So over the past few weeks, I have been making adjustments to my living space. Mounting a mirror here, a shelf there, cleaning out and rearranging furniture, reorganising my shelves and storage spaces. It has been a fun project that will be ongoing for a while (I have many plans).

It has also got me going down the YouTube rabbit hole of interior design inspiration and space transformations. It even got an old friend hitting me up, encouraging me to get back into spatial design!

Anyway, as I do all this, I'm recognising different knock-on effects. For one, I find myself feeling better and happier about my space as I invest in it. I am a lot more considered about how I use and function in a space. I'm now always looking for ways to optimise every day activities. As I improve my environment, I think also about my processes, how I work, how I rest.

Life by design

The whole idea of life by design is learning to infuse every part of our being with intentionality. being deliberate about what we do and how we do it. A huge part of that is predicated on the spaces we inhabit. There is a reason there is an industries and professionals around the creation and maintaining of physical spaces. It is essential to our functioning as a species.

Our environment can make or break us. They can affect our mood, our health, our sense of wellbeing. They can hinder progress, and encourage bad destructive habits. Or they can support us, making it easier for us to get things done or even prompting us to take our habits more seriously.

The environment we live in is not just the actual physical spaces we dwell in, but also the people and the company we keep, the information and media we absorb, and now more than ever, the digital spaces we occupy. All of these things combine to provide the context in which we live our lives and they influence every thought, feeling and action we take.

If we took the time to observe ourselves, we would probably realise that we probably only do certain things in certain places or around certain people. Maybe chilling with a certain friend just makes it easier to drink way more than you should. Perhaps working from the coffee shop down the road allows us to reach flow much easier than working at home. The more attention we pay to the external influences in our lives, the better we will be at making sure they are working for us as opposed to against us.

Objects have power

In redesigning my space, I have done a couple of things. One of the things I've been in the process of doing is replacing almost every piece of furniture I have. Most of the things I have, I've had for at least 7 years plus. Relics from a younger and scrappier era. A second hand bed I bought off a friend who was moving houses, a desk I took off another friend's hands, the bookshelf I bought when I moved to my first apartment over 10 years ago, The TV I've been using as a second screen for a decade. All these things served me well, but at this point, a grown man with a mismatch of pieces, some of them falling apart, seeing and using these things did not inspire me with a sense of awe or make me feel like I was moving forward. They were just icky and I had outgrown them all.

Everything we see and absorb and interact with has an effect on our thoughts, our subconscious, our intention and our actions, and definitely our results. If we are able to surround ourselves with objects and possessions that truly spark joy, we are left with an abiding feeling of inspiration and possibilities.

Not to say you have to go all out now and spend a fortune improving and upgrading your space. You do not have to do it all at once, you can take it step by step. Buy a new desk this month, and then a shelf the next, etc. Or simply just reorganise your space. The point is to be intentional about our spaces, and get creative and open-minded as to the potential.

And in these days where most of us are working from home anyway, we should be doing what we can to make our paces are supportive as possible.

Here are some general principles and ideas to think about when improving your space.

Think about what you already do and what you want to achieve.

What is your routine like right now? What things do you need to get done on daily, weekly basis? What goals are important to you right now? How can you make your environment support that? Do you need to create dedicated areas for specific tasks? For your work or your hobby, or that special project? For instance, maybe you want to read more, it could help to have your books neatly arranged within reach of your favourite chair, or you create a reading nook with a comfortable place to relax and dig into a book.

Set up your space in a way that reduces friction

Friction is the resistance that blocks you from doing what you need to. You reduce it by making it easy to do what you need to do. For example, there is the popular advice of having your workout clothes next to the bed when you sleep so you can get right into them when you wake up and go for a run or whatever. You make it easier to work out by reducing the friction of finding your clothes. Some people even take it as far as sleeping in their work out clothes.

Another way to reduce friction is simply by bringing the necessary tools closer at hand.

I wanted to get more frequent with my workouts, so just before the first lockdown, I got a few pieces of equipment - the fitness tower being the main highlight. Previously I'd be lucky to get to the gym to get a workout in once a week. Now I find myself working out multiple times a week easily. Having the resources and dedicated space for it easily at hand reduces that friction massively.

Make it beautiful

Aesthetics are important. Beautiful spaces just make you feel good. A space that looks good and is functional will do wonders for your mood and orientation while you are in that space. It can even influence how you feel about and view yourself. So make it beautiful and inspirational.

Look around for ideas, there's a ton of it out there. Figure out the style you are partial to and bring that in to your space. Even small tweaks and improvements like scents, light, candles, pictures, etc can make a massive impact. I tilted one of my bookshelves by 45 degrees and it made such a huge difference in the space and my access to those books.

Optimise your productive space

Most of us have to work from home in some capacity, or at least have a space at home to be productive at outside work hours. This could be the place we prep for work, help the kids study, whatever. We probably already have such spaces set up already, but there is probably also a lot that we can do to improve and make it even better.

Think about what you need to do to get your work done and set up the space to support all of that and make it easier for you to get settled in and get right to work.

I do most of my work in my studio at my desk, in front of my laptop. And for the most part, I was pretty fine with my desk setup, until going down the rabbit hole recently, I've realised there are actually many things I can do to reduce friction, reclaim space and just make my workspace a lot more pleasant and productive to be in.

From cable management, to docking stations, ergonomical chairs, back lighting and charging hubs, you can build out a space that is very comfortable and optimised to your personal productivity.

Our environments are huge parts of who we are. Curate yours to reflect who you are and support your ambitions. When you upgrade your space intentionally, you will find that you have inadvertently upgraded your life too. From the renewed experience of living in the space, you will find yourself feeling even more motivated, focused and pumped up to go.

And that is a powerful thing.