Check out these 12 awesome office supplies to liven up your workspace
Having a plant by your desk or a colourful table-top organiser can make your space that little bit more homely. Image: Foryoui3/Shutterstock

Check out these 12 awesome office supplies to liven up your workspace

15 Dec 2017

Personalising where you work is an easy way to make it a more comfortable space, and could even make you more productive.

A miraculous lottery win notwithstanding, you will, in all likelihood, spend a lot of your life at work.

By extension, you will spend a lot of time at your desk. Sufficiently personalising your space with some nifty office supplies is a good way to make your place of work a friendlier environment in which to get things done.

For example, an office plant is a classic way to bring some colour to where you work. In addition, there is evidence to suggest that exposure to nature can reduce stress, improve concentration and bring a number of other psychological benefits. The presence of potted plants can have physical effects, too. Your cascading little ivy could lower your blood pressure, raise your productivity at work and improve reaction times.

Keeping some healthy snacks by your desk can also be a great way to improve your diet and keep your workflow uninterrupted.

Having small, vitamin-rich bites throughout the day to curb hunger will have a positive effect on your work. Your brain needs glucose to stay alert, so allowing yourself to get extremely hungry will make it difficult to stay focused, causing your attention to drift. Unsteady spikes and drops in blood sugar are bad for the brain.

Of course, not all sources of energy are created equal. Foods such as pasta, bread and cereal are processed by the body quickly, which will lead to an almost instant glucose release.

As Rod Friedman explains in Harvard Business Review, high-fat meals such as burgers and BLTs “provide more sustained energy but require our digestive system to work harder, reducing oxygen levels in the brain and making us groggy”.

Bringing some bags of fruit and maybe a pack of nuts on a Monday to the office will mean you have fortifying snacks to munch on throughout the week as you tap away at the keyboard.

For more advice on some of the best office accessories, check out the infographic below.

Infographic: Panda Paper Roll

Eva Short
By Eva Short

Eva Short was a journalist at Silicon Republic, specialising in the areas of tech, data privacy, business, cybersecurity, AI, automation and future of work, among others.

Loading now, one moment please! Loading