Why Your Physical Surroundings Matter More Than You Think
Most of us spend a great deal of time optimizing our habits, routines, and mindsets — yet we rarely stop to consider the spaces we live, work, and play in. According to behavioral scientist and University of Virginia engineering professor Leidy Klotz, that's a missed opportunity of enormous proportions. In his book In a Good Place: How the Spaces Where We Live, Work, and Play Can Help Us Thrive, Klotz makes a compelling case that our physical surroundings deeply shape our psychological well-being, our sense of identity, our relationships, and even our most cherished memories.
The good news? You don't need to tear down walls or invest in an expensive renovation to start benefiting. By making intentional, often small changes to how you engage with your spaces, you can meaningfully improve your quality of life. Here are five powerful, science-backed tips from Leidy Klotz to help you redesign your surroundings and live better.
1. Practice Space Before Screen
In our hyper-connected world, it's easy to move through life with our eyes glued to a phone screen, barely registering the physical world around us. Screens exacerbate our tendency to tune out our surroundings, pulling our attention away from the rooms, streets, and landscapes we inhabit every day.
Klotz offers a refreshing reframe: instead of fighting the pull of your phone, use it as a cue to notice your environment. When you feel the urge to check your screen, pause for just a moment and take in your physical surroundings first. Look at the light in the room, the texture of the furniture, the view from your window. One of Klotz's friends began doing this each morning instead of immediately scrolling, and she found that it transformed the quality of her daily start.
This practice of "space before screen" trains your brain to become more spatially aware over time. Greater spatial awareness is linked to reduced stress, heightened creativity, and a stronger sense of presence — all without requiring you to give up your devices entirely.
2. Let Your Space Reflect Your Identity
Our homes and workplaces are more than functional containers — they are expressions of who we are. Research in environmental psychology consistently shows that when we surround ourselves with objects, colors, and arrangements that align with our values and identity, we feel more grounded, confident, and at ease.
Take a deliberate look around your living space. Does it reflect the person you are today, or the person you were five years ago? Does your workspace inspire the kind of thinking and focus you want to bring to your work? Making even modest updates — displaying meaningful photographs, adding a plant you'll actually enjoy tending to, or rearranging furniture to create a corner that feels truly yours — can reinforce a positive sense of self every time you enter the room.
This isn't about aesthetics for aesthetics' sake. It's about using your environment as an active tool for self-expression and personal growth.
3. Design for the Relationships You Want
The layout and character of our spaces have a profound influence on the quality of our relationships. Homes that make it easy to gather, share meals, and have face-to-face conversations naturally foster deeper connection. Spaces that are fragmented, screen-dominated, or inhospitable to conversation can quietly erode our bonds with the people we care about.
Consider how your home currently supports — or hinders — the relationships that matter most to you. Is there a comfortable place for two people to sit and talk without distraction? Is your dining table a place where the family genuinely comes together, or has it become a dumping ground for mail and devices?
Small intentional changes, like creating a dedicated conversation area, removing screens from the bedroom, or simply keeping a shared table clear and inviting, can shift the social dynamics of an entire household. Space design is relationship design.
4. Create Spaces That Anchor Your Memories
Memory and place are intimately connected. Neuroscientists have long understood that our brains encode memories more richly when they are tied to specific physical environments. This is why revisiting a childhood home or a beloved vacation spot can flood us with vivid recollections that photographs alone cannot replicate.
You can harness this connection intentionally. Create spaces in your home that are associated with meaningful rituals — a reading chair you return to every evening, a garden corner where you drink your morning coffee, a wall where you display mementos from important life moments. Over time, these spaces become emotional anchors, places where your personal history lives and where you can reconnect with what matters most.
In a world that often feels transient and overwhelming, having physical spaces that carry your story can be a profound source of comfort and continuity.
5. Subtract to Improve
One of the most counterintuitive insights from Klotz's research — explored in depth in his earlier book Subtract — is that we tend to default to adding things when we want to improve a situation, when often the most effective intervention is to take something away. This principle applies powerfully to our spaces.
Clutter is not merely an aesthetic problem. Studies show that disorganized, overstuffed environments increase cortisol levels, fragment attention, and make it harder to relax. Yet most of us, when we feel something is missing from our home or office, reach for something new to buy or add rather than looking at what we might remove.
Before your next shopping trip, try a subtraction audit. Walk through your space and identify three things that create friction, visual noise, or stress. Remove them — even temporarily — and notice how the space feels. You may find that less truly is more, and that the clarity you were searching for was already there, waiting beneath the clutter.
Your Environment Is a Tool — Start Using It
The spaces where we spend our lives are not passive backdrops. They actively shape how we think, feel, relate, and remember. Leidy Klotz's work is a compelling reminder that intentional design doesn't require a big budget or a degree in architecture — it requires awareness, curiosity, and a willingness to see our surroundings as a lever for living better.
Whether you start by putting down your phone for sixty seconds each morning to notice the room you're in, or by finally clearing that cluttered corner that's been bothering you for months, every small step toward a more intentional environment is a step toward a better life. Your space is ready to work for you. All you have to do is pay attention.