5 tips to redesign your surroundings and live better

Below, Leidy Klotz shares five key insights from his new book, In a Good Place: How the Spaces Where We Live, Work, and Play Can Help Us Thrive. Leidy is a behavioral scientist and engineering professor at the University of Virginia. He has written for The Washington Post, Fast Company, Scientific American, and Harvard Business Review, and has published work in top journals such as Nature and Science. What’s the big idea? Our physical surroundings deeply shape our psychological well-being, identity, relationships, and memories. Intentionally designing and engaging with our spaces can help us live better lives. Listen to the audio version of this Book Bite—read by Leidy himself—in the Next Big Idea App, or buy the book. 1. Practice space before screen. Too often, we move through the world without noticing our physical surroundings. Our phones and other screens only exacerbate this problem. Instead of fighting this reality, however, we can work with it. When you find yourself looking at your phone, take it as a cue. One of my friends told me that, since reading my book, she has started noticing that in the morning, when she wakes up and immediately goes to her phone to check email, she pauses and thinks, “Wait, I haven’t even taken in the space that I’m in.” So instead of being a distraction, let the screen become a reminder to check in with your environment. From there, all the other benefits can follow. 2. Seek adjacent freedom when you feel constrained. One of the most important things our surroundings give us is a sense of agency—the feeling that we can effect change in the world. For example, in my office, there is a window that used to open but no longer does because of the air-conditioning system. That’s frustrating, especially on a nice spring day when I’d like fresh air. But situations like this are inevitable. There are always aspects of our environment we can’t control. “Our surroundings give us a sense of agency.” When that happens, we can take it as a cue