How to Optimize Your Workspace
In light of school starting again, I wanted to revisit this fantastic podcast episode that made studying easier and a lot more effective for me last semester.
To view this on my website, click here.
đ Overview
In this episode of the Huberman Lab Podcast, Dr. Huberman discusses zero-cost tools we can all use to arrange our workspace in a way that maximizes productivity and focus. Backed by quality peer-reviewed research, he talks about how we can take advantage of our neurobiology in order to get the most work out of our work sessions. Whether youâre at college or high school, working from home, or at the office, I think anybody could really benefit from listening to this episode. As youâll see, a lot of the ways we commonly work and study are completely opposite to how our biology functions.
đď¸ Key Takeaways: Tools to Improve Focus and Cognition
For the specifics, explanations, and more tools, check out my Detailed Notes below.
â In the first part of your day get as much bright and overhead light as possible
â Place your screen or object of focus directly in front of you but donât have it extend too far to either side of your eyes
â Place your screen at nose level or above
â Avoid reclining, and try to stand for at least half of your work day
â If using sound, avoid exposure to white, pink, or brown noise for extended amounts of time
â Instead, use 40 hz binaural beats during a work session or for 30 mins before a work session, but donât use it all the time
â Take advantage of the Cathedral Effect: you can do analytic, detailed type of thinking better in low ceiling environments and more creative and abstract reasoning better in high ceiling environments
â Find new places to work or study: novel visual environments can lead to more alertness
đ Detailed Notes
đ Phase 1: 6-9 Hours After Waking
Sunlight is going to be the best stimulus for waking up your brain and body.
The first phase of the day is really the time when our neurochemistry is primed for getting the most amount of challenging work done where focus is needed
This is because in the morning, we have high amounts of Dopamine, Epinephrine, and Cortisol, which all contribute to high levels of alertness
This is the best time to do work where precision and detail is required
Brightly light the environment in this phase of the day
When you wake up in the morning, get sunlight and turn on all overhead lights and any other lights
If youâre viewing sunlight through a window, itâs 50x less effective at waking you up because they filter much of the blue light responsible for stimulating the eyes and this wake up signal
Neurons in our retinas (melanopsin ganglion cells) are mainly enriched in the lower half of our eyes and view the upper visual field. Those neurons send wires to the hypothalamus, which create a state of alertness
đ Phase Two: 9-16 Hours After Waking
Dim lights a bit, but donât have them completely dark
Bring the lights down, literally: turn off overhead lights
The brain shifts from Dopamine and Epinephrine being highest early in the day to increaes in Serotonin and other neuromodulators that put your brain into a state thatâs better for creative endeavors or abstract thinking
Around 2-4 hours before bed, remove as much blue light as possible and convert it to yellow and red light
Also dim your screens and all lights
đ Phase 3: Sleep (or Work Time For All Nighters)
To dampen effects of light this late at night, limit bright light to just the light of that which youâre working on (ie a screen), or else youâll deplete Melatonin levels and your body has it registered as traveling to another time zone
đĽď¸Â Screen Location Matters
Where we look is related to our alertness
Looking down decreases awareness: neurons that control moving our eyes downward are intimately related to areas of the brain stem that release neurotransmitters that activate areas of brain associated with calm and sleepiness
The opposite is also true: moving your eyes up (while keeping your head stationary) triggers brain circuits associated with alertness
Think about it: when weâre sleepy and nodding off on the couch, our eyes are downward
To be alert and maximally focused at work, put the screen of your computer at least at nose level or higher
Stack books or use boxes. You might need to get creative!
đ§ââď¸Posture
Beautiful data illustrate that when we stand, the same locus coeruleus neurons in our brainstem that release Norepinephrine and Epinephrine are activated
Sitting causes these neurons to be less active, and lying down to an even greater extent
In fact, studies show that as you adjust angle of body back, you get a dose dependent increase in sleepiness and calmness and dose dependent decrease in alertness
đ°ď¸Â Focus Isnât Immediate
Unless stressed or excited, most of us have trouble engaging
Studies have looked at this and have found something pretty depressing:
Even at our most heightened levels of focus, most people can only maintain focus before switching tasks for about 3 minutes.
When starting a work session of any kind, expect that it takes about 6 minutes to engage these neural circuits of awareness and warm up
Kind of like doing warm up sets before you lift heavier weight in the gym, itâs an unfair assumption to think that your brain will be ready to focus right away
Other tools talked about here will help limit this ramp up time, and it will shorten the time it takes to get into work (latency decreases)
đď¸ Visual Focus
Our visual pathways have two major channels
Parvocellular (high pixel density): involved in looking at things at specific points in space and at a high resolution
Magnocellular (low pixel density): involved in big swaths of visual space and at a lower resolution
Why would a low resolution vision be needed? It is better at detecting things like motion
Youâre going to create the maximum amount of alertness when your system is in parvocellular mode: where you bring your eyes to a common point (vergence eye movement)
This will create a narrower aperature of your visual world
Vergence eye movements are increibly powerful for creating heightened states of alertness and focus, and, indeed, they create heightened states of cognition
Your brain follows your vision in terms of focus, so if you say you canât focus, what you might be experiencing is an inability to focus visually
For your workspace, look at a screen directly in front of you, but donât look at a screen that is extends too far out to the sides
Blinders on a horse: if you cup your hands and put them by your eyes, the screen should roughly fit in that window
If your screen is too far out, you subconciously dilate your gaze, and it becomes harder to focus
Caveat: vergence eye movements require more energy, so your eyes can get tired when focusing on something for too long
Dr. Huberman extracted this principle from Opthamology and Neuroscience literature:
For every 45 minutes of focused work you do (book page, computer, phone), get into panoramic vision for at least 5 minutes
He suggests taking a walk outside: look at the horizon, which automatically triggers this panoramic gaze, which is relaxing to the eyes and will allow you to go back into a focused work session
This also functions as a great study break so that you can be more efficient and productive when you get back to work
This can reduce or even alleviate much of the eye fatigue, neck pain, headache that comes from looking at a screen all day
Obviously, donât go outside and check your phone! That is still vergence eye movement and your eyes need to relax
⪠The Cathedral Effect
Itâs very clear that the height of the ceiling in the visual environment that weâre in has a profound effect on the types of cognitive processes that we are able to engage.
People who are in high ceiling environments have more lofty and creative ideas that better support abstract reasoning and brainstorming
The lower the ceiling, the more that one performs detailed analytic work accurately and thinking is oriented toward correct answer type of work (ie accounting)
Even 2 feet of difference in ceiling height showed significant differences in cognitive processing
Apply this! Put a hat or hoodie on to make a lower ceiling when doing a Chemistry test, and for more creative work, go outside or to a big library
đ Auditory Environment
Workplace noises like the annoying, nonstop humming of air conditioning or heaters can really increase mental fatigue and vastly decrease cognitive performance
There is also evidence that in young children, white noise can impair the development of the auditory system
Donât freak out, just be careful about long term, extended exposure to white noise or loud AC noise
Weâve all experienced it: when youâre in a room where a loud fan is on for a while, but the it stops and you feel a huge sense of relief. The reason:
When thereâs ongoing sound, your auditory system hears that even if youâre not paying attention to it
Thereâs a brainstem mechanism that generates alertness, so once that fan goes off, these circuits associated with alertness turn off and you feel much more relaxed
White, pink, or brown noise can be used, therefore, once in a while, to increase overall alertness and focus but are not best to optimize certain mental functions
Listening to 40 hz binaural beats has been shown to improve memory, cognition, reaction times, and verbal recall
There are free apps out there for this, but know that apps that superimpose rain drops or ocean sounds will not be as effective
Dr. Hubermanâs view of the overall literature has showed him that 40 +/-Â 5 hz seems to be optimal for generating improvements in cognition, math performance, memory recalls, and musical performance
Interestingly, many studies had them listen to binaural beats 30 minutes before the task
Donât use them all the time as the auditory system attenuates, meaning that similar to the loud air conditioning fan, you kind of get used to it and donât think about it yet it still affects you (sensing it but not perceiving it)
đ˘Â Not Science-Backed But From His Productive Graduate Advisor
The ability to untether ourselves from the phone is going to be the way in which many of us are going to succeed or fail in our various pursuits.
Deal with interruptions by isolating yourself to get the most our of your work sessions
Some of the most effective people he knows say no to any kind of request
Personally, while studying with a few other people is helpful and fun, everyone needs study time on their own to ensure that they put in the hours to master the content themselves or just be productive in general
đââď¸Â Movement
A combination of standing and sitting is best for many health metrics and productivity
We werenât designed to sit all day, and we werenât designed to stand up all day
Just sitting is terrible for you: many studies out there point to the fact that people who sit for 5 to 7 hours daily have all sorts of issues related to sleep, neck pain, suffering cognition, cardiovascular effects affects, digestion, and effects of pressure on pelvic floor
Many of those health metrics improve with standing
However, a combination of standing and sitting is best
In his view of the scientific literature, in people who decreased sitting time by about 1/2 each day, there were incredibly significant effects on reduced neck and shoulder pain, increases in subjective health, increased vitality in work environments, improvement in cognitive conditioning and the ability to embrace new tasks, and cognitive performance
Here's a unique paper that focuses on both health and productivity metrics
It will take some time to adjust to standing more
Make sure youâre standing but not leaning for the most part
đŚ Other Things
Novel visual environments are going to lend themselves to heightened levels of alertness.
There were only a few scientists that Dr. Huberman met who managed to stay engaged and awake during long scientific conferences
These were people who moved to a different seat somewhat frequently in order to stay engaged
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Dr. Huberman for your incredible podcast and making science accessible to everyone.