Optimizing Workspace for Productivity, Focus, & Creativity

If you want to be alert and you want to maintain the maximum amount of focus for whatever it is that you're reading or doing, you want that screen or whatever it is that you're looking at to at least be at eye level and ideally slightly above it.

For every 45 minutes in which you are focusing on something like a phone or a tablet or a book page or your computer, you want to get into magnocellular panoramic vision for at least 5 minutes. And the way that I suggest to do this is actually to take a walk, ideally outside.

During phase 1—again, within 0 to about 8 or 9 hours after waking—bright lights in your environment, in particular overhead lights, are going to facilitate focus, they're going to facilitate further release of things like dopamine and norepinephrine and healthy amounts of cortisol.

By looking at sunlight through a window, it's 50, five zero, times less effective than if that window were to be open—mostly because those windows filter out a lot of the wavelengths of blue light that are essential for stimulating the eyes and this wake-up signal.

The frequency of binaural beats that appears to bring about improved cognitive functioning at the level of memory, improved reaction times, and improved verbal recall seems to be 40 Hz.

Treadmilling or the cycling workstations improved attention and cognitive control scores as compared to people that were just seated and working. However, verbal memory scores got worse during the active sessions. And again, just to repeat, there was no difference between cycling and treadmill workstations.

That early part of the day is a time of day in which, for sake of workspace optimization, being in a brightly lit environment can lend itself to optimal work throughout the day, not just during that early phase.

The important thing to understand is when you are looking down below the level of your nose, you are essentially decelerating your alertness—you're reducing your amount of alertness. It might be subtle, but it's happening. Whereas, when you look straight ahead, or in particular, when you look up, you're increasing your level of alertness.

If you are going to be doing work in this early in what I call phase 1 portion of your day, you want to have as much light and indeed as much overhead light shining on you as safely possible.

There are beautiful data illustrating that when we are standing up, those same neurons in our brain stem (locus coeruleus neurons), which release... things like norepinephrine and epinephrine, those neurons become active when we are standing.

Workplace and environmental noise, mostly the humming of air conditioners that's very loud and the humming of heaters that's very loud and ongoing, just incessant, doesn't let up, can really increase mental fatigue and can vastly decrease cognitive performance.

What this means is that we should probably spend about half of our work time standing and about half of it sitting, but not all sitting or not all standing.

I, myself, am somebody who, for years, would pull anywhere from 5-10 all-nighters per year. I still pull an all-nighter now and again because of deadlines and so forth. I don't recommend it. If you can avoid it, great, but many people just simply have to do this for sake of shift work or because of impending deadlines or procrastination or all of the above.

But you can increase the amount of alertness in your system and remain awake in the middle of the night by drinking a little bit more water than you normally would and then refraining from going to the restroom. That certainly will lend itself to alertness.

Vergence eye movements are incredibly powerful for creating heightened states of alertness and focus. And indeed, they create heightened states of cognition, of thinking.

The cathedral effect... has been discussed since the early 2000s in which it seemed that people who were in high-ceilinged environments... would shift their thinking and their ideas to more abstract and creative, lofty-type thinking.

Striatal dopamine is closely related to motivation and focus, and 40-Hz binaural beats appears to increase striatal dopamine release.

If you are going to be doing work in that third phase of your circadian cycle, you really want to limit the amount of bright light that you're getting in your eyes to just the amount that allows you to do the work that you're doing.

Most people can only maintain focus before switching tasks for about 3 minutes, which is a depressingly short period of time.