Correct Lighting For Your Workstation

Optimum productivity in the work place as well as minimizing stress and injury has various determining factors, and among them is lighting.

Lighting is not just about mood (though it can be important in that it can energize or depress you to the extent of impacting productivity and creativity); it is also about actually preventing eyestrain, fatigue and other problems.

There is already the eyestrain and fatigue that can occur due to the constant staring at a lighted, flickering thing that is your computer monitor.

Added to that, if there is inadequate lighting or excessive lighting in the environs of your workstation, that can further complicate matters. Here are some correct lighting tips for your workstation area:

• The lighting in the room should be balanced; neither too glaring nor too muted. If it is too bright it will cause additional strain; if it is too dark your eyes will strain to adjust to it after the brightly lit monitor.
• The work area should be moderately well lit; equivalent to a day when you don’t need sunglasses.
• Task or focus lighting is not a good idea for a computer based work station; rather than that, it is more advisable to make more diffuse lighting in the area so that glare is reduced.
• Some experts advise the use of incandescent and fluorescent lights in the work area. This combination is known to reduce flicker and offers a good color balance.
• A primary light source such as a door or window should not ideally shine right into your face or on to the monitor. Indirect light from such a source is better and more desirable.
• Position the monitor in a way that there is no reflection and also to reduce glare. Many modern LCD monitors are designed to eliminate such reflection and glare. If required tilt the monitor to get an ideal position.
• Adjust the contrast settings on the monitor so that you aren’t getting too much glare off the screen.

So while you may think that lighting is a not so important element in the totality of your workspace, it is in fact an important factor, and the correct kind of lighting can go a long way to reducing fatigue and stress and upping productivity.

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