How to Create a Relaxing Environment for Your Home Office

Working from home is ideal for people who don't want to deal with long commutes and expensive parking. However, household life can also provide a lot of distractions and create stress. Making your home office as relaxing and stress-free as possible may increase your overall productivity when working remotely. Here are some tips on creating a relaxing environment for your home office. 

Bring Some Greenery into Your Office

Indoor plants are wonderful additions to any home office: They improve air circulation and make the room feel more alive. Succulents and succulent hybrids have become popular features in office spaces because they are visually appealing and require less care than traditional plants. 

Be sure to research which plants might be best for your office by considering their natural lighting requirements and their maintenance needs.

Add Soothing Aromas

Scents are very effective at evoking specific emotions. Having soothing smells in your home office may help you stay calm and alert as you work. Scented candles are traditionally used for this purpose. However, placing a scent diffuser or an electric wax warmer in your office can provide a soothing fragrance without the need for a flame.

If you are growing tired of one particular scent, don't feel afraid to switch it out. Or, if you start to experience nasal fatigue and you cannot smell the scent anymore, sniff some coffee beans to reset your olfactory system. 

Stay Organized and Clutter-Free

A cluttered office can feel overwhelming and cause more stress in your work environment. Not to mention, searching through piles of papers for the documents you need wastes precious time. Keeping home office furniture clear of clutter and all of your files organized is essential for relaxation and productivity. 

Though it may seem like a hassle, reviewing your files every couple of years to get rid of ones that are no longer useful is incredibly helpful in reducing the possibility of future clutter.

Generate Ambient Noise

Having peace and quiet can be relaxing for some people. For others, it is distracting because it allows the mind to wander. If you are someone who thrives when working in coffee shops and cafes, it may be beneficial to purchase an electronic white noise generator or a tabletop fountain to provide ambient noise in your office.

For many people, background noise is stimulating enough to keep errant thoughts at bay without diverting them from the task at hand. It is certainly worth a try to introduce some soundscapes if you feel that this applies to you. 

Ensure That Your Office Chair Is Ergonomic

There is nothing more disruptive to productivity than an uncomfortable office chair. Discomfort caused by a lack of ergonomic support can be quite distracting by prompting you to shift periodically in an effort to find a more comfortable position.

You may even develop neck and back pain over time from improper sitting postures. For this reason, it is crucial that your chair is designed to promote beneficial sitting habits, eliminating unnecessary pressure from areas of the body that are prone to strain.

The home environment presents its own unique challenges to working efficiently. Creating an office space that is calming to the senses can promote productivity and alertness without resulting in burnout. 

BIC Launches U.S. Program To Recycle Used Pens, Pencils & More The “WRITE” Way

BIC, a world leader in stationery, lighters and shavers, has partnered with international recycling leader TerraCycle® to offer consumers a free and easy way to recycle their fully-used pens, mechanical pencils, markers and other stationery products and parts of packaging nationwide. As an added incentive, for every shipment of used stationery products collected and sent to TerraCycle through this program, collectors earn points that can be donated to a school or charitable organization of their choice.

“As families spend more time writing, drawing and coloring together, we want to provide them with a responsible way to dispose of their products once they are used. Our collection program with TerraCycle gives consumers a simple way to recycle their writing instruments and art supplies to make a difference in the world,” said Mary Fox, North American General Manager for BIC. “Sustainability has always been at BIC’s core. We are thrilled to expand this program to the U.S. from Europe, where we have successfully recycled an astounding 46 million items.”

Through the BIC® Stationery Recycling Program, consumers can now send in all brands of pens, markers, mechanical pencils, highlighters, glue sticks, watercolor dispensers and paint sets to be recycled for free. The program is also collecting the soft, flexible plastic packaging that some writing instruments are packaged in. Participation is easy: sign up on the TerraCycle program page https://www.terracycle.com/bic and mail in the used items using a prepaid shipping label. Once collected, the waste is cleaned and melted into hard plastic that is remolded to make new recycled products. The BIC® Stationery Recycling Program is open to any interested individual, school, office or community organization.

“Through this free recycling program, BIC offers consumers the unique opportunity to learn about the value of recycling products they use every day while learning, playing or working that would otherwise end up in landfill,” said Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle. “We are proud to partner with BIC to offer consumers an easy solution for these typically unrecyclable items.”

This is the latest step BIC has taken on its journey to further enhance the sustainability of its long-lasting products, which are made with the least amount of material, and to minimize its impact on the environment, one of the goals in its 2025 “Writing the Future, Together” program.

BIC and TerraCycle began partnering in 2011 to collect and recycle used stationery products in Europe. A similar program was launched in Australia and New Zealand last year.

The two organizations have also partnered to promote the circular economy by offering BIC products through LOOP, an e-commerce circular economy platform created by TerraCycle aimed at eliminating waste and reducing dependence on packaging.

For more information on TerraCycle’s recycling programs, visit www.terracycle.com.

Stay-at-home Jobs – Some People Love Them, Some Don’t (Guest Post)

Working from home is a subject that is met with both positivity and negativity for different reasons. While some believe that it is a great thing that people are able in this day and age to complete their work duties from the comfort of their own homes, other consider that this is not a beneficial thing due to the fact that it brings with it some disadvantages.  Both sides could be considered correct depending on which you choose to lean on. However, it wouldn’t hurt to have some arguments for both for and against working from home. Many people want to learn more about what it means to work from home and they would surely love a couple of reasons for which it’s a good or bad idea. If you’ve already decided that you want to work from home you can try this out.

Let’s go on and see what the disadvantages are. We’re starting with the negative aspects then hop over to the pluses to see which side makes a better point. In the end you can draw a line and decide whether or not a stay-at-home job would suit you.

• You don’t get to chat with your office friends if you work from home. If that’s something you like doing, this may be considered a downside
• You have to constantly find the willpower to start work each day since there’s no schedule to tell you that you have to start at a precise hour
• It can be challenging to maintain the same work ethic when there is no one around to correct you or your work
• Speaking of correcting work, your boss won’t see how hard you are in fact working and will only judge you based on your number, so if you don’t put out the same performance each day he’ll think you’re slacking
• You have to re-arrange a significant deal of space in your home to accommodate your home office especially if you have a lot of things that you need around you for work

Now that we’ve seen what the downsides are to working from home, let’s take a look at the positive aspects.

• You can save up a lot of money on gas and other expenses that come up when you have to commute to work
• You get to spend more time home with your family and also take care of the household more since you can set your own schedule to a certain degree
• You can work without distractions like office chatter and commit fully to your tasks for the day
• You can sleep in more since you don’t have to wake up as early to get to the workplace
• You can wear whatever you want and sit in whichever position you see fit so that you are in your most comfortable state