Feng Shui Ideas For Your Home

Setting up a home office? Use these feng shui ideas to increase your concentration and productivity.

Our readers often ask us how to use feng shui (the ancient Chinese art of placement) to improve their work environment. Placement and ergonomics are key in feng shui, and these easy tips can increase your productivity and even your income.

Choose the Location Carefully. Don't fit your home office into your bedroom or an already busy area like the kitchen or dining room; doing so can disrupt your qi, or life energy. You'll have a hard time concentrating on work, not to mention sleeping or dining. Instead, use a spare bedroom or carve out space in your living room. Make sure you have a nice view outside, and pick a spot away from visual or auditory distractions like the TV, undone housework, and your children. Distractions agitate your qi, and disrupted qi scatters your thoughts and decreases your productivity. Fluorescent lights also irritate your qi. Opt for sunlight, which promotes good concentration, or full-spectrum light bulbs, which mimic sunlight. (You can buy them in most natural food and hardware stores.)

Set It Up Professionally. Don't use an old dining room chair behind a flimsy card table for your office. Old furniture can carry bad qi, and you want a new desk and chair that look like they belong to a successful person. Arrange your desk and chair in a commanding position, which in feng shui indicates that you're in charge. Place your desk as far from the room's entrance as you can, with your chair facing the doorway and your chair back facing a wall.

Control Your Clutter. Disorganization kills your concentration. Keep no more than one project on your desk at a time, and put the rest in a filing cabinet. If setting up a filing system seems daunting, ask a neat-freak friend or hire a professional organizing expert to get you started. (A professional can cost $100 to $300, but it's worth it.) Don't bring non-work-related objects like a TV or fitness equipment into your home office.