Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning. This is Laura, Welcome.
To the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is to green your space. Having a plant or two in your workspace can reduce your stress, and greenery just looks pretty too. I am writing this from my home office, where I have three nice succulents on my window sill. I also look out that window at lots of lovely trees. Whenever I am feeling stressed, I look out the window and feel at least a little bit more relaxed. There is pretty good evidence that people do report feeling lower stress
levels when they have plants in their workplaces. Humans like being outside, and given that a lot of our work happens inside these days, having plants nearby is one of the best ways to approximate the experience. Rooms with plants are perceived as more cheerful, pleasant, and inviting. If you work from home, this is easy enough to pull off. Get a few easy houseplants. The upside of my succulence, for instance, is that they really don't require a lot
of care. There is no need to water them frequently, and they tend not to lose a lot of leaves. Randomly or see the leaves go brown. But there are plenty of others that can work too, like snake plants, alo jade, cast iron plants and such. Just google easy houseplants. Also, be mindful of what you see outside.
If possible, position your desk so you can look out a window, then curate what you see out that window. If you can move furniture or cans or kid bicycles so you can see more greenery, you will probably be happy about that. If you can plant something ever green in your view so that even during winter you'll see at least some green. Skip laurels and leyland cypresses are two plants that are used a lot in landscaping because they grow quickly, grow densely, and provide privacy even after
other plants lose their leaves. But of course you can google options for this as well. If you work in a corporate office, this is obviously a different matter, but as long as you can have your own desks, you can probably get away with at least one small plant. Choose a tasteful container, and plants that don't have a strong smell or tend to inspire allergies. It is much like having a family photo. Most likely no one will object if you and others in your organization do work
that doesn't involve desks. Maybe it would be possible to green up and employee breakroom put a few pretty plants in that communal space so people can enjoy the greenery in between shifts. You might volunteer to care for the plants if it would help make this happen, and if you choose easy ones, they won't need watering more than once a week or so. It truly is a big payoff for not much effort. Sometimes we accept that work
is just what we have to do. People aren't necessarily going to enjoy it, and maybe that's true, But we enjoy everything more when a space is calming, and pretty plants can make that happen while making very few demands of the people caring for them. So green up your space and work will feel a lot less dreary in the meantime.
This is Laura.
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's b the number four then breakfast pod. You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com that before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, should I
look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.