Optimizing Workspace for Productivity, Focus & Creativity | Huberman Lab Essentials
发布时间 2026-01-08 13:00:05 来源
摘要
In this Huberman Lab Essentials episode, I discuss how to optimize your workspace to maximize productivity, focus and creativity.
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Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where we revisit past episodes for the most potent and actionable science-based tools for mental health, physical health, and performance. I'm Andrew Huberman and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today we're going to talk all about how to optimize your workspace for maximum productivity, indeed that means to heighten levels of focus, to increase levels of creativity, to improve your ability to task switch. And this could be for say go school or for work, create him endeavors, personal endeavors. This really extends to everybody.
欢迎来到 Huberman Lab Essentials。在这里，我们回顾过去的节目，寻找对心理健康、身体健康和表现力最有效且可操作的科学工具。我是 Andrew Huberman，是斯坦福医学院神经生物学和眼科学的教授。今天，我们将全面讨论如何优化您的工作空间以实现最大生产力，这意味着提高专注力、增强创造力和改善任务转换能力。这可以用于学习或工作、创意项目以及个人计划。实际上，这适用于每一个人。
This is a topic that's intrigued me for a very long time because my undergraduate advisor, my graduate advisor, and my postdoc advisor had many things in common including being great scientists, being kind people and terrific mentors, but they had another thing in common which always perplexed me, which is that their offices were a complete disaster. They had mountains of books, mountains of papers, mountains of all sorts of stuff, and yet all of them were extremely productive and could remain extremely focused in that incredibly cluttered environment.
这个话题让我困惑了很长时间，因为我的本科导师、研究生导师和博士后导师有许多共同点，比如都是出色的科学家、善良的人以及优秀的导师。然而，他们还有一个共同点一直让我疑惑，就是他们的办公室总是乱成一团。办公室里堆满了书、论文和各种杂物，然而他们在这样混乱的环境中却依然高效地工作并保持高度的专注力。
Now I'm somebody who doesn't like clutter, I find it very hard to focus in cluttered environments. And indeed there's tremendous variation among people as to whether or not they can remain focused or whether or not they struggle to focus in physically cluttered environments. There's no right or wrong to this, but the question we should ask ourselves is why were they all able to be so focused? And it turns out that the reason they were able to be so focused is that they all captured one single and yet fundamental variable of workspace optimization.
现在我是一个不喜欢杂乱的人，在混乱的环境中我很难集中注意力。实际上，不同的人在是否能够在杂乱环境中保持专注这方面有很大的差异。没有对错之分，但我们应该问自己的是，为什么有些人能够如此专注？事实证明，他们能够如此专注的原因在于，他们抓住了一个简单而又基本的工作空间优化变量。
And we'll talk about what that variable is. In fact, we're going to talk about what all the variables of optimizing a workspace are. Things like vision, things like light, things like noise in the room, whether or not you listen to music or not, you use noise canceling headphones or not. We're going to talk about all of that. And we're going to do that in a way that you can optimize your workspace regardless of whether or not you are at home, whether or not you're on the road, etc. Because the last thing I would ever want to do is to create a situation where you find the optimal workspace and then you are a slave to that optimal workspace.
我们将讨论那个变量是什么。事实上，我们会谈论优化工作空间的所有变量，比如视线、光线、房间里的噪音、你是否听音乐、是否使用降噪耳机等等。我们将全面探讨这些因素，并且会以一种方式来帮助你优化你的工作空间，无论你是在家中、在路上或其他地方都能适用。因为我最不想看到的情况就是，你找到了一个最佳的工作空间却被它束缚住了。
That's just not the way the world works. What you want to do, or my goal for you, rather, is that you will have a short checklist of things that you can look to anytime you sit down to do work. And you can think about the underlying variables that impact your brain and your body and allow your brain and body to get into the optimal state in order to learn, in order to be productive. And indeed to move through your workbought in a very relaxed and pleasurable way while maintaining focus and while pursuing any of the number of things that you're doing.
这并不是世界运作的方式。我对你的期望是，你能够有一个简短的检查清单，每当你开始工作时都可以参考。你可以思考那些影响你大脑和身体的变量，从而使你的大脑和身体进入最佳状态，以便更好地学习和保持高效。同时，你能够在一种放松且愉悦的状态下完成工作，保持专注，并继续追求你正在做的事情。
The first variable we want to think about in terms of workspace optimization is vision and light. From the time you wake up in the morning until about six or seven or eight, sometimes nine hours later, your brain is in a unique state. It is in a state of high levels of dopamine, a neuromodulator, and high levels of epinephrine, as well as hormones like cortisol and so forth. 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.
我们在考虑工作空间优化时首先要关注的变量是视力和光线。从早晨醒来到六、七或八甚至九小时后，你的大脑处于一种独特的状态。这段时间内，大脑内的多巴胺（一种神经调节剂）、肾上腺素以及皮质醇等激素含量都很高。在这一天的早期阶段，置身于光线充足的环境中，有助于提高全天的工作效率，而不仅仅是在一天的早期阶段。
So one of the things that I've done for my workspace is to make sure that when I wake up in the morning, I do go get my sunlight. If the sun isn't out, I turn on as many bright artificial lights as I can manage or tolerate. And then I go get my sunlight exposure. But once I set out to do some work that all the overhead lights in that room are on, as well as lights in front of me. And that's again to stimulate heightened levels of focus and further release of these neuromodulators that I mentioned before.
为了优化我的工作空间，我每天早上醒来后，会确保自己接受日光照射。如果天气阴沉没有太阳，我会尽量打开尽可能多且适合的明亮人工灯光。日光照射后，我会开启屋顶的所有灯光，还有我面前的灯光。这么做是为了提高注意力集中，并刺激之前提到的神经调节物质的进一步释放。
Dopamine, neuroponephyrin, and epinephrine. Now, the way that one could do that could be a very low cost way of having, for instance, a desk lamp and those overhead lights. Ring lights can be pretty cost effective. And yet they're very bright and they have the sort of bright blue light that is going to optimally stimulate those melanopsin ganglion cells. I don't use a ring light. I use a light pad. The particular light pad I use bought on Amazon. So I place that on the desk in front of me and I turn it on essentially throughout this phase one of the day.
多巴胺、去甲肾上腺素和肾上腺素。为了刺激这些黑视素神经节细胞，可以用经济实惠的方式，例如使用台灯和顶灯。环形灯也是比较经济高效的选择，而且非常明亮，它们发出明亮的蓝光，可以最佳地刺激这些细胞。我个人不使用环形灯，而是选择了一个光板。我在亚马逊上购买了这个光板。每天的第一阶段，我会把它放在我面前的桌子上，基本上全天都会使用。
For those of you that can place your desk near a window and even better to open the window, that would be really fantastic. Why would I say open the window? Well, it turns out that sunlight is going to be the best stimulus for waking up your brain and body through this melanopsin to hypothalamus system. And by looking at sunlight through a window, it's 50, 50 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.
对于那些能够把书桌放在窗户旁边的人来说，如果还能打开窗户，那就更好了。为什么我建议打开窗户呢？原来，阳光通过视网膜中的黑视蛋白到达下丘脑的系统，是唤醒大脑和身体的最佳刺激。而隔着窗户看阳光，其效果仅是打开窗户时的1/50，原因主要是因为窗户过滤掉了许多能够刺激眼睛和发出唤醒信号的蓝光波长。
Now, in the afternoon, starting at about nine and continuing until about 16 hours after waking, you want to start dimming the lights in that environment. The idea is that in this so-called phase two of the 24-hour cycle from about nine to 16 hours after waking, you want to bring the level of lights down a bit. Having lights that are in front of you is fine, but overhead lights at that time are not going to be optimal for the sorts of neurochemical states that your brain wants to be in. The states that I'm referring to are a shift from the dopamine and norepinephrine that's highest early in the day to increases in things like serotonin and other neuromodulators that put your brain into a state that's better for creative endeavors or for more abstract thinking.
现在，在下午，从起床后大约九小时开始，到16小时之间，你需要开始调暗你所在环境中的灯光。这样做的目的是在这个被称为24小时周期“第二阶段”的时间段，即从起床后约九小时到16小时之间，将灯光的亮度稍微降低一些。此时前方的灯光是可以的，但头顶上的灯光不太适合，因为它们不利于大脑想要进入的神经化学状态。我指的是，从早上高峰的多巴胺和去甲肾上腺素，逐渐转向提高体内血清素和其他 neuromodulators（神经调节物质）的水平，这有助于大脑进入更适合创意工作或抽象思维的状态。
So what I recommend doing and what I personally do is I will turn off overhead lights in the afternoon. It's not completely dim. It's not completely dark. But I will start to reduce the amount of overhead light and just simply keep the light pad on and whatever other lamps I happen to be using. So somewhere around four or five p.m., which for me is, you know, about 12 hours after I've been awake or 14 hours after I've been awake, I will turn off that light pad and start to transition the lights in my environment to more yellows and reds.
所以，我建议大家这样做，我自己也是这样做的：下午的时候，我会关掉头顶的灯。这并不是完全变暗或者完全变黑，只是逐渐减少头顶灯光的亮度，然后只保留光板和我可能正在用的其他灯光。大约在下午四、五点钟，也就是我醒来大约12到14小时之后，我会关掉光板，并开始将环境中的灯光调整为偏黄色和红色的光。
And then I'll just mention because I know there are people who are working in the middle of the night. There's phase three, which is about 17 to 24 hours after waking. If you're 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. Because if you get light in your eyes, if it's any brighter than that, you're going to severely deplete your melatonin levels. You're going to severely shift your circadian clock and it's effectively like traveling to another time zone.
然后我要提一下，因为我知道有些人在半夜工作。我们有一个第三阶段，大约是在醒来后的17到24小时。如果你需要在生理节律的这个第三阶段工作，建议你尽量减少接触强光，只保持最低限度以完成工作所需的亮度。因为如果你的眼睛接触到更强的光，会严重减少褪黑激素的水平，极大地扰乱生理时钟，就像飞到另一个时区一样。
So if you stay up from 3 a.m. until 6 a.m. or 2 a.m. until 4 a.m. working on a term paper or something of that sort and you're getting bright light in your eyes, you are effectively flying six hours into a different time zone. Or at least that's what your body registers it as and it can really throw your sleep and your metabolism and a number of other things out of whack. Now there's an exception to this, which is if you really want to be awake, it can often be beneficial to flipping on all the lights in the room and keeping them really bright.
因此，如果你从凌晨3点到6点或从凌晨2点到4点熬夜写论文或做类似的事情，并且眼睛受到强烈光线的照射，你的身体实际上会感受到相当于飞到了另一个时区提前了六个小时。这种状态会严重扰乱你的睡眠、代谢以及其他许多方面。不过，有一个例外情况是，如果你真的希望保持清醒，那么把房间的所有灯都打开并保持明亮，通常会有帮助。
One of the hardest things to do is to stay up all night studying when you're in a dim environment. So you have to determine the trade-off between whether or not you want to shift your clock or whether or not you want to get the work done. Now that's light, but there's another aspect of vision that has been shown to be critically important for how alert we are going to be and how well we can maintain that alertness. And that has to do with where our visual focus is in a given environment.
在光线昏暗的环境中熬夜学习是最困难的事情之一。因此，你需要在调整作息时间和完成任务之间做出权衡。这是关于光线的问题，但还有一个关于视觉的重要方面，它对我们的清醒程度以及我们如何保持清醒尤为重要。这与我们在特定环境中的视觉焦点有关。
There's a very underappreciated and yet incredible aspect of our neurology that has to do with the relationship between where we look and our level of alertness. And it works in a very logical way. We have clusters of neurons in our brainstem and those clusters of neurons control our eyelid muscles and they control our eye movements up and down into the sides. Now the neurons that control those muscles have a very interesting feature, which is that when we are looking down toward the ground or anywhere below basically the central region of our face, the neurons that control that eye movement are intimately related to areas of the brainstem that release certain types of neuromodulators and neurotransmitters.
我们的神经系统中有一个非常被低估但又极其神奇的方面，它与我们看哪里和警觉程度之间的关系有关。这其实非常有逻辑。当我们在大脑干中，有一组神经元控制我们的眼睑肌肉和眼睛上下左右的移动。这些控制肌肉的神经元有一个非常有趣的特点：当我们向下看地面或者看向我们脸部中心区域以下的任何地方时，控制这些眼球运动的神经元会与大脑干中释放某些神经调节剂和神经递质的区域紧密相关。
And they activate areas of the brain that are associated with calm and indeed even with sleepiness. Now the opposite is also true. We have neurons that place our eyes into an upward gaze above the sort of level of our nose and up above our forehead literally looking up while keeping the head stationary. Those neurons don't just control the position of the eyes and cause them to move up. They also trigger the activation of brain circuits that are associated with alertness.
它们激活了与平静甚至睡意相关的大脑区域。相反的情况也存在。我们有一些神经元会使我们的眼睛向上看，超出鼻子的水平线和前额上方，实际上是在不移动头部的情况下向上看。这些神经元不仅仅控制眼睛的位置并让它们向上移动，它们还会触发与警觉性相关的大脑回路的激活。
Now this has some obvious implications contrary to what most people do, which is to look down at their laptop, tablet or phone. 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. There's another aspect of our vision that's absolutely critical for optimizing our workspace. And that has to do with this really interesting feature of our visual pathways in that it has two major channels. Those two major channels have names, although you don't have to remember the names. The first one is the so-called parvo cellular channel, which is involved in looking at things at specific points in space and at high resolution or detail.
现在，这与多数人习惯低头看笔记本电脑、平板或手机的做法相反，有一些明显的影响。如果你希望保持警觉，并在阅读或处理事务时保持最大的专注度，那么你需要确保屏幕或你正在看的东西至少与视线平齐，最好略高于视线。此外，我们的视觉还有一个非常关键的方面来优化工作空间，它与视觉通路中的一个有趣特征有关。视觉通路有两个主要通道，它们都有名字，尽管你不需要记住它们。第一个通道被称为“细胞节律通道”，它参与观察特定空间点的高分辨率或细节。
And then there's the so-called magna cellular channel that's involved in looking at big swaths of visual space and at lower resolution. Now again, you don't have to remember the names. What you do have to remember, however, is that you're going to create the maximum amount of alertness in your system, the maximum amount of ability to focus when your system is in that parvo cellular mode when you're bringing your eyes to a common point. What we call a virgins iMovent V E R G N C E bringing your eyes to a single point in space will create a narrower aperture of a visual window, meaning your visual world actually shrinks at least perceptually.
然后，还有一个所谓的大细胞通道，它负责观察大范围的视觉空间，但分辨率较低。现在，你不用记住这些名称。不过，你需要记住的是，当你的系统处于小细胞模式时，也就是当你把双眼聚焦在一个共同点时，你会达到最大的警觉性和专注力。我们称之为"辐辏运动"（vergence），也就是让双眼聚焦在空间中的一个单一点上。这会造成视觉窗口的缩小，意味着你的视觉世界在感知上实际上变小了。
Now the caveat to this is that if you are going to look at a narrow space, a narrow window for any period of time, whether or not it's a book or a laptop or a tablet or a phone, those virgins iMovents not only create alertness, but they also require energy. And they also can fatigue the eyes because there's a process called accommodation whereby the shape of your eye literally has to change so that the lens can move so that you can focus at that location. Accommodation is an incredible process, but it is a demanding one and that's the reason that your eyes get tired when you focus on something for too long.
现在要注意的是，如果你长时间注视一个狭小的空间，无论是书本、笔记本电脑、平板电脑还是手机，这种狭小空间的视觉移动不仅会让你变得警觉，还会耗费能量。此外，它们也会导致眼睛疲劳，因为有一个叫做调节的过程，眼球的形状实际上会发生变化，以便晶状体移动，从而让你能在那个位置对焦。调节是一个很神奇的过程，但也很耗费精力，这就是为什么长时间聚焦某个东西会让眼睛感到疲倦的原因。
So here's a principle extracted from the ophthalmology and neuroscience literature that you can adopt. 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 Magna Seller panoramic vision for at least five minutes. And the way that I suggest to do this is actually to take a walk ideally outside. So for every 45 minutes or so, try and get five minutes of relaxing your eyes. Look off into the distance, looking at a horizon will automatically trigger this panoramic gaze, which is very relaxing to the eyes and will allow you to go back into a focused workout.
以下是从眼科和神经科学文献中提取的一个原则，你可以采用。每当你专注于手机、平板电脑、书页或电脑等45分钟后，你应该让眼睛进入大视角视野至少五分钟。我建议的办法是尽量到外面走一走。所以，每专注大约45分钟，试着让眼睛放松五分钟。远眺或观看地平线会自然触发大视野，这对眼睛非常放松，有助于你重新回到集中精力的状态。
The one thing you absolutely do not want to do is to go outside and check your phone because if you're outside checking your phone or you're taking a break and checking your phone, you're still in that virgins iMovent. Okay, so this is very, very important because virgins iMovent's increase focus and attention and you can exploit that to increase focus and attention when you want to, but you absolutely need to relax the system. Again, for every 45 minutes in which you've been in that focused mode, you want to get at least five minutes of panoramic vision.
绝对不要做的一件事就是跑到外面去看手机，因为如果你在外面查看手机或者在休息时查看手机，你仍然处于这种"处女眼动"状态。这一点非常重要，因为"处女眼动"可以提高专注力和注意力，你可以利用这个状态在需要时增强自己的专注力和注意力。但你绝对需要让这个系统放松。每当你专注工作45分钟后，至少要花5分钟时间让眼睛放松，看看全景。
Next, I'd like to talk about an aspect of workspace optimization that can actually bias whether or not our brain and nervous system are better suited for detailed analytic work or more abstract work. What I'm about to describe is called the cathedral effect. The cathedral effect has been discussed, well really for many, many decades, maybe even hundreds of years, but formally has been discussed since the early 2000s, in which it seemed that people who were in high-ceiling environment, hence the phrase cathedral, would shift their thinking and their ideas to more abstract and creative lofty type thinking. So literally higher ceiling, loftier thinking, higher aspirations that this was observed in terms of the language that they use, but also the sorts of ideas that they would generate.
接下来，我想谈谈工作环境优化的一个方面，这个方面可以影响我们的脑和神经系统是否更适合进行细致的分析工作或更抽象的工作。我将要描述的是所谓的大教堂效应。大教堂效应其实已经讨论了很多很多年，甚至可能有几百年，但正式被提及是在2000年代初期。研究发现，处于高天花板环境中的人，他们的思维和想法更倾向于抽象和创造性的高层次思考。因此，字面上的“高天花板”与“高层次思考”和更高的目标关联，这不仅可以从他们所用的语言中观察到，也可以从他们所产生的想法中体现出来。
And conversely, that people that were in lower ceiling environments would be more oriented toward using language that was more restricted, literally more detailed analytic about things in their immediate space. So what does this mean for workspace optimization? Well, most of us have a fixed ceiling level in our home, but you might have rooms in which the ceiling is higher and rooms in which the ceiling is lower. If that were the case, I recommend if you want to do creative work during phase two, the nine to 16 hours of your circadian cycle, nine to 16 hours after waking, that is, that you do that in the high ceiling room, or maybe even outdoors out on a deck or on a patio, because the highest ceiling, of course, is the sky.
相反，那些处于较低天花板环境中的人们往往会使用更为受限的语言，更详细地分析他们周围的事物。那么，这对工作空间的优化意味着什么呢？大多数人的家庭天花板高度是固定的，但你可能会有天花板较高的房间和天花板较低的房间。如果是这样的话，我建议你在生理周期的第二阶段（即醒来后的9到16小时内）进行创造性工作时，选择在天花板较高的房间，甚至是在户外的露台或阳台上，因为最高的“天花板”当然是天空。
And again, the lower the ceiling or the lower your visual environment, the more that one tends to do, I should say, performs detailed analytic work accurately. And the more that... one's thinking is oriented towards detailed sort of correct answer type work. Whereas when the ceiling is higher or there's no ceiling, the more that the brain and the rest of the processing that we call cognitive processing is related to abstract reasoning, brainstorming, and indeed can pull from broader swaths of memory resources. Because really what abstract reasoning is is it's taking existing elements and maneuvering them or arranging them into novel ways. So you could think about like notes on a piano, playing a particular song, learning scales, that's very analytic. There's a correct answer that you're trying to arrive at or generate.
再说一次，当天花板较低或是视觉环境较为局限时，人们往往会更专注于执行详细的分析性工作，并且更准确。人的思维更倾向于追求准确答案的工作。相反地，当天花板较高或无天花板时，大脑及我们所称的认知加工更倾向于抽象推理、头脑风暴，并且能从更广泛的记忆资源中汲取灵感。因为抽象推理实际上是将现有的元素重新排列或组合成新的方式。你可以联想到钢琴上的音符，演奏一首特定的乐曲，学习音阶，这是一种非常分析性的过程，你要努力到达或产生一个正确的答案。
Whereas writing music or writing poetry or generating new material of any kind involves taking existing elements, right? You're not going to use words that you don't have committed to your memory that you're not aware of. And arranging them in novel ways. So I think the cathedral fact can be leveraged. And again, you don't need to move into a different home or build a slanted roof and work at one side of the room at one part of the day and the other side of the room at the other. Although, if that's the way you want to swing it, that's great. Most of us don't have that flexibility.
撰写音乐、诗歌或任何形式的新作品时，都需要利用已有的元素，对吧？你不会使用那些你不记得或不知道的词汇。而是将它们以新颖的方式组合起来。所以，我认为可以利用“教堂效应”这一事实。此外，你无需搬家或建造一个倾斜的屋顶，白天在房间的一边工作，另一边工作在晚上。不过，如果你喜欢这样做，那也很好。只是我们大多数人没有那么多灵活性。
But it's very clear that the height of the ceiling of the visual environment that we're in has a profound effect on the types of cognitive processes that we are able to engage. Now I'd like to shift our attention to the auditory environment or the noise in the room or the music in the room or the music or noise in the headphones because it turns out that there is a lot of quality scientific data out there that speaks to whether or not listening to particular sounds can enhance our cognition. And indeed the answer is yes, but there are very particular types of things to listen to under very particular types of conditions that allow one to do that.
很明显，我们所处环境中天花板的高度对我们能够进行的认知过程类型有着深远的影响。现在，我想把注意力转向听觉环境，也就是房间内的噪音、音乐，或者耳机中的音乐和噪音。事实证明，有很多高质量的科学数据表明，聆听特定的声音是否能增强我们的认知能力。答案确实是肯定的，但这需要在特定的条件下聆听特定类型的声音。
If you look across the literature for studies that involve complete silence or white noise or binaural beats or music or classical music or rock and roll, you can find results to support any type of environment as being more beneficial. However, as we'll talk about in a moment, there are a few types of environments to really avoid and a few types of sounds that really can enhance cognition and your ability to focus in your workspace environment across the board that really seem to work for all people.
如果你查看相关文献，会发现不论是完全的安静、白噪声、双耳节拍、音乐、古典音乐还是摇滚乐，都能找到认为这些环境更有利的研究结果。然而，我们很快会讨论，有几种环境是确实应该避免的，也有几种声音能真正提升认知能力，并在工作环境中普遍提高注意力，这些方法似乎对所有人都有效。
Let's talk about background noise to avoid and here we're talking about background noise to avoid because it actually can cause some pretty severe deficits in cognition. There's a paper first author Jordan Love, cool name, last author Alexander Francis, the title of the paper has to do with psychophysiological responses to potentially annoying heating ventilation and air conditioning noise during mentally demanding work, which is a mouthful. But basically what this paper identifies is a large data set in which workplace and environmental noise mostly the humming of air conditioners that's very loud or 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.
我们来谈谈应该避免的背景噪音，这些噪音实际上可能导致认知能力出现相当严重的削弱。由Jordan Love（名字很酷）为第一作者，Alexander Francis为最后作者的研究论文，标题涉及在精神紧张的工作中，对可能令人烦躁的供暖通风和空调噪音的心理生理反应。这标题有点长，但基本上，这篇论文揭示了一大数据集，表明工作场所和环境噪音中，主要是空调或者暖气持续响亮的嗡嗡声，这种持续不断且没有间歇的噪音，确实可以增加精神疲劳，并显著降低认知表现。
I think we've all experienced that when you're in a room and there's some ongoing background noise and all of a sudden it stops and you just feel this enormous relief. So does that mean that we shouldn't listen to white noise or pink noise or brown noise while we're working. Certainly a lot of people do in fact if you want to know what white noise, pink noise and brown noise are they're just different constellations of auditory frequencies that are played together brown noise has others it has different frequencies that are included at higher amplitude, etc. You can look this stuff up on YouTube if you want you just put brown noise none of it sounds terrific.
我想我们都经历过这样的情况：当你在一个房间里，有持续的背景噪音时，突然之间噪音消失了，你会感到一种巨大的放松。那么，这是否意味着我们在工作时不应该听白噪音、粉红噪音或棕色噪音呢？当然，很多人确实会听这些噪音。简单来说，白噪音、粉红噪音和棕色噪音就是不同组合的声音频率在一起播放。棕色噪音包含的频率不同，音量也可能更高等。如果你有兴趣，可以在 YouTube 上查找这些噪音。直接搜索棕色噪音，但要注意，它们听起来不见得很美妙。
It doesn't sound like music. It's literally just noise mixed frequencies in no particular arrangement. There is some evidence that playing white noise in the background or on headphones or pink noise or brown noise can facilitate cognition. But it's mainly through an increase in this overall alertness as a consequence of areas like locus coeruleus and other brain team areas that are associated with autonomic arousal from that noise. There's really no reason to suspect however that those particular patterns of noise are going to optimize particular mental functions.
这听起来不像音乐。实际上，它只是没有特定编排的噪声和混合频率。 有些证据表明，在背景中播放白噪声、粉噪声或褐噪声，或通过耳机播放，可以促进认知能力。这主要是通过噪声导致的大脑蓝斑核等与自主唤醒相关的区域提高了整体警觉性。然而，没有理由怀疑这些特殊的噪声模式会优化某些特定的心理功能。
So what I'd like to turn to next are particular patterns of sounds that indeed have been shown in peer-reviewed studies to optimize certain types of mental processing because you can incorporate these into your optimized workspace environment through headphones or through speakers whatever mechanism that you want in order to get more out of your work efforts. If you were to search for apps or go online and try and find sounds that can improve thinking or change your emotions you're generally going to find three types one are called isocronic tones these are tones usually of a common frequency so it might be a beep and then a pause and then beep of the same frequency and then beep forgive my terrible beeping. I don't know what good beeping would sound like but contrast isoconic tones with monorobites monorobites would be repetitive almost percussive like beats delivered to just one year to do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do this kind of thing.
我接下来要讲的是一些特定的声音模式，这些模式在经过同行评审的研究中已经被证明可以优化某些类型的心理处理。你可以通过耳机或音箱，甚至任何你喜欢的方法，把这些声音融入到你的工作环境中，以提高你的工作效率。如果你去搜索应用程序或者上网寻找能够改善思维或调节情绪的声音，一般会找到三种类型的声音。第一种叫做“等频音”，这通常是一种固定频率的音调，比如一个哔声，然后停顿，再一个相同频率的哔声。请原谅我不太好听的哔哔声，我也不知道好听的哔哔声是什么样的。与“等频音”相比，“单耳节拍”则是类似于重复的、几乎像打击乐的节拍，只在一只耳朵中播放，比如哒哒哒哒哒哒哒哒哒哒，这样的节奏。
You can find apps that can deliver monorobites you can find also apps that deliver so called bin or obits can also find YouTube scripts that were channels that will deliver bin or obits bin or obits as the name suggests are beats delivered to the two ears. One pattern of kind of percussive beat to one ear and a different pattern that's or at least a pattern that's out of phase that's not synchronized delivered to the other ear so on one ear you hear do do do do do do do do do do do do do and in the other ear you've got do do do do do and what happens is because of the way that the auditory system converges in the brain stem and generates what are called intra oral time differences. What that means in a moment intra oral time differences the difference between the two patterns of beats that are heard by the each of the two different ears leads to a third pattern that the brain entrains to kind of maps onto and generates particular types of brain waves.
你可以找到一些应用程序，它们提供单耳节拍的音频，也可以找到提供所谓“bin”或“obits”节拍的应用程序。你还可以找到一些YouTube频道，它们提供这样的音频脚本。顾名思义，“bin”或“obits”节拍是分别传递给左右耳的不同节奏的音频。在一个耳朵里，你会听到一种连续的节奏，比如“嘟嘟嘟嘟嘟”，而在另一个耳朵里，你会听到另一种不同步的节奏，比如“嘟嘟嘟”。由于听觉系统在脑干中会产生所谓的耳间时间差，这种节拍差异会在大脑中产生一种新的节奏模式。这个新模式会让大脑产生特定类型的脑电波。
Okay so without going into a lot of detail intra all time differences are the ways in which if you were to hear something off to your right like I just snapped my finger just to the right of my right ear that a signal arrives in my right ear before that's sound signal those sound waves arrive in my left ear so there's an intra oral between ears time difference and there's a brain stem area in which signals from one ear. And signals from the other ear converge and there's literally a math done by your nervous system that says this signal arrived before the other signal and the difference between those signals is the intra oral time difference by the intra oral beats have been generated in ways that create a particular pattern of intra all time differences that then cascades up to the rest of the brain and puts the four brain and other ears of the brain that are involved in cognition and action into a particular rhythm and some of the rhythms were waves of brain activity are ones that you may have heard of things like alpha waves or theta waves or gamma waves.
好的，简单来说，不用过多细节，双耳时间差指的是，比如当你在右边听到一个声音（比如我刚刚在右耳旁打了个响指）时，声波会先到达你的右耳，然后才到达左耳。因此，两个耳朵之间存在一个时间差。在我们的大脑干中，来自两个耳朵的信号会在某个区域汇聚，并且神经系统会通过计算知道哪个信号先到达。这种信号到达时间的差异就是双耳时间差。通过产生特定的双耳节拍，这种时间差会在大脑中形成特定的模式，并影响大脑内与认知和行动相关的部分进入特定的节奏。例如，你可能听说过的大脑活动的某些波形，如阿尔法波（alpha waves）、西塔波（theta waves）或伽马波（gamma waves），这些就是这种影响的结果。
So if you look across the board at the studies of binaural beats and you ask what sorts of binaural beats appear to be useful for people to enhance their brain function for particular times of task we arrive at some very interesting answers so we'll review what those are now 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. So you might try to get 40 hertz you might try listening to binaural beats for about 30 minutes while doing something else and then maybe eating lunch or something in that sort or taking a walk and then going into the work about because remember the moment that you start listening to these binaural beats the brain doesn't immediately switch into a particular pattern of oscillation or brain waves it takes some time so again 40 hertz binaural beats many many apps many YouTube scripts out there probably other resources for binaural beats that shell out any money.
所以，如果你看看有关双耳节拍的研究，询问哪些类型的双耳节拍对增强特定任务时的大脑功能有用，我们会得到一些非常有趣的答案。我们现在就来回顾一下这些答案。研究表明，40赫兹的双耳节拍可以提高认知功能，改善记忆力，提高反应速度和语言回忆能力。你可以尝试在做其他事情时，听大约30分钟的40赫兹双耳节拍，比如吃午饭或散步，然后再投入工作。需要记住的是，开始听这些双耳节拍后，大脑不会立即切换到特定的振荡模式或脑波状态，这需要一些时间。目前有许多应用软件和YouTube脚本，可能还有其他双耳节拍的资源，不需要花钱就能使用。
Some of you out there might be craving a little bit more mechanism by which binaural beats can influence things like focus or reduced reaction time this has actually been explored this 40 hertz binaural beats pattern seems to have an effect on what's called strideal dopamine that dopamine release leads to heightened levels of motivation and focus why motivation and focus well dopamine is actually the substrate by which epinephrine is made dopamine the molecule is actually converted into epinephrine adrenaline and they work together like close cousins dopamine and epinephrine in order to put us on a path of movement or if we are doing work of mental movement toward a goal so that's a little bit of mechanistic meat to explain at least part of the reason why 40 hertz binaural beats can enhance our focus reduce our reaction times and improve indeed learning and memory.
有些人可能会对双耳节拍影响专注力或减少反应时间的机制感到好奇。实际上，这方面已有研究发现，40赫兹的双耳节拍模式似乎对所谓的纹状体多巴胺有影响。这种多巴胺的释放会提升我们的动力和专注力。为什么会提升动力和专注力呢？因为多巴胺实际上是肾上腺素的前体，分子结构上多巴胺会转化为肾上腺素（即肾上腺素），两者如亲密的表亲协作，使我们朝着目标前进，不管是身体上的还是精神上的。因此，这就是解释40赫兹双耳节拍可以增强专注力、减少反应时间以及确实可以改善学习和记忆的一部分原因。
Next I'd like to talk about two aspects of optimizing workspace that will come up at some point in your work or school life the first one is interruptions there's a step forward simple method that I learned from my graduate advisor that works very very well what she would do was if I came by and asked a question or if anyone came by and asked a question she would acknowledge their presence but would not shift her body toward them so she purposely did not position her computer facing the door which I think is a deadly where she's a deadly to focus a way of positioning your workspace so her computer was facing the wall the door was perpendicular to that you know come by and I say I have a question she would say yes so she would acknowledge my presence but she wouldn't actually orient her body toward me which told me that this conversation was not going to last very long and no matter how long I stood there what I asked she would never orient toward me which generally kept these conversations very very short.
接下来，我想谈谈优化工作空间的两个方面，这将在你的工作或学习生活的某个阶段出现。第一个方面是打断。我从我的研究生导师那里学到一种非常有效的方法，她会在有人走过来问问题的时候，承认他们的存在，但不会转身体面对他们。她故意不把电脑朝向门口摆放，因为她觉得这是一种非常容易分心的摆放方式。所以她把电脑面向墙壁，门在侧面。我走过去说我有个问题时，她会说"好的"，承认我的存在，但不会真正转身面对我，这样就告诉我这次对话不会持续很久。无论我站在那里多长时间，问了什么问题，她都不会面向我，这通常让这些对话变得非常短。
The other approach which I confess colleagues of mine have used before not necessarily at Stanford but elsewhere is to simply say no to everything that somebody requests or comes by so if someone would knock on the door they would just shout no through the door or if someone say can I bother you for a second they would say no or someone say I have something I want to tell you they would just say no and they would just continue doing this until the person went away that was actually very effective these were some of the most productive people I know not always the kindest people but some of them were very kind.
另一种方法是（我承认我的一些同事以前用过，但不一定是在斯坦福，而是在其他地方），他们对任何请求都简单地说“不”。如果有人敲门，他们就直接在门后喊“不”；如果有人问“我能打扰你一下吗？”，他们就回答“不”；如果有人说“我有件事想告诉你”，他们还是回答“不”。他们会一直这样做，直到那个人离开。实际上，这种方法非常有效，这些人是我认识的效率最高的人之一。当然，他们不总是最友好的人，不过其中有些人还是很友善。
So is it better to sit or is it better to stand when doing work at least as it relates to focus and productivity and the answer is both there been a number of systematic studies exploring what are called sit sit stand desks so these are desks that can be set to height that makes standing the best practice and then they can be lowered to a height that makes sitting the best practice or the easiest practice I should say and it turns out that just sitting is terrible for us okay and there's an enormous number of studies out there that point to the fact that people who sit for five or six or seven hours a day doing work have all sorts of issues related to sleep and that pain cognition suffers their number of cardiovascular effects even digestion.
那么，工作时到底是坐着更好还是站着更好呢？至少在专注力和生产力方面，答案是两者结合都有益。有很多系统性研究探讨了一种叫“坐站交替”的桌子。这种桌子可以调整到适合站立工作的高度，然后也可以降到适合坐着工作的高度。结果表明，仅仅坐着对我们的健康非常不利。有大量研究指出，那些每天坐着工作五到七个小时的人，会出现各种问题，比如睡眠问题、疼痛、认知能力下降、心血管影响，甚至消化不良。
They may even actually be some almost pressure effects on the pelvic floor and things of that sort depending on the chairs that one uses but that people who stand are in a slightly better situation where many of those health metrics improve but that people that do a combination of sitting and standing at the same desk throughout the day or moved from one desk to another if they don't have a combination stand desk that's going to be best what's interesting if you look at the scientific literature is that people who decreased their sitting time by about half each day showed incredibly significant effects on reduced neck and shoulder pain increase in subjective health vitality and work related environments and perhaps most importantly for sake of today's discussion improvement in cognitive conditioning and the ability to embrace new tasks and cognitive performance.
根据使用的椅子不同，可能会对骨盆底等造成一些几乎难以察觉的压力影响。但相比之下，站立的人在某些健康指标上会有些改善。而更好的方式是，在一天中同一张桌子上交替进行坐、站或者在不同的桌子之间走动以避开长时间坐着。科学文献显示，若每天将坐的时间减少一半，能够显著降低颈部和肩部的疼痛，提升主观健康活力和工作环境，以及更为重要的是，在今天的讨论中，能改善认知状态，提高接受新任务的能力和认知表现。
What happens if we just stand well that can also generate some postural issues in terms of stabilization and fatigue that said most everybody at least in the US is not getting sufficient cardiovascular exercise or movement throughout the day and standing at one's desk can improve some of those health metrics and again can improve productivity probably be better because of those postural effects that I talked about earlier have to say after now about 10 years of working at a sit stand desk I find I can't sit for too long before I want to stand and my standing belts can be anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours although two hours would be a little bit long and then I catch myself kind of leaning on the desk off to the side.
如果我们只是站着不动，也可能引发一些姿势问题，比如稳定性和疲劳。然而，在美国，大多数人每天没有足够的心血管锻炼或运动，而站立办公可以改善这些健康指标，并且可能还能提高生产力。这是因为我之前提到的姿势影响。可以说，经过大约10年使用坐站交替办公桌的经验，我发现我不能长时间坐着，总会想站起来。我每次站立的时间可以从30分钟到2小时不等，不过站2小时有点过长，我会发现自己不自觉地侧靠在桌子上。
So again the idea is to stand but not be leaning on the desk obviously for typing or writing there'll be some leaning involved but that's what the literature support so we've been discussing workspace optimization with the understanding that you're not always going to work in the same place every day what I've tried to do is give you a set of high potency tools that can improve your focus and cognition and to place that within a framework for particular kinds of work let's just review some of the basic elements of what we've covered today.
所以，再次强调的是，站着工作但不要明显地倚靠在桌子上。显然，在打字或写字时会有一些必要的倚靠，但这是文献支持的。我们一直在讨论工作空间优化，并考虑到你不会每天都在同一个地方工作。我努力提供一套高效的工具来提高你的注意力和认知能力，并将其置于一个特定类型工作的框架中。现在让我们回顾一下今天讨论的一些基本要素。
First of all in the first part of your day that zero to nine hours after waking you want bright lights especially overhead lights as bright as you can keep them without feeling uncomfortable or certainly not without feeling any pain in your eyes or elsewhere in your body bright lights make for the maximum state of alertness and if you can try and place whatever it is you're focusing on at least at nose level or above try and avoid reclining try and stand for at least half of your work day. That's a good goal and it may take some time to work up to that goal in addition if you're going to use sound as a stimulus for increasing focus and alertness try and avoid exposure to white noise, pink noise of brown noise for extended periods of time for more than an hour or so that might actually be damaging to the auditory system and at the very least is kind of stressful even though you might not notice it it's kind of a background level of anxiety and stress that is not going to serve you well rather if you're going to pursue particular types of sound.
首先，在你一天的开始阶段，也就是醒来后的0到9小时内，你需要尽量使用明亮的光线，特别是头顶的光线，只要不让你感到不适或者痛苦，就尽量保持明亮的照明。这种明亮的光线能让你达到最高水平的警觉。如果可以，尽量将你专注的东西放在至少与你鼻子齐平的位置或更高，尽量避免躺卧，设法在工作时间里至少站立一半的时间。这是个不错的目标，可能需要一些时间来慢慢适应达到这个目标。另外，如果你要用声音来增加注意力和警觉性，尽量避免长时间（超过一小时）接触白噪音、粉噪音或棕色噪音，这可能会对听觉系统造成损害，至少会带来一种你可能未察觉的潜在压力和焦虑，这对你没有好处。如果你想通过某些特定类型的声音来提高专注力的话，可以尝试其他选择。
So you can use sound frequencies consider using 40 hertz by normal beats not mon or beats but 40 hertz by normal beats done during a particular work about or for 30 minutes prior to that work about I would not rely on by normal beats all the time every day I think that could cause them to lose their potency just because of the way the auditory system attenuates some other things that you could do in order to improve your workplace performance would be to consider the cathedral effect if you're going to do analytic work for any part of your day.
你可以使用声音频率，建议尝试40赫兹的常规节拍，而不用双耳节拍。为了得到更好的效果，可以在工作前的30分钟左右听一听这种常规节拍。不过，我不建议每天一直依赖双耳节拍，因为听觉系统会逐渐对这种刺激产生适应，导致效果减弱。为了提高工作表现，你还可以考虑使用“教堂效应”，特别是在需要进行分析工作的时间段里。
Phase one or phase two as I described them but really in any time of day that detailed analytic work for which there is a correct answer then try and get into an environment with a relatively low ceiling if you don't have access to a low ceiling environment you might consider using a brimmed hat or even a hoodie or even just facing down or even putting your hand above above your eyes as you will as at the level of your of your eyebrows in contrast if you're interested in doing brainstorming creative work you're writing new things you're creating new things.
无论是我所描述的第一阶段还是第二阶段，实际上在一天中的任何时间，如果你需要进行有明确答案的详细分析工作，尽量找一个天花板较低的环境。如果没有这样的环境，你可以考虑戴宽边帽子、穿连帽衫，或者只是低头甚至用手遮住你的眼睛（大约在眉毛的高度）。相反，如果你要进行头脑风暴、创造性的工作，比如写作新东西或创造新事物，情况就不同了。
So you're getting into a high ceiling or no ceiling environment or if you're wearing a brimmed hat or you're wearing a hoodie maybe peel that back. Now of course there are an enormous number of other things that you can do to improve work performance and productivity and I've talked about those in previous episodes in particular in the episode on focus and the episode on motivation there are supplements you can take that can increase dopamine for instance there are tools that you can use to increase your focus for instance focusing your visual attention on your body.
所以，如果你要进入一个高天花板或没有天花板的环境，或者如果你戴着有边沿的帽子或穿着连帽衫，可能需要把帽子或帽子揭下来。当然，还有很多其他的方法可以改善工作表现和生产力，我在之前的节目中已经讨论过这些，特别是在专注力和动力的节目中。比如，你可以服用一些增加多巴胺的补充剂，或者使用一些工具来增强你的专注力，比如专注于你的身体视觉注意力。
There are visual attention on one location for 30 to 60 seconds prior to entering a focused work out. I do want to acknowledge again the fact that I realize people are showing up to this challenge of workspace optimization with different budgets with different constraints some people have kids at home there are a lot of interruptions some people do not nonetheless I hope that the information I was able to provide today will allow you to make subtle or maybe even drastic rearrangements in your workspace environment.
在进入专注的工作状态之前，有人会在一个位置上集中注意力30到60秒。我也想再次承认，大家在参与这个工作环境优化挑战时，都有不同的预算和限制。有些人家里有孩子，会有很多干扰，而有些人没有。不过，我希望今天提供的信息能够帮助你在工作空间环境中做出一些细微甚至是重大的调整。
There's one other point related to that that I get to do not cover and then I'd like to cover just briefly which is that there's nothing to say that you have to always work in the same location all the time you can move from house to cafe if that works for you you can move from office to home you can also move from different locations within your home.
有一点与此相关，我之前没有涉及到，现在我想简单谈一下，那就是你不一定总是要在同一个地方工作。如果这样更适合你，你完全可以从家里换到咖啡馆，从办公室换到家里，或者在家里的不同地方移动。
Once again thank you for joining me for this discussion about the science and peer reviewed literature on workspace optimization I hope some if not all of the tools will be beneficial for you and as always thank you for your interest in science. Thank you for joining me for this discussion.
再次感谢您参与此次关于工作空间优化的科学和同行评审文献的讨论。我希望其中的一些工具，甚至是全部工具，都能对您有所帮助。同时，一如既往地感谢您对科学的关注。感谢您参与这次讨论。