Last weekend I spent time with some of my NSA colleagues at beautiful High Point University in High Point, North Carolina. If you’ve never been there, it looks like a combination of a high-end resort, a traditional college campus, and Disney World. During our visit, High Point President Dr. Nido Qubein shared how he turned High Point from a small local college into the prestigious center of higher learning that it is today. One of the things he stressed was the effort and money the University spent on improving campus facilities and WHY. He believes, and research backs him up, that we are a product of and respond to our environment. If our environment is beautiful, clean, and organized, we will have more pride in ourselves, be more productive and achieve more.
As soon as I got home from High Point, I started looking at my work environment. Although I have an office upstairs, it’s sort of become a storage room, so I spend most of my time working at the coffee table in the family room. I have an office-worth of disorganized “stuff” on and around the table. I am frequently distracted by pets, the doorbell, and everything else that’s going on around me. The next day, I went to Staples and bought a desk and a super-comfy office chair. I set up my own office in one of our spare guest rooms. I removed other items and set up my desk by the window. Starting today, I’ll get up in the morning, shower, get my coffee and really “go to work,” where I’ll stay until the work day is over. I’m predicting a great increase in my productivity. I’m predicting that I’ll feel better about myself and my work. I’m also predicting that I’ll have better work/life balance because I plan to leave my computer and my work at the office when I “go home” at the end of the day.
This week, take a look around you at your work environment. Is it supporting your success? If the answer is no, it’s time to take action to clean up your act and make your environment one that better reflects who you are and where you want to be in life.
