigning every Friday as a day to toss out old coffee cups, candy wrappers and magazines and recycle unneeded papers. You will be able to concentrate when you don’t have to dig through a month’s worth of magazines on your desk. Make a habit of throwing food waste in a trash receptacle away from your desk. If that’s not practical, at least tie up the item in a plastic bag before throwing it away. If you have the luxury of a nightly cleaning crew, all the better. If not, Monday’s banana peel will be sitting in your trash until Friday when you toss it all out. Enough said.
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Bring in plants that have round or pear-shaped leaves. In Chinese five element theory, plants represent wood (the plant) and earth (the soil). Adding plants creates a visual break for computer-weary eyes, but is also designed to improve health, according to feng shui principles. Rather than cacti, think small ivies or geraniums. Place these plants away from your immediate workspace so you don’t risk tumbling the planter and soil on top of your work.
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Move all chairs so that their occupants can face the door sideways, if not forward. Visitors won't want to come in and sit at your desk leaving their back exposed, either. Instead, place their chairs so that they face each other. People sitting in them should be able to easily turn to the side to see who enters your space.Observe your own intuition. While feng shui is a complex art and science, you also can notice your gut feelings about how you feel at your workspace. Just as when you are at home, you can generally sense when it is time to do a “spring cleaning” and sweep, clean and reorganize. By doing so, you change your external environment, creating order and harmony, so that your mental environment is free of clutter, too.
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