It is an age-old adage in India that a clean desk is the mark of a clean mind.
What they meant was that the external environment was a direct result of our state of mind. As with other such things, the reverse is as much true. Our external environment can have an impact on not just our mood but can even impact behavior.
Take for example, the experiment being done in Berlin’s Hermannstrasse train station. This station is a known place for criminal and anti-social activities. The experiment is about using atonal music to subdue criminal activities. Psychological studies have shown that, to non-expert listeners, listening to atonal music can raise blood pressure, and increase agitation and anxiety. The railway hopes that this will discourage people from lingering and thereby reducing crime.
Another example is the one being tried at the railway stations in Montreal and London. They have also experimented with playing music in underground railways stations, in a bid to influence the behaviour of visitors. But in both of these examples, classical music is played in an attempt to reduce antisocial behaviour. The thinking is that harmonious music helps to diffuse tension. Most elevators, airports, bus terminals use music to affect our behaviour.
It is a well-known fact that the design of a space has a big impact on the way people interact within that space. This is the reason why some places feel extremely cozy and some places makes us feel antagonistic.
What I am trying to drive home here is the following:
By consciously designing our environment, we can have a big impact on how we behave and vice versa.
This is the reason why we need to be intentional about designing our environment. Some questions we need to think are
- What colours do we surround ourselves with. You can learn about the impact of colour on our behaviour here.
- What kind of smell do we want around us?
- What kind of workspace do we want?
- What kind of soundscapes do we want?
Each one of these elements can be changed to suit the kind of work that we are trying to do. For example, the environment that you want to be surrounded when you do routine stuff needs to be very different from the environment where you want to do creative work. When we learn of the impact that each element of the environment has on our work, we can then become intentional in designing the right environment for the right kind of work.
In Conclusion:
We might be in situations where we might not be able to control everything in our environment, but knowing what works best for the kind of work that we are expecting to do, we can at least design some part of environment that will have a positive impact on our work.
