The importance of task lighting

Having bright, directable light will make any job, hobby or craft easier, we call this task lighting. When your work is lit up perfectly it is not only easier to find that dropped stitch, read the recipe, or hit the nail and not your thumb, but it is also far better for your eyes and reduces eye strain. When we sit down to do a task we make sure we have the materials we need, are comfortable, maybe put some music on, but we would like to introduce another step, making sure you have appropriate task lighting. You probably already instinctively use task lighting, when reading a book we tend to turn ourselves toward a window or light source so we can read more comfortably. The first step is to have high quality, adjustable lighting in your environment, these are typically lamps as they can be directed to the task you are doing and moved around the home, after that is pretty simple to flick them on, adjust them as needed and get to work.

But why aren’t your ceiling lights enough? These lights are great for ambience but aren’t ideal for focused work like reading, cooking, crafting, sewing or building. They are not bright enough, cast shadows and are too far away from the task you are doing to be effective. Whist some may have adjustable brightness, they rarely have adjustable colour temperature or a high colour rendering index, so they will often distort the colours you are working with. A light like Daylight’s slimline Table lamp is ideal as it has a high CRI (95+), is nice and bright, adjustable and clamps right onto your workstation, it can also be moved and directed to your task with its flexible arm. Task lighting is something we should consider when we set up any task, it will improve the quality of your work and will make completing your task more comfortable for both you and your eyes.