Insights
Helping you find co-working spaces with a sense of community
There are lots of co-working spaces out there, but the market is getting crowded. Well-known workspace providers like Regus and WeWork are facing competition from smaller providers and hotels and pub desks. In future, you may even be able to pick up a latte and work at a hub at Starbucks.
6 space saving desk designs for home workers
A survey by AlphaWise, Morgan Stanley Research, says workers in the UK, Spain, Italy, France and Germany hope to work from home for two days a week post-pandemic. But if WFH will be permanent, how will it work for people living in small spaces?
Visual and sensory cues for wellness and restoration
In the third and last of my interviews with Oliver Heath of Oliver Heath Design, we discuss the use of colour. A subject close to every designer's heart!
Using shuttle to streamline your work
Hotbox was one of the first brands to see the potential of personal, portable storage, making it the perfect company to solve some of the issues agile workers or digital nomads face, particularly after Covid.
How can co-working work for you?
Gone are the days when co-working meant grabbing a coffee and hoping you wouldn't get too many dirty looks from the staff when you plugged your laptop in to their 'secret' socket.
How businesses can benefit from biophilic design - an interview with Oliver Heath
Why should businesses care about biophilic design? In my second interview with biophilic design adviser Oliver Heath of Oliver Health Design, we discuss the evidence that biophilic design works and the benefits for businesses when they introduce it into workspaces.
Celebrating Organisations That Empower Women
How do you find businesses or organisations that invest in, empower, and support women? To celebrate International Women's Day 2021 (IWD) and its theme #ChoosetoChallenge, we've done some digging for you. Here are five resourceful organisations and five supportive businesses that help women to prosper.
What Is Biophilia - And Why Is It Trending? - an interview with Oliver Heath
Biophilic design has become a talking point for anyone interested in the future of the workplace. But what is it and why all the interest? I asked biophilic design expert Oliver Heath, founder of sustainable architecture and interior design practice Oliver Health Design, to explain.
How a creative collaboration launches a new product
The world of work is changing as the world begins to adapt to life post-pandemic and whether we work in an office full-time or part-time, or from home full-time, or rent a corner of a shared office, we need to be more organised.
Agile working is in the bag
As lockdowns come and go, it's more important than ever that your workspace is flexible and organised. Since we were all told to work from home in March 2020, social media has been full of people demonstrating their home-office set-ups, but how can you get it right?
Organise your home office in five simple steps
As lockdowns come and go, it's more important than ever that your workspace is flexible and organised. Since we were all told to work from home in March 2020, social media has been full of people demonstrating their home-office set-ups, but how can you get it right?
1. Find Your Space
How and where we work is continually evolving, and staying organised is critical. Whether you're home-schooling or negotiating workspace and time alongside a partner who's doing the same, you need to find a workspace you can call your own - even if it's just for a few hours.
A Social Market Foundation study in 2015 found that happy employees are up to 20 per cent more productive than unhappy ones, so make sure the space you use for work is stress-free.
Try to avoid a workspace that is easily disturbed by others in your home. If you're lucky enough to have a door that you can shut, place a sign on it when you need privacy for business calls or thinking time.
2. Get Organised
Have everything to hand. You don't want to be moving around the house to find a pen or a notepad when the muse strikes.
Smart working spaces are critical - even if you pack it all up at the end of the day.
It sounds obvious, but make sure your chosen space has power for your charging cables. Avoid overloading the sockets or having cables trailing across the floor.
3. Be Tech-Smart
Use the technology that allows you to work smartly. Whether you're using a laptop or a desktop, ensure it has the apps you need and keep them updated.
If you use a laptop regularly, think about using a separate mouse and even a keyboard. If you speak to clients online regularly, invest in a separate microphone.
Avoid loneliness by using an online calendar for planning catch-up calls with work colleagues. Zoom, Teams and Meet aren't just for business.
4. Control Your Comfort
Ergonomic chairs and sleek sit-stand desks can be pricey, but the key is to design your own office that suits you. There's even a Greek-designed bed-desk hybrid that is beautifully-designed and useful if you are pushed for space.
If you're fortunate, some bosses fund home office set-up, particularly as home working continues.
Consider whether you need a large desk where you can spread out papers, designs and stationery or just a space for your laptop.
Many online bidding sites are a great place to find desks and chairs on a budget, and some local markets still have stalls where you can pick up a bargain that someone else has discarded.
5. Bring Nature In
Natural light and plants are proven to have a positive effect. Research by Norway's Agricultural University in Oslo indicated that plants remove harmful volatile organic compounds found in paint, carpet and furniture.
Get the lighting right: setting up next to a window with natural light will help your eyesight, and opening it to let fresh air in fits with the key pieces of advice from the United Nations on halting the spread of Coronavirus and other diseases.
Many online businesses supply plants that suit your environment. Pop to a local garden centre and ask one of their experts for advice. Many local markets also have plant growers who would be happy to help.
Make sure the space you create brings joy. It should be somewhere that allows you to be productive and creative.
Getting organised for home schooling and working
For many people, the Pandemic and the associated Lockdowns have resulted in their first experience of working from home and for most parents, the introduction of Home Schooling.
Home is the new office
This post is all about working from home and how so many of us are currently making our homes into offices.
How to introduce a clean desk policy for agile working
The introduction of home-working (a form of agile working) caught many organisations on the hop, forcing them to implement an agile-working policy at breakneck speed. There wasn't time for innovation.
The office is dead - long live the office
The unprecedented change brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic will see a revolution of the office and how we use it, not an evolution.
Why a clean desk policy is essential post-coronavirus
Before Coronavirus turned our world upside down and changed how we work in my and many other people's eyes forever, a Clean Desk Policy (CDP) was implemented by companies to reduce the risk of information theft.
A Coronavirus update from our MD Jamie Rothwell
Following the UK Prime Ministers announcement on Monday 23rd March, we are writing to confirm that we are temporarily closing our offices and London Hub with immediate effect.
Are you as agile as you think? Part 1
Agile working won't just happen unless it is implemented as part of a carefully considered strategy. The potential application for that methodology is broad which invariably means that a business can manifest its own interpretation of what it means to 'go agile'.