Where do you work?

Whether you work in your home office, on the back patio, from your phone in between other things, or in the office your business owns/rents… the space you use for your work and the tone it has, changes the way you engage with what you do. If you ARE someone who works in a variety of locations, you know what I mean! If you’re doing some tasks from your tablet on the treadmill at the gym, you’re going to have a totally different tone than working in the coffee shop you frequent for lunch time.

And these exterior places are amazing ways to change the way you view your work and engage with it – but if you don’t have a branded, intentional, devoted place, whether it’s in your home or an independent office… and you’re feeling a little bit stagnant in your work… it might be time to make space.

You know the feeling I’m talking about.

That stagnation doesn’t have to be the new normal – but even if you’re not feeling it NOW, you probably know the feeling I’m talking about. Your energy sits in the wrong place, it feels like something needs to change – but you can’t quite put your finger on what. Maybe you can’t focus, either – and motivation comes slowly and less frequently. And when you get that feeling about your livingroom, what do you do?

Well, you move things around, of course! Or you give it a solid tidy, depending on how things generally run in your home. A clean is as good as a shopping trip, sometimes… (I’m not judging, my house is like that too, from time to time!)

But once you’ve done that tidy, or reshuffle of the furniture, it feels fresh, it feels new, and it feels like you’ve been (and can continue being) productive. This is especially true when that space is full of things that bring you joy!

You need a space for Admin

So giving your business its own space in your home, where you can get into the right tone for working, keep yourself organised, and give yourself a space devoted to the tone you need to lean into to be as productive, efficient, and creative as possible… it’s a huge move, and it’s one I think everyone with a business should make!

It doesn’t have to be complicated – it can be a specific corner of your livingroom. Now, that’s not going to be the case (obviously) if you’re a glassblower, and you need a space where you can… well, blow glass. A corner of your livingroom isn’t a reasonable choice. But for most business owners, if you do art that needs to happen in a studio, I’d STILL recommend having somewhere you can do your admin! And that’s where that livingroom corner comes in. By the way, I don’t like mean, LITERALLY, the corner of your livingroom. I mean think creatively about how you can work a space into your home, you might be able to do it more easily than you initially think!

Remove barriers to work

Once you’ve got your space, it’s time to remove barriers. Because if you’re anything like me, this space needs to be set up so that it’s not only motivating, and helps you root into the right vibe – is also needs to be as easy as humanly possible to get started on your administrative tasks. Admin isn’t really where most artists and creative business owners (let alone neurodivergent adult women) shine. If you can get into the zone, then sure – you can smash through all the admin, in record time! But the “getting started” part… that’s where it’s difficult.

So think about what stops you from… well, starting. What excuses do you make? Is it about setting up your laptop? Pulling together your receipts? I think you know where I’m going with this – if some of the excuses you use are about setting up your laptop, then… get yourself a docking station, and leave it set up! Or just make it simpler to take those steps. Get creative with this – no matter what the barrier is, you can accommodate yourself through it.

Curating the Vibe

Once you’ve picked a space, and eliminated some barriers to you getting things done… it’s time to think about the vibe! And I mean it’s totally fair to think about that ahead of now too, even when you’re picking the location in your home at the start. But thinking about it TOO early might limit the options you give yourself for a space to use! And we definitely don’t want that – if you HAVE a space with a tone that you know is going to be helpful – maybe lots of natural light, for example – then you can totally take that into account and use that space due to the vibes.

But sometimes it can prevent people from picking a place, because there isn’t an obvious location that has the tone they’re going for. So instead, we don’t worry about this side of things until we’ve picked a space, and then we MAKE it the right tone! How do we do that? Curation.

The same way we curate your brand, we can curate your space so that it feels the way it needs to, to help you get things done.

Finding your decor

Part of curating your vibe, is choosing the decor you’re going to use in your space! Now, even if it’s a small corner of a room, or a desk that folds into the wall – you STILL have decorating options in that space! If you’re struggling to lean into decorating tones that feel like they’re going to get you in the right mood for your work, I recommend popping onto Pinterest. It’s my favourite place to get ideas for decorating and more – and I’ve even got some boards that can help you design your spaces for different tones!

Even if you don’t have a ton of space to work with, think about whether you can use a piece of art – consider whether you’re going to have video meetings, and think about how you can subtly shift your background to work well for that.

Finding what works for YOU is paramount.

When it comes to actually describing what’s going to be motivational in your space, and what’s going to break down barriers for you… unfortunately, I can’t. That’s on you, babes. What works for me, might not work for you, and what works for you, might not work for someone else. The way we engage with our spaces is unique to us, our relationships with “stuff”, and the way our brains process things like colour and clutter.

For example, I need to be surrounded by things that remind me of happiness while I’m working. It’s comforting, and makes me feel cozy in my space. But you might look at those same items and go “EW, CLUTTER” and immediately feel the need to make them go away into organized little pockets or drawers.

So the point here, is you need to find what works for YOU. Not copy what works for me!

Looking for unique ways to bring your brand into your space?

When you’re doing all of this decorating, it’s a good plan to consider how you can bring in your branding, through signage, colour, textures, tone, and more. And if that’s something you’re looking for a little support with, reach out! Let me know. I’d love to talk through how you can take your working space, and make it into a haven for your mindset – no matter the size!