What you need in a garden office

I bet lots of you have heard of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

But today as part of Autumn Garden Office Week, this sponsored post from Garden Spaces presents it in an entirely new context – the hierarchy of what you need in a garden office!

We proudly present the levels to be achieved on the way to office-topia:

Over the years, many incredibly intelligent scientists have looked into what drives people and helps them to succeed. Of all the theories put forward, the most famous and possibly most influential was that of Abraham Maslow, who wanted to understand the motivation that drives people forward.

Put simply, Maslow identified a ‘hierarchy of needs’, which works as a kind of ladder to motivation and happiness; once you have fulfilled all of the needs of the first tier, you can move onto the second, once the second is achieved, it allows you to move to the third, and so on.

The first level is basic human needs; air, food and water form this group. The second tier is safety, which includes security, order and law, so people feel safe and once this is met, they can move to the next stage, where things like social bonding and love belong.

Levels four and five are esteem and self-actualisation respectively, which are the levels where happiness belongs. The most important idea is that without achieving the requirements of one level, it’s impossible to move forward to the next level.

As motivation is a huge requirement when taking the decision to create a garden room dedicated to working from home, the same psychology can be applied to the garden room which serves as your office or workspace.

Garden Spaces’ hierarchy of what you need in a garden office:

1. The first tier for your garden office is the simple subsistence phase. Four walls, a roof and a door is technically all you need for your space, but it would be rather spartan. In the same way that some people live very minimally, you could also work minimally but it’s not the best way to do things.

2. The second tier includes a window to make the most of natural light and a power supply so that you don’t have to rely on laptop battery power and you can use light bulbs for the darker winter months.

3. The third tier involves thick layers of insulation for the walls and ceiling, meaning that the area is comfortable year round, as it keeps the heat out in summer and the heat in during winter. Also fitting a heat source for the winter months means that starting work in the early mornings will be in a much more productive atmosphere. A wi-fi repeater to make sure the internet signal is solid and reliable, preventing irritation at intermittent signals if there’s any distance from the house.

4. The fourth tier in what you need in a garden office includes a water supply so that nobody has to miss out on the traditional mid-morning cuppa, which goes a long way to making a happy office! Included in this stage is a dedicated business telephone line and broadband connection to make sure that your business needs are catered for as an independent measure. By keeping family and business usages of communications separate, it instills a sense of professionalism and means that the business doesn’t suffer during summer holidays when children are streaming Netflix and slowing down the business.

5. The final stage to the ultimate garden office is the facilities package; a kitchenette and cloakroom or water closet. By making the garden space a self-contained unit, the final distinction between working from home and fully running a business that’s distinct from the home is complete.

At this stage, there’s a clear demarcation between work and family life, preventing a bleeding effect where family life intrudes on work and worse, work intrudes on family life. By completing the final stage, it’s not about self-fulfilment, but the fulfilment of the ultimate level of productivity and focus, arming you with what you need in a garden office so you can successfully transfer the office at the end of the commute to an office at the end of the garden.

Garden Spaces buildings provide an ideal solution for those choosing to work from home. Designed to individual client requirements, the office area can provide anything from a quiet desk space to a building for your staff or client meetings. For more information, visit Garden Spaces and view our client testimonials.

Enjoyed this? Check out our other Autumn Garden Office Week posts, and the rest of our information about working in the garden.