Optimizing Workspace for Productivity, Focus, & Creativity

Andrew Huberman2 HN recommenders · 2022–2023
595K views · podcast · dated · Uploaded 2022-01-31

A Huberman Lab episode on setting up a workspace for productivity, focus and creativity, covering light, posture, movement and sound. It touches on ideas like ceiling height and the effect of screens on the brain.

Pointed to when people ask for science-based ways to boost concentration or arrange a home office.

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4 comments from Hacker News

@kaczordon2022 · in “Ask HN: Any scientifically proven techniques to boost concentration?”

Dr Huberman from Stanford has a great weekly podcast where he talks about how to improve all parts of your body/mind for various activities(sleep, exercise etc.). Here’s one on improving productivity: [VIDEO] One of the tips from the video that I really love is called the cathedral effect. It was found that having high ceilings increases your creative capacity when doing an activity.

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@fergonco2022 · in “White noise improves learning by modulating activity in midbrain regions (2014)”

Andrew Huberman saying in a podcast that it's not the case for verbal recall: [VIDEO] Interesting podcast, btw. got it from HN few days ago.

@blueyes2022 · in “Virtual communication curbs creative idea generation”

Virtual interactions are tied to screens. That's their weak point, because screens affect our vision, how we move and focus our eyes. Our eyes are the only part of our brain exposed to light and air. It turns out that how we move and focus them affects the rest of brain function. Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist at Stanford, has researched and spoken about this deeply and at length. Here are three podcast episodes where he dives in: [LINK] [LINK] [VIDEO] I think all three points in these comments can be right: 1) we need alone time; 2) sharing physical space can help creativity; 3) virtual meetings can hurt it. But we have to isolate the variables. Shared physical space for creative sessions doesn't have to mean open offices, and it doesn't have to mean eliminating solitude. We should also allow for different people responding differently to virtual meetings, shared space, etc, and remember to consider this statistically, as the scientists do. That is, we should try to segment the subjects of the study. Some will prefer screens more, some shared space. The tech industry remains willfully and obtusely ignorant of the costs of virtualizing human interaction, because people sitting in a room together don't need much software, and nobody's going to build a unicorn on that. As with long covid, the true and persistent costs of these changes -- virtualizing everything -- will only become apparent in the years to come.

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@Kratacoa2023 · in “Ask HN: How do you organize work and personal computers at your home office?”

I will not reply to the topic as I do not have any interesting bits to share, however Huberman Lab did a whole episode on optimising workspaces. [1][ [VIDEO] ].