If you work in a dark, poorly ventilated room without windows, you are facing an uphill battle against productivity – perhaps even your mental sanity. Yet, simple changes can make a world of difference. To improve your windowless room, the top priorities should be: 1) better lighting; 2) improve air flow and ventilation; 3) create a sense of spaciousness; and 4) add colours to infuse a sense of life. You can make 2-3 improvements for less than $100, and it can be as simple as ordering some product(s) online within a few clicks.

Basic Improvements to Make to Your Workspace

When it comes to improving a windowless home office, you should prioritise the following essentials.

1. Improve Your Lighting

Good lighting is essential if you need to concentrate intensely on your computer screen. The existing lighting in your home is used for general illumination purposes only and does not support highly demanding cognitive work. The problem is made worse when you are working in a windowless home office.

To make your room functional, you should highly consider adding task lighting – this refers to additional sources of lighting such as a desk lamp, floor lamps, and LED light strips. 

It will be extremely helpful if a dark, windowless room can benefit from adjustable, portable light sources. You can personalise the look and vibe of your home office with good lighting. 

• For example, you can customise the positioning of your floor and desk lamps to find the best distances and angles to place them. 
• Adjustable light sources let you adjust the brightness and color temperature of your lighting.

You can find a very good desk lamp for less than $50. Do an Amazon search and you will find that many adjustable desk lamps (swing arm, dimmable) are $40 or less.

2. Improve Air Flow and Ventilation

If you work in a cramped stuffy office, you will constantly look for ways to escape your desk. It may be difficult to breathe in there. Visually, your room likely looks dark and unappealing. This gives you an excuse to head outside, take walks, get drinks, and message or call your friends and family. Even if you persevere in a comfortable chair, it is not unlikely that your productivity will suffer.

Stuck in such a scenario, anyone can make the following basic improvements:

• Leave your door open
• Keep your home office clean and uncluttered
• Add some indoor plants

The best improvement you can make is to leave your door(s) open. This circulates fresh air in and pushes stale air out. Of course, if you live with others, opening your door may introduce noise into your workspace that breaks your concentration, so it is helpful to use a pair of good headphones to block out the sounds.

Next, keep your home office clean by vacuuming, sweeping, dusting, and sanitizing your room at least once a week. 

In a space with poorer ventilation, you should go minimal and light. If you have plenty of “stuff”, use storage boxes to keep them packed nicely and out of sight. The less visual clutter, the better.

Third, add indoor plants into your home office. Certain plants are scientifically known to remove chemicals that are released by our indoor furniture. These plants boost productivity and reduce sick days. Just do a search for air purifying plants which can survive indoors. Many of these plants survive easily with little maintenance, and as a bonus, help to beautify your space with a peaceful aesthetic.

3. Add Splashes of Colour

Adding colours into a windowless office will help twofold. First, splashes of colour can introduce a fun, positive, and vibrant vibe. Second, colours affect your mental states and therefore how productive you are. 

What colours should you add and how? Light, bright colours reflect light and make a windowless office feel bigger. You can add vibrant colours via the following options:

• Add coloured lighting – see this article for the best colour temperatures
• Add plants
• Use light furniture

When it comes to lighting, you can achieve the double benefits of brightening your workspace and adding the colour temperatures that are conducive for productive work. The best bet would be daylight bulbs ranging from 5000-6500K which emit a bright blue color that feels like actual daylight. Further, yellow and orange lighting can enhance creativity and mood.

Plants add the colour green which brings balance and harmony into our built-up modern offices, desks and workspaces. More plants would correspond to more green, if you could afford them. Even a fake plant will do, it adds green and decorates your desk space serving as a “fun” object to have.

Light coloured fabric, chairs, lamps, sofa, or accent cabinets can make your home office look less boring. If you can afford or are looking to replace existing furniture, go for it. Just make sure that the tools you use are ergonomic so that you can work comfortably in a risk-free environment.

Beyond the Basics: Surviving a Windowless Home Office

Beyond the basics (lighting, air flow, and colours), know that dark rooms look even smaller with too many items, so go minimal and avoid complicating your workspace. Less is better, and function is more important than aesthetics in this case.

Function is especially crucial when there are limitations on the external environment you are working in.

You may feel much less productive without a window, but the uphill battle against productivity is made worse if you experience bodily pain while working on your desk and chair. Make sure you know the basics of how to ergonomically set up your desk. This includes a few more nitty-gritty details such as finding the right desk, correcting the height of your screens, proper placement of keyboard and mouse, and the positioning of your light sources. Once you learn and set things up correctly, you take care of functionality and check these essentials off your list.

If you have the space and budget, add in a few elements of fun. This includes anything that inspires you to work harder and in a better mood, such as wall art, pillows, massage tools, or electronics and gadgets.

Lastly, your habits are crucial to surviving a windowless office, so design your habits to ensure that you can work longer and more healthily.