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Optimizing your workspace can enhance your productivity and focus. The arrangement of your physical environment, including lighting and screen placement, plays a crucial role. Bright lighting, especially overhead lights, can stimulate alertness and release neurotransmitters like dopamine and norepinephrine. It is recommended to keep the screen at eye level or slightly above to maintain focus and engage the brain's alertness circuits. Taking breaks and relaxing your eyes in panoramic vision every 45 minutes can prevent eye fatigue and enhance focus. Additionally, the cathedral effect suggests that higher ceiling spaces promote abstract and creative thinking, while lower ceiling environments are conducive to detailed and analytic work.
The way we position our eyes and focus our vision has a significant impact on our level of alertness and cognitive performance. Looking down or below eye level leads to reduced alertness, while looking straight ahead or slightly upwards increases alertness. Engaging in vergence eye movements by placing the screen or visual target at eye level or slightly above optimizes focus and attention. Relaxing the eyes and dilating the gaze periodically, especially every 45 minutes, helps prevent eye fatigue and supports overall workspace optimization.
Lighting plays a crucial role in optimizing workspace. Bright, well-lit environments, especially during the early part of the day, promote heightened levels of focus and alertness. Overhead lights and bright lights in front of you are recommended to stimulate alertness by releasing neurotransmitters like dopamine and norepinephrine. As the day progresses and enters the afternoon phase, dimming the lights and reducing exposure to blue light prepares the brain for creative thinking and abstract tasks. Adapting workspace lighting according to the circadian rhythm and using high-quality lighting sources help maintain focus and productivity.
The cathedral effect suggests that the physical environment, particularly the ceiling height, can influence the type of thinking and problem-solving abilities. Higher ceiling spaces promote abstract and creative thinking, while lower ceiling environments support detailed and precise analytic work. Understanding this effect allows individuals to design their workspaces to align with the desired cognitive outcomes. By considering the physical aspects of the workspace, such as lighting, vision placement, and ceiling height, individuals can enhance their productivity and optimize their cognitive performance.
Creating an optimized workspace environment can significantly improve focus and productivity. Bright overhead lights enhance alertness, while positioning work materials at nose level or above allows for optimal focus. For detailed analytic work, working in a low-ceiling environment or using a brimmed hat to lower the visual field promotes accuracy and precise thinking. On the other hand, for creative work, working in a high-ceiling environment or outdoors encourages abstract reasoning and brainstorming. Standing for half of the workday and incorporating movement, such as using a sit-stand desk or treadmilling/cycling, can enhance cognition and attention. Avoid extended exposure to white noise, pink noise, or brown noise, as they may cause stress or fatigue. Instead, consider using 40 Hertz binaural beats for focused work sessions. Additionally, strategically moving to different seats or locations within a workspace can maintain alertness by providing novel visual stimuli.
The cathedral effect highlights how the visual environment can impact thinking. In tighter spaces or lower ceilings, thinking becomes restricted and suited for detailed analytic work. Conversely, expansive spaces with high ceilings promote abstract and creative thinking. Research suggests that adjusting the visual environment can optimize workspace for specific tasks. For detailed work, lower the ceiling by using a hoodie, brimmed hat, or a low-ceiling room. For creative tasks, utilize higher ceilings or the outdoors.
Binaural beats, such as 40 Hertz frequencies, can enhance focus, reaction time, memory, and learning. Listening to binaural beats for 30 minutes before a work session, or during the session itself, can improve alertness and cognitive performance. However, extended exposure to binaural beats should be avoided to prevent attenuating their effectiveness.
Incorporating movement into the workspace can boost productivity. Standing for half of the workday improves various health metrics and cognitive performance. Treadmilling or cycling at a desk can also enhance focus and attention, while reducing anxiety. However, verbal memory may be negatively impacted during active sessions, suggesting these activities are best suited for non-verbal tasks.
In this episode, I discuss ways to set up your workspace to optimize productivity, focus and creativity. I discuss how to adjust light, physically arrange your work environment, and leverage body posture to enhance productivity. Additionally, I explore how to shift your work environment for particular types of tasks. Moreover, I review the role of body movement in the workspace. I also discuss sound-based tools that can either enhance or diminish cognitive functioning (the ability to focus on deep work). I describe a particular frequency of binaural beats that studies show can be used to enhance memory and recall. This episode covers quality peer-reviewed findings practical tools anyone can use, regardless of budget, in order to optimize their workspace to achieve heightened levels of productivity, increased alertness and focus, and creativity.
For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com.
AG1: https://athleticgreens.com/huberman
LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/hubermanlab
Waking Up: https://wakingup.com/huberman
Momentous: https://livemomentous.com/huberman
(00:00:00) Arranging Environment for Focus
(00:02:44) Sponsors: AG1, LMNT
(00:07:55) How to Increase Focus
(00:10:02) Lighting Your Work in Phase 1
(00:16:00) Lighting Your Work in Phase 2
(00:19:45) Lighting Your Work in Phase 3
(00:24:17) Where to Look While You Work
(00:28:02) Arranging Your Environment
(00:31:24) Body Posture
(00:34:22) How Long to Do Deep Work
(00:36:50) Set the Right Visual Window Size
(00:42:15) 45 min / 5 min Rule
(00:44:23) The Cathedral Effect: Analytic vs Creative Work
(00:55:50) Leveraging Background Noise
(01:02:20) Binaural Beats for Work
(01:06:38) The Best Binaural Frequency for Work
(01:11:17) How Binaural Beats Increase Focus
(01:13:56) Minimizing Interruptions
(01:20:01) Sit or Stand, or Both?
(01:25:18) Movement in the Workspace
(01:31:00) Summary & Shifting Work Environments
(01:39:36) Zero-Cost Support, Sponsors, Instagram, Twitter, Supplements
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