7 Tips Let the Sunshine In and Improve Your Work Performance

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Sunshine makes us happy. Don’t you agree? It also makes work easier since sunlight increases productivity, creativity and motivation. Personally, we love working in a bright office, especially since daylight improves employee health. We also recommend seven tips that let the sunshine in and help you decide which Malibu shutters, blinds and window treatments to place in your office.

Sunshine Improves Office Workers’ Health

The connection between light and the way it synchronizes a person’s circadian rhythm is already well established, reports doctorate candidate Ivy Cheung. However, she wanted to study light and its impact on office workers. According to the study she co-authored and published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, light does indeed improve a worker’s health.

Of the 49 people in the study, the employees who worked near windows slept an average of 46 more minutes each night and exercised more than the employees who worked in windowless offices. Alternatively, the windowless office workers experienced symptoms that could cause errors and accidents, including:

  • Sleep disturbances.
  • Memory loss.
  • Depression.
  • Shorter attention spans.
  • Slowed psychomotor reflexes.

A second study by Cornell University confirmed these results. The researchers tracked nurse performance during long shifts of nonstandard hours. When compared to the nurses who worked in artificial light, the nurses who worked in environments with natural light communicated better, laughed more and acted nicer at work. They also experienced increased alertness and lower blood pressure. We’d rather be treated by the nurses who worked in natural light. Wouldn’t you?

Increase the Light in Your Work Environment

As you can see by these studies and their results, sunshine and daylight improve productivity, health, well-being and safety in and out of the office. You’ll want to maximize the light in your office with these seven tips.

1. Raise the blinds at least halfway every day.

2. Open the louvers as often as possible.

3. Open your indoor or outdoor Malibu shutters.

4. Replace heavy window treatments with sheer curtains that provide privacy without limiting sunlight.

5. Apply window film to filter the light without eliminating it.

6. Hang a mirror on the wall across from the window and reflect light toward your desk.

7. Wash the windows regularly.

With these seven tips, you let the sunshine in and improve your work performance. But even if you don’t work near a window, we encourage you to go outside and eat lunch, take phone calls or hold meetings. The sunshine will do you good and improve your health, even if you’re only in it for a few minutes at a time.