Make 54% less mistakes by smelling a lemon!
Research into productivity in the workplace, recently shared in HR Grapevine, found that people working with computers made 20% fewer typos if the office was scented with lavender, 33% fewer with jasmine and 54% fewer if exposed to the scent of lemon. The best smells for boosting productivity and moods at work are lemon, lavender, jasmine, rosemary, cinnamon and peppermint.
Smells! What a simple and creative way to improve working environments and boost productivity.
We’ve quoted before the research by Warwick University that happy employees are 12% more productive and unhappy ones 10% less productive. The researchers say; ‘’positive emotions appear to invigorate human beings.”
We know from Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage, that the brain works much better when a person is feeling positive. ”When workers are happy they’re more effective collaborators working toward common goals.’’
How’s your productivity? Do you think creatively to positively improve your environment and the way you work? Or, do you blame where you work, your workload or your bosses and colleagues for negative feelings and stress?
We all have a choice about how we live and enjoy our lives in and outside of work.
We’re all human and it’s so easy to blame other people or things for the situation we find ourselves in. Similar to other strategies we employ when life feels a bit too hard: being a victim, a martyr and thinking that ‘life happens to me’, that I have no choice. Blaming other people or things (workload, mess, amount of emails) for how we feel is a choice we make – an unproductive one, but a choice just the same.
In all aspects of life, we can take responsibility for ourselves and how we feel, and how we make others feel. Choose to be creative in making changes to feel more positive and productive in your life in and outside of work.
Lemon or jasmine? How creative could you be to be more productive?
- What three changes could you make to either your routine or environment to make you feel positive?
- Get in touch with when you are most productive. Schedule your work to fit in with your natural rhythms.
- Ask yourself, what is meaningful in what I do? And then focus on this more.
- Identify what difference you really want to make in your role, in the company. Make this happen. Regularly review how you’re doing to get that positive feedback loop.
- Create a purpose of being. How do I want to be as a co-worker, team member, and leader?
- Self-manage your energy levels and make time for you, to rest and re-energise. Diarise breaks into your working day or be conscious of just having a moment of pause.
- If you are a manager, are you being a role model for others around efficient working and maintaining balance?
- Make sure you’re not a slave to your ‘to do’ list and the feeling that you never accomplish anything – pause, step back and focus on what you are really trying to achieve, where could you add the most value?
- Go and buy some lemons!!