This post is part 1 of a pair of before and after posts about my workspace environment. Check back Monday for part 2.

I’d like to talk a little bit about my workspace, and how it affects the ability to actually get work done. Before I talk about my current situation, let’s take a look at my workspace at the previous job.

Here’s what my desk looked like:

As you can see, I had most everything I needed to be able to do the work of an electrical engineer. Here are some positive attributes of my previous desk setup:

• fast computer
• electronics tools (such as the power supply in the rear-left)
• lots of desk space (corner desk)
• window
• high degree of freedom to decorate (lava lamps, plant, etc.)

All in all, not a bad desk space. I especially enjoyed the ability to decorate, which is probably obvious given the three lava lamps and overgrown vine taking over the desk. Having a space that I could customize was an important motivator for me. If I had to come to work every day and the space was a bland, sanitized carbon-copy cubicle, it would really have been a drag on enthusiasm for the job, so that freedom was very welcome.

Of course, not everything was great about the office environment working for “the man.” Here’s a picture of the same space, but from just a bit further back:

That’s my desk in the back-right. There were four other coworkers’ desks in the immediate vicinity. The theory at that employer is that having an open environment like you see above encourages collaboration and builds team productivity. In my experience, while there aren’t many good things to say about cubicles, a crowded open-air environment like this is probably the most unproductive work environment you can design.

Every time a phone would ring, or somebody had a random question, or anybody dropped by, your work was interrupted. It was pretty much impossible to “get in the zone” because of these constant interruptions, and even putting on headphones to listen to music was prohibited.

In a “time management” training course I went to while I was working there, the consultant that was leading the class pointed out that the best way to be productive is to shut your office door or block off your cubicle and put on headphones. Whoops, can’t do that. There was also a software development seminar our team went to where they pointed out a specific study that showed a huge boost in productivity when developers have their own offices. Of course, the management was so attached to their way of doing things that no amount of evidence would change this unfortunately counter-productive environment.

So there were definitely good and bad things about my personal workspace before I began working on my own. On Monday I’ll take a look at the new workspace and how I’m using what I’ve learned to try to improve my productivity as I work from home.