StyleMyCube

You’ve probably heard about IDEO, they’re the company that invents cool things.  So it should come as no surprise that they have some cool cubicles at their offices. We’ve tracked down a couple worthy ones…. check em out.

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Going green in your cubicle is so easy and highly rewarding. Before “going green” referred to saving energy, green was (and still is) predominately associated with plants in nature. While plants don’t save energy, they do suck up CO2 and provide you with clean oxygen. Why not have one of these little air producers near you while type away? While someone obviously went a little too overboard to the left, there are numerous examples of dreary cubes brightened up with plants and/or flowers. Check out some submissions and get yourself a plant already!

Here is a little garden with 10 or so plants, quite impressive…

Here is your basic cube with 1 huge addition… AWESOME FLOWERS! Much more of a delightful setting for 8+ hours of work.People trust us, put a little effort into your cube by getting a plant and it will pay off in the long run. Just like those people that say buy an expensive mattress since you spend 1/3 of your life sleeping, you should style your cube since you spend some unfortunately high amount of your adult life working in a cube. So “Go Green” already by getting your first or your next little piece of nature for your cube.

Another common complaint among cube dwellers is the feeling that they’re getting “cube body.” What kind of effect does long-term sitting have on you? Mary Ann Pavlides, a registered nurse and massage therapist, says her clients have experienced:

• Lower-back strain due to poor posture and sitting too long.
• Upper-back strain from scrunching neck and shoulder together while talking on the phone.
• Shortened pectoral muscles from leaning into a desk to type on a computer.
• Sluggish circulation in their legs from prolonged inactivity.

Fortunately, combating these problems is easy. Pavlides recommends the following exercises for relief:

• Get up and walk every half hour. This keeps your circulation going, gives your eyes a break from your monitor and lets your whole body move.
• Stretch your arms back over your head and arch your body into a “C.” This helps reverse the hunched-over posture you may sit in.
• Stand up and roll back and forth on your heels and toes. This stretches leg muscles that cramp from too much sitting.
• Find a doorway and place your forearms against the frame. Lean into the doorway to stretch your pec muscles. Don’t hold this position too long, though, or you might strain yourself.

Make sure you have an ergonomic chair with armrests you can raise and lower to get the right fit. Adjust your desk or table to a comfortable level.

Is your dreary office cubicle in need of some spice? If so, a new book, Eccentric Cubicle, has your much-needed remedies. Featuring zany and interesting ways to pump some fun into your workspace, Eccentric Cubicle will improve your building and creative skills, while quickly turning your cubicle into an office hot spot. Author Kaden Harris — the unconventional mind behind Eccentric Genius — takes aspiring and die-hard do-it-yourselfers through a highly entertaining gamut of workplace-oriented projects. From destop guillotines and crossbows to mood-enhancing effects and music makers, these interesting builds combine a wide spectrum of basic shop techniques, alternative materials and designs that are guaranteed to bring some fun into any office environment.Specific projects include:

• Active Desktop: Over-engineered and cunningly executed, this postmillennial version of the classic French revolutionary guillotine is the last word in cigar accessories. Or desktop snack choppers.
• BallistaMail: This Greco-Roman missile (good for launching spears, javelins, and the occasional boulder) scales down to an intimidatingly powerful interoffice mail delivery system. Your memos will never be ignored again!
• Maple Mike: Because golfing is a stepping stone to boardroom success, make your own desktop simulation of the perfect golf swing in one easy-to-use/easy-to-build project.
• Haze-o-Matic 3000: Bring the “fog of war” to your contract negotiations. Build a mechanism that’s as inherently cool as a fog machine and mystify your co-workers!
• The Gysin Device: Harness your subconscious for enhanced creativity with this lucid dream induction device — all from the comfort of your own cubicle! Sitar not included.

Eccentric Cubicle offers far more than a collection of project “how-tos.” Filled with oblique industrial design, fabrication philosophies and sardonic social commentary, Eccentric Cubicle offers the reader encouragement to adapt, modify, and hack their way through their builds. “The book’s overall intent is to infuse the new-school Do-It-Yourself community with a therapeutic dose of slightly non-Euclidean engineering, classic shop techniques and surreally interpreted physics,” explains Harris. “The projects are intended to make people say, ‘It does WHAT?!’”

All of us need to relax a little bit more. I just heard a stat that males with significant workplace stress during their career are 68% more likely of getting heart disease. Wow that is scary. So the question is how can we chill out a bit more at work? Well there is no easy answer, however one thing I know that works pretty well is hanging some nature pictures. Whenever you need a little break from the monotony of cube life, just stare and the pic and loose yourself in calmness. Whether its a scenic landscape of mountains, a calming pond of water or a close up of a sunflower, pictures of our amazing planet hung in the cube are a surefire way to reduce workplace stress.

If you really want to get fancy, couple the nature picture with an matching air freshener and to get the most authenticity