Listening to music while working
Scott and colleagues collected data from “three studies: a pilot study of 108 employees from a software company who took part in a 2-week . . . study and self-rated their music listening and...
Polished Wood
Wooden surfaces, on walls, furniture, floors, etc., are often highly polished and shiny—so their use has all the neuroscience implications noted in the first article in this month’s articles. All on its own, however,...
Benefits of Books
When the holidays approach, our places can start to seem visually cluttered—and sometimes this leads to a little voice in our heads suggesting we get rid of books. Unloading a few books that haven’t...
Add dynamic movement
A static space is alien to us and, over time, makes us tense. Have you ever been in a meadow on a lovely spring day when there wasn’t even the tiniest current of moving...
Go Green and Leafy
As the days get cooler you probably survey your garden with a heavy heart. You know, like Solomon, you will have to make some difficult decisions soon. Which plants should you save from becoming...
Lighting the Day as the Day is!
Lots of us are up at all sorts of hours. Our days get turned topsy-turvy because, since we now all work all day as we can work anywhere, we get a call from a...
Go Natural…!
When in doubt, whether you’re standing in front of a display at a home improvement store or a furniture shop, the best option, materials wise, is always the natural one. Wood, stone, wool, and...
Hotelification of the Office
Stacey Freed writes about firms’ efforts to encourage people to work onsite by making those sites oases of pleasure, really resorts for working. It remains to be seen if these attempts at “hotelification,” which...
Biophilic Design and Creativity
Suresh and colleagues confirm that people are more creative in biophilically designed offices: “Biophilia Index has shown a significant positive correlation and a strong predictive value for creativity of employees. . . . [data...
Nature scents?
Yildirim and colleagues gathered data in multisensory virtual reality simulations of an actual workplace: “the multisensory biophilic workplace significantly improved cognitive performance, reduced stress levels, and enhanced mood states compared to the non-biophilic one....
New Life into Old Buildings
Worldwide many fewer churches are needed for religious services, so many are being repurposed—and the buildings have some great architectural features, neuroscience-wise. In “As Hundreds of Churches Sit Empty, Some Become Hotels and Restaruants”...
Product Curves
Chen, Ma, Xiao, and Qin y report that field and lab research “showed that circular (vs. angular) shapes of new products decreased perceived learning costs, which, in turn, enhanced consumer innovation adoption intentions. ....
Health and Stand-biased desks
Salzar and associates report that using data collected during 10 days of use of stand-biased, sit-stand, or traditional desks they “found that workers who use stand-biased desks stood more and sat less during their...
Colours of Energy Levels
People are people and brains are brains wherever they are, so it’s no surprise that colours influence us in predictable ways no matter where we find ourselves. Colour has 3 dimensions, hue, saturation, and...
Associations of hues
Over time, groups of people come to link specific concepts/ideas to certain colours. Sometimes these colour-idea bonds seem to happen almost by decree, for example, when a political party decides to adopt a colour...
Colours for Home Offices
Whether you’re picking colours for your home office or a space where thousands will work, the same rules apply. Neuroscience has made it clear that it’s important for people doing knowledge work to coordinate...
Setting the Thermometer
With Winter and Summer comes more time indoors in much of the developed world—and depending on whether you’re in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, Winter/Summer is almost upon us. Spring and Autumn are regularly...
Dealing With the Stress of “Regular Life”
Whoever we are, sometimes our lives become more stressful. Whether it’s because we’re returning to our usual lives after a relaxed summer away from our usual challenges or because the weather is getting better...
Unseen Forces – Part 1 – Sound
‘Tis the season for invisible forces. With Midsummer’s eve and good weather sitings of all sorts of gnomes and fairies, the unseen can be top of mind. In this issue we won’t talk about...
Workplace location, how it affects productivity and creativity
Arata and Kawakubo found that “productivity in simple tasks increased with the frequency of working from home. . . . improving the residential environment, including temperature and humidity control, is critical to enhance productivity...
The Bigger the Window…
Gomez-Sirvent and teammates’ conducted an intriguing study: “a virtual replica of a real conservatoire classroom was used to investigate the effect of window size and views through windows on the perception of the built...
Zoom backdrops – choose wisely, especially for trust…
Houchens and teammates evaluated how patients respond to different scenes behind physicians during Zoom-type telemedicine appointments and their findings are likely more generally applicable. The investigators “assessed patient preferences for various visual backgrounds during...
Active Workstations!
A study done at the Mayo Clinic and lead by Lopez-Jimenez found “that active workstations incorporating a walking pad, bike, stepper and/or standing desk are successful strategies for reducing sedentary time and improving mental...
Writing is worth it! (vs the keyboard…!)
Van der Weel and Van der Meer share that “Brain electrical activity was recorded in 36 university students as they were handwriting visually presented words using a digital pen and typewriting the words on...
At home and onsite creativity
Rucker and associates “conducted an experimental study with a German company whose employees usually work in an activity-based workspace consisting of open, closed and informal spaces that can be used by employees depending on...
Choosing a New Place… The LONG READ
Relocating, changing where you live can be a jarring experience. There are all sorts of practical things that you need to figure out when you move – like the fastest route to the market...
Fix-it-up Timeline… what should you tackle first and why…
Even if you move into a brand-new home, one that has never been lived in by anyone else, you’ll need to make some changes before your new house becomes your new home. The first...
Add Variety to be More Creative
Nagayama found that having multiple worksites can boost our creativity. Via a survey they probed “the relationship between MLW [multiple-locational work] . . . and worker outcomes, such as engagement, creativity, and well-being. ....
Consequences of Time in Nature
Joye and teammates report that they “tested the ‘nature-as-reward hypothesis’, which suggests that superior cognitive task performance following nature exposure reflects a general performance improvement, driven by the reward value of beautiful things. ....
Collaboration – in person vs online
Van der Wouden and Youn (as reported by Ayshford) studied “17 million scientific publications over the past 45 years find[ing] that researchers who collaborated locally were much more likely to gain new knowledge from...
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