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When it comes to improving productivity in the workplace, much of the advice we hear centers around the mindset or motivation of the individual in question — advice like “You need to set goals for yourself,” or “You need to focus on your passion,” or “You need to meticulously plan every portion of your day down to the millisecond.”

And while such advice can potentially be helpful, there’s one aspect of improving productivity that we often overlook: our environments. As Dr. B.J. Fogg, Director of Stanford’s Persuasive Tech Lab once noted:

“There’s just one way to radically change your behavior: radically change your environment.”

In the list below, we’ve highlighted some of the best tips and tricks you can use to create a space that’s not only pleasant to work in, but that actually helps to improve your productivity. True, not every suggestion will be applicable to everyone’s unique work situation, but hopefully you’ll be able to come away with some useful ideas.

7 Tips for Making Your Workspace a Den of Productivity

1) Let the sun shine.

Assuming you’re not a vampire, letting plenty of daylight shine into your workspace is a proven way to increase your productivity, not to mention your overall mood and well-being.

While there are many studies that have linked sunlight to productivity in the workplace, one study in particular — “Impact of Workplace Daylight Exposure on Sleep, Physical Activity, and Quality of Life” — is especially compelling. To quote the study’s abstract:

Compared to the group with no windows, workers with windows in the workplace had 173% more white light exposure during the workday and slept an average of 47 minutes more per night. There was also a trend for workers with windows to have more activity and higher sleep efficiency than those without windows.”

Unfortunately, not every workspace is going to have a ton of natural light shining in. One potential solution? Invest in smart LED lighting (e.g., Osram or Philips Hue) that mimics natural sunlight and can help maintain your body’s circadian rhythm.

2) Keep warm and carry on.

In a perfect scenario, you’ll be able to control the temperature of your workspace so that it’s aligned with your ideal comfort level.

If you work in an office, of course, this usually isn’t possible. But you still might get a say as to what temperature the almighty office thermostat is set to. If that’s the case, remember these words: Warmer. Is. Better.

As a study from Cornell University showed, temperatures below 68 degrees Fahrenheit lead to more errors and lower productivity. Temperatures above 68 degrees, meanwhile, have the opposite effect. To quote the study:

When the office temperature in a month-long study increased from 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit, typing errors fell by 44% and typing output jumped 150%.”

(Check out this post for 16 hacks that’ll help you deal with unruly office temperatures.)

3) Pick the right music (or opt for no music at all).

For many of us, there’s no better way to get into “work mode” than to slap on some noise-canceling headphones and blast our favorite tunes. And there are a ton of productivity studies out there to back the effectiveness of this approach. 

Trouble is, it can be hard to nail down just the right tunes to get the wheels turning. So if you’re struggling to find the perfect playlist, check out this post. It contains a bunch of interesting research around different types of music that can be used to boost your productivity — from classical to video game soundtracks.

Music doesn’t do the trick for you? That’s okay. In fact, there’s also some contrasting research out there that argues that music can actually be too distracting. If you find it’s too hard to concentrate with music playing, try embracing silence. Or, try listening to music before you get to work, which can help you get pumped up for the task at hand.

4) Go green.

Have an empty spot on your desk and can’t decide what to stick there? My suggestion: Don’t go with another tchotchke, or another framed photo of your cat (seven is enough, Tyler, I’m starting to worry about you). Instead, go with a fern, a cactus, a Venus flytrap, or some other plant.

According to a 2014 study, incorporating plants into a workspace can increase productivity by 15%. As the study’s co-author, Alex Haslam, told Entrepreneur:

The findings suggest that investing in landscaping an office will pay off through an increase in office workers’ quality of life and productivity … Modern offices and desks have been stripped back to create sparse spaces — our findings question this widespread theory that less is more. Sometimes less is just less.”

5) Add some yellow accents.

Most offices are awash with grays and other neutral tones. And while such a color scheme can help create an environment that isn’t too distracting, it simultaneously fails to provide much in the way of stimulation.

In the world of color theory, red is often hailed as the most stimulating color. However, red also carries with it some strong negative connotations, particularly aggression. A superior color for making your workspace more energizing is yellow, which packs the same productive punch as red without the negativity.

As the President of the International Association of Color Consultants/Designers, Frank Mahnke, wrote in his book Color, Environment, & Human Response:

... [yellow] is cheerful, high-spirited, and suggestive of the life-giving sun. It represents a bright future, hope, wisdom, and it is expansive — not earthbound.”

So if you’re looking for some new artwork for your workspace, or perhaps a new pot for your Venus flytrap, going with something with lots of yellow is probably your best bet from a productivity standpoint.

6) Feng shui your desk.

Feng shui is the ancient Chinese art of arranging objects to create a more harmonious, positive environment. While often applied to the realm of interior design, especially in regards to furniture placement, there’s no reason why you can’t apply those same feng shui principles to your desk.

One of the main tools used in feng shui is feng shui bagua, which is essentially an “energy map” that shows how different spaces are connected to particular parts of your life. In order to apply feng shui bagua to your desk, you can follow the diagram below:

(Source: Feng Shui & Beyond)

Note: While it’s unclear whether feng shui actually works, research does show that de-cluttering your desk can help improve focus as well as your ability to process information.

7) Use (at least) two monitors.

Did you know that the simple act of giving every employee an extra monitor once helped a customer service department reduce their average time per call by 12%?

Ultimately, using two monitors gives you a larger digital space to work in, which makes moving between different browser tabs and applications much easier. And while having two monitors on your desk will add some clutter and could take away from the zen setup you might be going for, the utility of having two monitors in your workspace will likely outweigh any aesthetic displeasure.

Have any other suggestions for how you can turn a workspace into a den of productivity? Leave a comment below.

Many organizations know that building a brand identity is critical for any business. That brand identity includes what your brand says and what its values are. But how many of these organizations actually deliver on their brand promise?

Not nearly enough, according to a study on brand experience by Brandworkz and CIM. The study surveyed 2,200 marketing leaders all over the world about the challenges, opportunities, and best practices for aligning brand promise and customer experience.

What they found was that only 53% of respondents said their organization had internal-external brand alignment, and only 37% believe all employees understand how they can deliver the brand promise to the customer. Even though most organizations promote brand experience internally, they aren’t delivering that brand promise to their customers.

But the staff themselves aren’t necessarily to blame: They also found that many senior leaders don’t appreciate the power of brand, and don’t train folks to prioritize it.

Check out the infographic below from MarketingProfs to learn more about the findings of this study. It covers how marketers around the world feel about brand alignment in their organizations, why aligning your employees behind your brand is crucial, where organizations might be able to improve, and more.

Redesigning your website is a great way to get a fresh start. But how do you know when it’s actually time to get the ball rolling on an overhaul? 

Many times, a redesign begins when an executive or marketer begins to feel like the website is outdated. This can especially be true if a competitor, or someone in an adjacent industry recently redesigned their site. 

To help shed some light on how businesses look at redesign frequency, we surveyed 6,000+ HubSpot customers about their redesign plans for the future. The results revealed some interesting trends that should help you determine when to start your own project.

A Look Into the Redesign Timelines of 6K+ Businesses

Of the 6,000+ companies that answered the survey, 57% told us of their plans to redesign this year. That’s 3,500 website redesigns from this survey group alone.

Here’s the breakdown of specifically when marketers are planning to redesign:

The last time we surveyed our customers, their redesign timeline was within 18-24 months. Why the shift in frequency? Well, when you think about how much your business has changed in that timeframe, this shift becomes much easier to understand. As you learn more about your audience, gather feedback from visitors, and develop a better sense of how certain pages are performing, design needs begin to crop up more often. 

Beyond general redesign timelines, we also looked at how redesign timeframes compare by industry. There were over 40 industries captured in this survey, but here are the top three:

1. Software
2. Marketing Services
3. Consulting / Advisory

How does the redesign timeframe breakdown by industry? Let’s take a closer look …

Software / SaaS

Marketing Services

Consulting / Advisory

What can we learn from these timeframes? How can we apply these findings to our own business? There are a few lessons here, starting with when you can start your next website redesign. Let’s dive in.

When Should You Start Thinking About Your Next Website Redesign? 

Of the 40 different industries captured by this survey, software companies are redesigning most often, while construction/building materials companies seem to be redesigning least often.

When should you start thinking about your next website redesign? It depends.

While there’s no one perfect universal answer, we’d recommend that you begin planning your redesign anywhere between 90-120 days before you’d like to launch it. Again, this is simply a general guideline. The larger — and more complex — your plans are, the more time you should allow. 

To get a better sense of timeline, we’d recommend defining your strategy and then determine your goals of the new website. Once you nail down your goals, you can begin to plan your redesign needs and develop an approximate sense of timeline.

There’s a Better Way to Redesign Your Website

Many website redesigns take 3-4 months, have a moderate up-front cost, and don’t guarantee success. In fact, 1/3 of marketers are unhappy with their last website redesign. 

Growth-Driven Design helps address many of these key issues with a traditional website redesign, and ensures that your next website will be connected to — and help drive — results.

This approach to design fundamentally starts with an initial version of your new website, and layers in testing and heatmapping. This allows you to quickly iterate from the feedback you are receiving. For example, let’s say you’re a software business looking to drive trials of your product through your homepage CTA. To get the best results, you could test CTA colors, location, size, and so on, and make a design decision based on the results. 

In other words, your redesign will truly never be complete. Instead, you’ll be continuously iterating based on data from visitors to ensure that you’re delivering the best experience possible. Pretty cool, right? (Learn more about Growth-Driven Design (GDD) here.)

When did you last redesign your website? When are you planning to redesign your website next? Let us know in the comment section below.