Green your air: Plants do more than just pretty up your workspace

With so many Manchester residents now working from home, it can help your general health, mood and well-being by making your home office space as healthy as possible. One of the most simple ways to do this is to green-up your workspace with the addition of a few attractive house plants.

Having a bit of greenery around you while you work can give you so many benefits – some of which go much further than simply making your office look pretty!

Many scientific studies have been conducted over the years that prove the positive effects of having greenery in your office, and this is why you will find many office blocks and office complexes decorated with potted plants and even large planters full of lush green plants to create a healthy working atmosphere and to keep their workers connected with nature, even while working on the 11^th floor of an office block.

Connecting with nature

We humans have an innate desire to remain connected with nature. Scientists call this ‘biophilia’, but unfortunately, many offices or places of work where we tend to spend the most of our waking hours are often void of any greenery and are built to be a very unnatural, practical environments to make efficient use of the working space.

The problem is with a lot of workplaces is that they break that connection with nature and leave staff feeling stressed out and running high cortisone levels while working under artificial light in stark workspaces.

By simply adding some greenery to the office in the form of indoor plant arrangements business owners and their employees can gain many positive benefits. This has been proven time again with many studies conducted on staff health and well-being over the years.

The same goes for your home office or workspace, no matter whether you have your own designated office set up in a dedicated room, or your home office consists of space at the end of your dining table – you can be happier, healthier and more productive with some greenery around you.

But how does adding some greenery to you office workspace work, exactly? Let’s look at some of the top benefits of bringing some greenery into your home office.

Stress reduction

There have been many studies to show that adding greenery to your office helps to reduce stress, such as a 2010 study by the new University of Technology, in Sydney, Australia. Results showed a 37% fall in reported tension and anxiety; a 58% drop in depression or dejection; a 44% decrease in anger and hostility; and a 38% reduction in fatigue.

Even adding just one plant to your home office can help to lift your spirits and boost your productivity. Colour psychologists also say that the colour green has a relaxing and calming effect so adding some plants and even painting the walls of your office in a green tint and adding green accents with soft furnishing can help reduce stress levels.

Remember that you can also reduce your stress levels by contacting Manchester PC when something goes wrong with your laptop. We provide a mobile doorstep service to fix whatever issues your laptop is experiencing and can usually fix most issues the same day.

Increased productivity

Studies have shown an increase of 15% in productivity levels when greenery was added to formally ‘lean and stark’ workplaces. A study conducted by the University of Exeter found that adding just one green plant per square metre of space helped to improve memory retention and produced higher test scores on the same staff than before the greenery was added.

What makes all the difference is when you can see a plant from where you sit at your desk. A green plant gives you something to focus on and connect with, leaving you happier with an improved mood and higher productivity levels.

Better air quality

What is very well known about plants in homes and workplaces is that they help to clean the air. Obviously, we need oxygen to survive and plants produce oxygen by combining water and light through photosynthesis, as well as helping to improve air quality by removing the gasses we don’t need to thrive, such as carbon dioxide.

Even NASA scientists documented how effective plants were at removing harmful chemicals from the air such as benzene, trichloroethylene, and formaldehyde, leaving the air cleaner for humans to breathe.

A popular and effective green plant choice for cleaning the air in your office space is a palm, but anything will help so just go with what appeals to you. Ideally, a medium-sized plant above 20cm will make a really big difference to the air quality in your office, especially if you have any electrical equipment that produces unhealthy chemicals that can build up in the air.

Boosting creativity

More research showed that staff that worked in offices containing plants and natural elements scored 15% higher for creativity than those whose workplaces didn’t include any greenery.

Researchers believe that simply looking at nature, such as a pot plant in your office, can relieve your eyes and shift your brain into a better processing mode. The staff that could look at plants were left feeling more relaxed, had better concentration and more creative thought patterns.

Where do I start? Which plants should I choose?

While it can be tempting to go and visit a local Manchester garden centre and simply pick out some plants that look pretty, you need to carefully consider what environment you are expecting your plants to live in.

Not all plants will be happy to live indoors in your office or workspace, so consider how much natural daylight your plants will have access to. Look at how often they need to be watered and if they will struggle being placed close to a heat source such as your wall radiator.

The easiest plants to care for and the ones that thrive the best in workplaces tend to be succulents such as cacti and aloe plants. Rubber plants also do well and can provide good height and wide leaves to brighten up a dull room corner.