Curate your environment

Our work environment impacts our productivity more than you might realize. Even subtle details have far-reaching impacts. For example, imagine working in 85-degree heat or outside in high winds or working on a hardwood floor without a chair or desk. Working in these environments might be doable, but they’re definitely not optimal. While these are extreme examples to prove a point, even subtle variations can affect comfort, distractions, and even cognition.

Like most aspects of improving focus, the facets of your environment that matter become more obvious when you clearly define what focus and productivity mean for your role. As a software developer, the deep work of shipping high-quality software is most important. Sure there are other aspects of the work like communication that contribute, but they’re secondary to shipping software. So the ideal environment fosters focus on the act of creating and shipping working code. We’ll talk about ideal environment based on that context.

You can make many of these changes on your own, but some may require approval or buy-in from management. For example, it’s unlikely an open-office company is going to convert to private offices overnight or make similar sweeping changes, but there are still other improvements that can be made and have an impact.

Prioritize physical comfort

Let’s start with physical comfort. At the simplest level, your chair and desk have the most direct impact on your comfort. A creaky or broken chair can be its own distraction. Or a chair with poor breathability can make you uncomfortably hot. Alternatively, a chair with too little or too much cushion can be uncomfortable as well. Standing desks can help, but standing all day isn’t great for you either. It’s not either sitting or standing that’s problematic. You want to avoid staying in one position for too long. In an ideal world, you balance your day between sitting and standing. In general, the more we move, the better off our bodies are.

Given the amount of time software developers spend at a desk, it’s worth it to take time and learn about ergonomics, and the sooner in your career you pay attention to ergonomics and optimize your work area accordingly, the better off you’ll be. Learn the correct height for your desk chair based on your body size. Use a keyboard that’s comfortable for extended typing. Get your monitor at the correct height. Try to maintain good posture. These are easy wins and, by helping avoid pain and discomfort, they’ll enable focus and increase productivity.

Temperature and humidity play an outsized role in our comfort. We’ve all been in an office that’s uncomfortably warm or cool. It turns out that the optimal temperature for productivity is around 72-76 degrees. And gender can even play a role due to metabolism differences; women tend to be more comfortable at warmer temperatures on that range. Adjusting the temperature in a group office environment isn’t always an option, so the best solution here is to keep extra layers of clothing to help you stay just warm enough without getting too hot. You may already be doing this, but you may not realize that it can play a role in your ability to focus. Of course, this is another case where private offices with individual climate control are ideal.

Humidity is another tricky one. It’s not always easy to adjust humidity, but the ideal humidity range is around 40-60%. Any lower, and it can create issues with dust and allergens. Any higher, and you’re creating an environment conducive to mold. A humidifier can help, but, depending on your local climate, can be challenging to manage and can almost be a distraction unto itself. Moreover, ultrasonic humidifiers can lower the air quality if you don’t use distilled water. So you end up trading one problem for another.

On that note, we should talk about air quality as well. When it comes to creativity and cognitive abilities, poor air quality can negate all of the other gains.

Poor air quality can hurt productivity

Air quality is likely one of the most underrated ways to improve our ability to focus. On the obvious end of the spectrum, a smoke-filled office would make it difficult to work, but more subtle changes can still have an impact. Temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide and other gasses all have measurable impacts on our mental facilities. And open offices have shown to lead to an increase in sick leave as germs spread more easily on surfaces and through the air. But problems with air quality aren’t limited to shared offices. With remote work, air quality can be just as significant of a problem at home, especially if you’re in new construction without proper ventilation.

Carbon dioxide is considered an indoor pollutant, and, over the course of a day, if your workspace has poor ventilation, carbon dioxide accumulates to significant levels. Too much carbon dioxide can actually lower your ability to concentrate. The symptoms and effects are very similar to being tired, but taking a nap won’t help. In addition to carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) can be problematic as well, especially in new construction. With new materials, offgassing can lead to an increase in volatile organic compounds. Add dust and allergens to the mix, and you’ll start to get a picture of how much air quality can play a role in comfort.

A study from 2015 “found statistically significant declines in cognitive function scores when CO2 concentrations were increased to levels that are common in indoor spaces.” They found similar declines with elevated VOC concentrations. Similarly, dust, allergens, and mold can lead to other health problems that interfere with our productivity.

Because you won’t necessarily feel obvious effects of air quality issues, the best way to know is to monitor and measure it. There are quite a few options for monitoring and testing air quality, and it can get rather expensive. An Awair is a fairly cost-effective monitoring solution that gives you good coverage of potential air quality issues and does a nice job presenting it in a human-friendly way. Then, based on the results of your monitoring, you can begin to take steps to improve your air quality if necessary.

At the simplest level, it may just be that you need to open a window for a little bit each day to get some fresh air. Or, you may want to add an air purifier or humidifier to your workspace. Alternatively, adding plants can help as well. NASA even performed a study to identify which plants do the best job of improving air quality.

Air quality can be tricky though because it’s often about tradeoffs. For example, opening a window when it’s either incredibly hot or incredibly cold outside will ruin the temperature of your environment. Alternatively, it could bring in allergens from outside in some seasons. Or, if it’s drier outside, opening a window could decrease your inside humidity too much. Using an ultrasonic humidifier can increase humidity but it will likely lower your air quality. It can all be a black hole of optimization and counter-optimization. So don’t get too carried away aiming for perfection. Instead, focus on addressing the worst offenders, and then get back to work.

Once you’re physically comfortable, you can start thinking about how to reduce distractions and interruptions that can pull you from the zone.

Remove and reduce distractions

Your environment should minimize visual and auditory distractions. Those could be the result of people shuffling around, phones ringing, construction equipment, or anything that pulls you out of the zone. Humans are naturally hyper-aware of our surroundings. Our peripheral vision is particularly strong, and movement outside of our line of sight can be incredibly distracting. When even a momentary distraction can take you out of the zone and break your concentration, these considerations matter.

A noise proof box without windows may be ideal from the standpoint of distractions, but natural light and some ventilation can be important as well. So instead of removing windows, a better solution would be to position yourself so that windows aren’t in your line of sight and don’t create reflections on your screen. Glare isn’t always easy to avoid, but it’s worth trying too see if you can minimize it. Or, if there’s no way to avoid having windows in your line of sight, maybe adding or using window blinds can help.

Getting your desk area and workspace clean and organized can work wonders as well. Every unnecessary item on your desk can tug on your attention and diminish your willpower. The cleaner and more organized your desk is, the easier it is for you to find the items you need without skipping a beat. If you have to dig through a pile of papers to find your pencil and sketch pad, you’re setting yourself up for distraction.

We often don’t pay enough attention to the micro-distractions that arise from problems in our environment. While it’s not necessary to create a perfectly distraction-free environment, reducing distractions and increasing our ability to focus by making small changes can have significant effects. That collection of small improvements begins to have compounding effects quickly because we spend so much time at our desks.

Your next steps

1. Position your desk to reduce visual distractions.
2. Get a pair of good noise-cancelling headphones.
3. Remove clutter and get your workspace organized so that necessary items are readily available and convenient to access.
4. Ensure you have a trash can and paper shredder nearby so disposable items don’t accumulate on your desk.
5. Keep supplies stocked and handy (paper, chargers, pen/pencil, scissors, etc.).
6. Monitor your air quality (if you think it’s a potential issue).
7. Open windows to let in some fresh air in the afternoon.
8. Dust and vacuum regularly.
9. Ensure you have good ventilation either through opening windows or an HRV system.
10. Get a private office where you can close the door and shut out distractions.
11. If possible, add plants to your office to help with air quality and affect.
12. Set your temperature between 71 and 78 degrees and keep light layers of clothing nearby to help you manage when it’s too cold.
13. Keep snacks handy to keep hunger at bay without getting distracted.
14. Research ergonomics, and invest in a comfortable chair and desk.