TRANSKRIP 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.720
Welcome to the Five Codes Podcast, where we discuss evidence-based methods to elevate yourself to the next level through optimizing the way you look, move, perform, feel, and connect.
00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:21.839
On today's deep focus, I want to go into making your workspace as perfect for focus and concentration as you can get, optimizing your workspace.
00:00:22.160 --> 00:00:24.879
My best example of this is my operating room.
00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:26.399
It is my absolute dojo.
00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:28.800
It's my place, it's where I get into my flow state.
00:00:28.879 --> 00:00:37.600
And I got to purpose build my operating room with all of the things that we're going to talk about today to help my focus, help my creativity, help my attention.
00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:43.359
Basically, all of those things that I would want if I was having surgery in a space, I want my surgeon to have those too.
00:00:43.520 --> 00:00:45.439
I got to build them into the space.
00:00:45.679 --> 00:00:57.840
The cool part for you is being able to pull the aspects out of this, whether your workspace is an office, whether it's at home, whether you're at a library working, whether you're setting up at a coffee shop, there are elements of all of these things that you can take.
00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:03.439
Simple tools, simple strategies, things you can do to make wherever you're working as optimized as possible.
00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:08.480
I happen to be in the same place every time, doing my thing, my passion, my craft.
00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:11.280
And so I got to really build this workspace around it.
00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:19.840
But there's a lot illustrated in here that can be very important to you from lights to positioning to sounds, all kinds of things we're going to talk about today.
00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:22.560
And the first of those is lighting.
00:01:22.719 --> 00:01:26.959
And this gets beyond just what I do for lighting when I wake up in the morning on a surgical day.
00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:29.680
I live in the northern hemisphere in Cordlean, Idaho.
00:01:29.760 --> 00:01:32.480
And so different times of year I have different amounts of light.
00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:34.000
I'm focused a little bit more.
00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:41.519
I've done a whole podcast episode on just that, actually, on the five codes that talks all about how to use light, especially with changing seasons.
00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:45.120
This is a little bit more around the structure inside of the operating room.
00:01:45.359 --> 00:02:02.079
Inside of my operating room, I'm starting in the morning with my surgeries, and so there's changes throughout the day, but the light is optimized not just for myself, but for my entire team as well, to be focused and at attention, but not overly fatiguing because the different types of light can do these types of things.
00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:19.919
You've heard me talk about stimulating these very specific receptors in our eyes called melanopsin receptors that are part of these intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells and very specific wavelengths of light, specifically around 480 nanometers, heavily stimulate those to get our attention at its greatest.
00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:29.039
This is like mimicking a very bright sunlight, but we don't want to do that for too long or the wrong times of the day because it can be fatiguing.
00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:33.199
So I sort of use that in the morning for myself and for my team.
00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:41.759
And then I'm really thoughtful about the types of light that I'm using throughout the day, using the light when I need it, but also not trying to overfatigue everybody.
00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:58.800
So a prime example of this that's very unique and rare is that in my actual operating lights that I'm using for in the field that I'm working in, I will change the temperature and the intensity, the brightness of those lights throughout my surgery throughout various parts of the day, throughout various tasks.
00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:01.280
Sometimes I'm at a really focused task.
00:03:01.439 --> 00:03:03.360
I want great visual differentiation.
00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:06.879
I will make the temperature cooler, if you will.
00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:15.199
That is changing the Kelvin temperature of the light so that I have better visual differentiation and more stimulation of my melanopsin receptors.
00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:31.120
At other times, when I'm working, say on the skin surface instead of in a space or I'm not dissecting, whatever it may be, I may make it a little bit warmer of a temperature, which is a little bit more relaxing for everybody, gives us a bit of a chance to visually recover, and I don't need as much differentiation in those situations.
00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:34.879
So how this would apply to you is what time of day are you working?
00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:35.919
Is it early in the morning?
00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:36.800
Is it the afternoon?
00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:37.599
Is it the evening?
00:03:37.759 --> 00:03:41.599
If it's early in the morning, you want bright, stimulating light.
00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:48.159
That's also going to help your entire cortisol curve and your cortisol response, which is a side note of things that I think about in surgery.
00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:54.159
But you want to make sure that you are getting bright, stimulating light early in the day.
00:03:54.240 --> 00:04:06.240
And then as things get going in the afternoon, you might want to think about calming down the intensity of the light from a color standpoint, from a wavelength, that is, and also from a brightness or an intensity standpoint.
00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:10.639
So you might want to be calming those down, even thinking about the positioning of your lights.
00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:13.199
Overhead lights are very stimulating.
00:04:13.759 --> 00:04:19.839
They hit different parts
Load full transcript
of our retina than when lights are lower, physically, structurally lower in our visual field.
00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:22.639
So these are all things that I'm thinking about in surgery.
00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:31.120
And I very, very uniquely have lights set in a way that is able to be adjusted for the task that I'm doing at hand.
00:04:31.199 --> 00:04:37.439
I'm in the operating room sometimes for 10 plus hours, so is my entire team, and we want to make that as optimized as we can.
00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:48.560
Sticking with the theme of how our eyes are important to our focus and attention, the direction that our eyes are facing or gazing is also very uniquely important.
00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:51.920
So we all know that we can move our eyes up, down, left, right, things like that.
00:04:52.079 --> 00:05:09.759
And there's clusters of neurons in our brain that help control this, but very interestingly, the positioning of our eyes, the muscles that control that are tied to different clusters of neurons in our brains that have different effects depending on what is happening with our eyes as far as where our gaze direction is.
00:05:09.920 --> 00:05:23.439
So, for example, the clusters of neurons that help us down gaze, that means physically look down below our nose, those clusters of neurons also help to stimulate sleepiness and relaxation, right?
00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:34.240
The opposite of that being the clusters of neurons that help us look upwards, that stimulate those extraocular muscles to help us look upwards, help us with focus and creativity.
00:05:34.399 --> 00:05:38.720
So something as simple as the direction that your eyes are gazing can control these things.
00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:41.839
So this is how I leverage this in my workspace.
00:05:42.079 --> 00:05:45.360
I use a very specific type of what's called loops.
00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:52.079
These are the funny glasses that you see me wearing that have the little uh that's called a loop on there that controls the magnification and the direction.
00:05:52.160 --> 00:05:57.199
I have a very special loop that allows me to look forwards in my gaze.
00:05:57.279 --> 00:06:04.160
That means at the level of my nose or above, but the reflection of that allows me to see what's happening in my lower visual fields.
00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:06.959
So this is very specific and purposeful.
00:06:07.199 --> 00:06:13.839
This allows me to maintain the stimulation of the clusters of neurons that allow that stimulate up gaze.
00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.079
This is my focus and my creativity.
00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:20.319
These are really important things that you would want your surgeon primed on in surgery.
00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:25.839
They allow me to keep those engaged while I'm working in an actual visual field that is below that.
00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:26.800
It's very interesting.
00:06:26.879 --> 00:06:33.199
If you've ever seen me working, it looks like I'm looking out the window or looking forward on the horizon, but I'm really working in a space below.
00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:38.480
That is very purposeful to take advantage of my eye gaze positions.
00:06:38.959 --> 00:06:45.279
Now, that gets magnified to an even greater degree when you look at the physical space that I'm working in.
00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:50.720
My operating rooms have very high vaulted ceilings, like abnormally high.
00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:51.759
It's really cool, actually.
00:06:51.839 --> 00:06:53.839
It was a very attractive aspect.
00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:57.360
And there's this really cool phenomenon called the cathedral effect.
00:06:57.519 --> 00:07:07.839
And the cathedral effect is very well described when you are in an open space like a cathedral and you are stimulated to look up into the air, up into the space above you.
00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:15.759
And these higher ceiling environments are very well described to stimulate more creative, abstract, higher levels of thinking.
00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:23.360
Which is crazy for me to think that the height of a ceiling has such profound effects on the types of cognitive states that we're able to access.
00:07:23.839 --> 00:07:26.079
But I leverage that in my operating room.
00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:50.800
Very uniquely, the photographs that I'm referring to hundreds of times in every surgery are very strategically placed up in the cathedral, if you will, of my operating room, so that when I'm operating and I'm looking, I'm stimulated to look up at this cathedral, up at this very large TV that has all of the photos that I need of the patient that I'm working on, which I reference quite often during surgery.
00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:53.920
I'm very, very much getting into that space to think.
00:07:54.079 --> 00:07:57.439
And literally looking up allows that creativity that I'm looking for.
00:07:57.519 --> 00:07:58.879
So it's very stimulated.
00:07:58.959 --> 00:08:13.199
It's not just the visual field that I'm looking in, which we just described with eye position, but it's actually taking advantage of this very creative, high-seiling, larger types of thinking by using the cathedral effect, which again is very, very well described.
00:08:13.360 --> 00:08:20.879
I also think it's fascinating that the opposite of this is true, where the cathedral effect is stimulating this creative, larger types of thinking.
00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:28.399
If we want more analytical thinking, think the type of process that you're in when there is one distinct right answer.
00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:31.839
For me, I think of studying for a test or taking a test.
00:08:32.080 --> 00:08:33.919
The opposite of this is also true.
00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:44.559
And when I really think back to my formative years of taking hundreds of tests, including some really, really important ones, I was doing the opposite of the cathedral effect, unbeknownst to me.
00:08:44.639 --> 00:08:54.720
I didn't even know what I was doing, but I knew that I had
blinders on, blinders on my desk, maybe I had a hat and a hood at a very narrow area that I was working in.
00:08:54.879 --> 00:08:58.159
I was not working in this vast, wide open space metaphorically.
00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:00.639
I was working in the tightest space that I could.
00:09:00.799 --> 00:09:10.159
And that was stimulating these more analytical parts of my brains, the black and white yeses and no's, memorizing correct answers.
00:09:10.399 --> 00:09:16.960
And so that's not a space I want to be working in when I'm in the operating room because everything is very creative, very flowing.
00:09:17.200 --> 00:09:20.639
And you definitely want your surgeon in problem-solving mode when that's happening.
00:09:20.720 --> 00:09:22.639
It's not all just black and white analytical.
00:09:22.879 --> 00:09:29.360
But I do think it's really funny that I sort of gravitated towards that in these other, completely other types of situations.
00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:33.200
So for you, this could vary with the task that you're doing.
00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:37.919
Are you working on something large, expansive thinking that's creative?
00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:43.200
Maybe you do want to be in a big vaulted open area, a big coffee shop with high ceilings, something like that.
00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:59.840
If you're working on something that is very like get this done, black and white, um, you know, hard numbers, things like that, you might want to be in a smaller space where there's not as sort of this vast landscape around you in quite the same way, uh, which I again I think is a really actionable item.
00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:01.039
What are you working on?
00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:02.399
Where do you want to be doing it?
00:10:02.559 --> 00:10:10.879
So beyond just our eyes positioned in space, whether they're looking down or looking up, the relation of our eyes and what they're focusing on together is also really important.
00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:13.600
There's a couple of channels or names for this.
00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:18.320
One of them is called a parvocellular channel, the other one's called a magnocellular channel.
00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:22.960
And so we don't need to remember that necessarily as much as in a parvocellular channel.
00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:26.559
In that type of vision, our eyes are invergence.
00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:32.720
They're converging on one thing, they're looking at something together, sort of in close range, if you will.
00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:42.399
And that's really important because that narrows our visual field, it helps us focus in, and it's very activating, stimulating, and helps us be focused.
00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:42.960
It makes sense.
00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:50.559
When our eyes are focused on something nearby and close to us, we are locked in, if you will, quite literally and figuratively.
00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:54.960
That takes energy and focus, kind of pun intended.
00:10:55.039 --> 00:11:02.879
It takes energy
because our eyes have to do something called accommodating, which is changing physical, physically changing shape to be able to do that together.
00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:10.480
So what that means is that act, that activation energy that it requires to be in this parvocellular channel means that it's fatiguing.
00:11:10.559 --> 00:11:12.080
And this is we've all experienced this.
00:11:12.159 --> 00:11:17.120
This is why your eyes physically feel fatigued when you focus on something for a long period of time.
00:11:17.279 --> 00:11:26.080
And you can imagine in a 10-hour surgery that you're spending a lot of time in this parvocellular type of vision where things are convergence and you're locked in and you're focused.
00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:32.399
Takes a lot of energy, literally, for your eyes to do that, in addition to just the energy to be locked in.
00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:34.960
So this magna cellular vision is different.
00:11:35.039 --> 00:11:39.120
That's like a wider space, think like panoramic views.
00:11:39.360 --> 00:11:43.039
That's important to let us go into for a few reasons.
00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:48.000
Uh it helps relax our eyes, helps them kind of get their strength back over time.
00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:52.320
Uh it helps us relax that heavy, heavy locked-in focus that we're in.
00:11:52.559 --> 00:11:59.600
And I'm using this in my operating room, broken into naturally broken into breaks that exist throughout my procedure.
00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:16.879
Sometimes I do these as like what we call a movement snack where I'm physically moving my body, because on a side note, there's research that inside of the operating room, taking small physical breaks improves your performance and your outcomes and doesn't add any time onto the procedure to do that as long as they're relatively reasonable times.
00:12:17.039 --> 00:12:20.879
So I'm not just moving my body, refocusing my brain.
00:12:21.039 --> 00:12:23.360
I'm also letting my eyes relax in those times.
00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:30.720
I'm very fortunate that my operating room looks out at water, mountains, and trees.
00:12:30.879 --> 00:12:38.480
So I'm getting these beautiful views of fractal patterns, watching the sun rise or the sunset over the mountains.
00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:43.120
It's frankly beautiful, and it's hard to not be distracted by that, right?
00:12:43.200 --> 00:12:48.080
Um, but this is so when I get this magna cellular relaxation view, it is it's something else.
00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:49.600
It's really pretty to see.
00:12:49.679 --> 00:12:51.120
Um I'm very fortunate for that.
00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:54.480
And again, I chose my operating rooms for a good reason.
00:12:54.559 --> 00:13:07.440
Um but when you are locked in working on something very focused, again, in that vergence eye type of position where everything is like on a narrow space right in front of you, you do want to take breaks.
00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:13.279
The general recommendation is like five minutes of break for every 45 minutes of work or something along those lines.
00:13:13.440 --> 00:13:14.799
And that's just for your eyes.
00:13:14.960 --> 00:13:20.000
There's of course other types of focus and techniques that have to do with your attention span and things like that.
00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:46.799
But in general, I don't know that you need to get too into the numbers of this, but just knowing that you do want to change your gaze pattern, not just up and down, but how what you're focusing on from a distance standpoint into close parvocellular, virgins type of eye movements and faraway magnocellular thinking, broad landscape types of views to relax your brain and your eyes a little bit.
00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:51.840
The second I talk about working in a coffee shop, it makes me think of the background noises that exist as well.
00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:55.120
This is also very purposeful in my operating room.
00:13:55.360 --> 00:14:02.000
These background noises, whether they're white noise, pink noise, brown noise, you can look up the difference between those types of noises, has to do with frequencies.
00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:16.240
They can be certainly deleterious to your cognitive space, to your cognitive abilities, meaning white noise, pink noise, brown noise can take away from your overall cognitive capacity, especially as time goes on.
00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:23.759
And there have been studies of this showing whether it's like HVAC noises from, you know, the heating and cooling system, whatever it may be.
00:14:23.919 --> 00:14:26.480
Those types of noises take away from our capacity.
00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:30.480
Anybody who's been in the operating room knows that these sounds are notorious.
00:14:30.639 --> 00:14:33.759
Uh, one of the main ones would be like the suction that's on.
00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:37.360
Suction is a little tool that we use that is aptly named suction.
00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:42.879
Um, but when it's on, it creates this sort of background noise that is insidious.
00:14:42.960 --> 00:14:46.080
It just sort of like say eats at your soul a little bit.
00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:51.679
And the second that it gets turned off in the room, everybody who's been in an operating room has experienced this.
00:14:51.840 --> 00:14:54.080
It's this immediate sense of quiet relief.
00:14:54.159 --> 00:14:59.519
Like I didn't even realize that that was sort of rotting my brain a little bit in the background, what was happening.
00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:08.000
So that was something I was very cognizant of and immediately found the most quiet suction that I could.
00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:13.919
So this is something that is not running in the background, it's not eating into my cognitive space, it's not taking away from my reserve.
00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:19.039
I have it available when I need it, but it's also not something that is sort of running in the background, taking away.
00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:22.240
So that's a
really unique and interesting way to go about it.
00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:26.399
I think a lot of people think of the music in the operating room that's getting used.
00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:33.759
And that's something that I actually am not really tuned into, to be honest, because it's not white noise, pink noise, brown noise, it's nothing like that.
00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:36.960
It's it there'll be times that I'm tuned in and times that I'm not.
00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:42.320
It sort of depends on where I'm at in my surgery and the cognitive space that I'm in and whether I'm even paying attention to it or not.
00:15:42.399 --> 00:15:51.840
So certainly types of music I enjoy versus I'm not listening to things I don't enjoy, but I'm actually not as into that as you might think one might be because I am not tuned in.
00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:56.799
Now, here's an area where you can use sound to be helpful to your cognitive space.
00:15:56.960 --> 00:16:03.679
There, for me, the one way that I really get to do this is there's these types of frequencies or sounds called isochronic sounds.
00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:14.320
This would be like the, for me, it's the the heart rate of the of my patient, the the beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, kind of that sort of rhythmic thing.
00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:18.000
That can interestingly enhance focus when you get tuned into those.
00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:21.120
So I've always liked to be able to hear that.
00:16:21.200 --> 00:16:30.080
Um, and it kind of keeps me like quite literally in tune, attuned to what's happening with my patient, which is one of my I want to be attuned to what's going on.
00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:34.960
Um, but it also probably has that focus enhancement that I've always gravitated towards as well.
00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:37.679
So the the one thing I wish I could do.
00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:44.240
So this is a, I can't do this, but you should take this away into your workspace, has to do with bineural beats, right?
00:16:44.480 --> 00:16:50.240
Bineural beats are where you have a frequency in one ear and in the other, and your brain sort of finds a space between them.
00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:59.759
I use them for my patients, interestingly, before we do anesthesia to help calm down their autonomic nervous system.
00:16:59.840 --> 00:17:06.160
This is stimulating their parasympathetic nervous system, essentially to relax them before they ever go have anesthesia.
00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:09.839
That means we need less anesthesia, less of an induction dose.
00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:10.960
It's a more calm process.
00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:13.680
So I'm using very specifically like delta theta waves.
00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:16.720
This is very unique, by the way, to do this for my patients before they go in.
00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:24.799
It's a very simple way to be calming without pharmacology drugs and to get them in a space that's sort of ready for anesthesia.
00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:33.599
Anyone else who's had anesthesia might know that, like, oh, before you go back into the operating room, they want to give you a relaxing medicine, which is usually a benzodiazepine or something like that.
00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:38.480
Well, I'm not using benzodiazepines at all anywhere in my entire anesthesia process.
00:17:38.559 --> 00:17:45.200
I'm certainly not using them before you go back to relax you when we can use other simple tools that exist, something like binary beats.
00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:47.279
But so my patients are using these.
00:17:47.440 --> 00:17:56.720
I can't use binary beats because you have to have sort of your ears both occluded, if you will, and have to have the sound, you know, it's this idea of like the woo-woo woo-woo woo-woo happening between your ears.
00:17:56.799 --> 00:17:59.359
Um, I have to be able to communicate with my team.
00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:02.720
I want to hear heart rates and things like that that are going on.
00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:16.000
And so I actually have unobstructed hearing during the procedure, which means I can't use the binaural beats, but if I could, or when I'm doing something productive, you can also use binaural beats to beat, enhance your focus and your stimulation.
00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:30.319
This gets to different frequencies than I was just talking about for my patients, something more along the lines of like 40 hertz and like that, you know, more like the alpha ranges of our brain waves are going to be stimulating and help you with your focus during your procedure.
00:18:30.480 --> 00:18:40.960
So if you're sitting at a coffee shop doing some meaningful work or you're doing deep focus at home or wherever it may be, binary beats can be a helpful addition to enhance your focus.
00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:46.960
So that would be something I can't do that I wish I could do that you could take away and utilize in your own workspace.
00:18:47.200 --> 00:18:55.920
A really interesting aspect of your workspace that almost kind of goes without saying, but is often not thought about enough, is just your positioning and interruptions.
00:18:56.079 --> 00:19:02.319
So for me, just laying this out, it happens with the door entering and exiting the operating room.
00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:09.440
People are throughout a surgery entering and exiting, people are switching shifts, people need to go grab supplies, whatever it may be.
00:19:09.519 --> 00:19:12.480
So the door is getting used during the procedure.
00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:17.680
And you can imagine that you don't want your surgeon actually paying attention to who's coming in and out the door all the time.
00:19:17.759 --> 00:19:18.880
This is the support team.
00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:27.759
They are like busting it, doing their things, they're focused, they're tuned in as well, but you don't want your surgeon really knowing what's happening in and out the door every time.
00:19:27.920 --> 00:19:31.599
So this is something I've gotten
very good at just tuning out at baseline.
00:19:31.680 --> 00:19:40.079
But in my operating room spaces, when I get to control them, like design it, I'm very purposefully set to where my visual fields do not include the door.
00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:47.920
So, like I said, I am focused on the visual field in front of me, and I'm using my ergonomic loops, which means I'm looking forward, working down.
00:19:48.079 --> 00:20:00.640
And then when I am breaking visually, I'm looking up in my taking advantage of my cathedral effect, looking up at the television, getting into that very creative space, looking at the patient, and I'm back into my field.
00:20:00.799 --> 00:20:08.000
I do not have distractions coming in from people entering and exiting through the door, which is again a very important thing.
00:20:08.160 --> 00:20:12.559
But this would be applicable with sometimes just like what part of a desk you sit at.
00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:17.440
You don't want the door entering the room that you're in right in your visual field.
00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:23.839
Or if anybody's ever worked in a coffee shop, you might turn your back to the entrance to the coffee shop to see where people are ordering coffee.
00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:28.480
You'd maybe put your back to that so that you're not being distracted by people entering, people ordering coffee.
00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:32.079
It's it's just a bit of human nature here as far as things to avoid is.
00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:34.880
So it's just positioning yourself to avoid distractions.
00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:39.920
Your physical position in your workspace matters too, meaning whether you are sitting or standing.
00:20:40.079 --> 00:20:47.920
Uh, the best, spoiler alert, the best is a mix of sitting and standing, which is very, I'm very grateful that I get to do that in my operating room.
00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:49.519
It's designed around that.
00:20:49.759 --> 00:20:52.640
I stand, I sit, I go back and forth throughout the day.
00:20:52.720 --> 00:20:56.319
It depends on what part of the procedure that I'm doing, but my team has that very dial.
00:20:56.400 --> 00:20:58.480
That's a bit of a dance between getting up and down.
00:20:58.640 --> 00:21:03.359
We know exactly on this portion I'm standing, on this portion I'm sitting, and I get to go back and forth.
00:21:03.440 --> 00:21:07.519
So I get to take advantage of the mix of sitting and standing.
00:21:07.680 --> 00:21:21.359
Um, people in you know workspace environments might know this just from sitting and standing desks, the ability to change your position up or down depending on your level of fatigue, how central the task is that you're working on.
00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:23.200
So these are things that are known.
00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:25.359
We know that we don't just want to sit.
00:21:25.519 --> 00:21:28.240
Um, that's not great for our health in the long term.
00:21:28.400 --> 00:21:31.680
There are certain tasks that we do really well when we
sit and focus.
00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:38.799
Uh at the same time, standing all the time can be fatiguing, and you'll often see, if you really pay attention, this is uh something to tune into.
00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:42.079
You'll often see people that are standing at, they're actually leaning on their desk.
00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:44.640
They're not standing under full power.
00:21:44.799 --> 00:21:46.720
So that's not something I'm able to do.
00:21:46.799 --> 00:21:50.079
I'm truly standing or truly sitting, but these are things to pay attention to.
00:21:50.160 --> 00:21:55.680
If you find yourself leaning on your desk, it might just be time to sit before you can go to a pure standing session again.
00:21:55.759 --> 00:22:00.160
But the best is to be mixing, sitting, and standing when it comes to your physical position.
00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:03.359
So for me, my operating room is my most special place.
00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:07.119
It's privileged, it's unique, it's really cool to get to see it behind the scenes.
00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:14.160
I've got a lot of time in there in my life, and so I got to design exactly what I wanted in the exact way that I wanted it.
00:22:14.319 --> 00:22:17.759
Every detail is curated, as you might imagine, in there.
00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:19.359
I did it the way that I would do it.
00:22:19.440 --> 00:22:20.960
I did it the way that I would want it done.
00:22:21.039 --> 00:22:27.920
If I was the one having surgery on me, this is how I'd want my surgeon to, this is the environment I would want my surgeon to be in.
00:22:28.079 --> 00:22:34.319
So there's some cool lessons and tools and tricks and ideas you can take away from this to wherever your workspace.
00:22:37.039 --> 00:22:49.680
So there's some cool ideas and strategies and techniques and tips and tricks and tools to take into your workspace, wherever that would be, especially if your workspace is variable and changing.
00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:51.119
Uh, I do this all the time.
00:22:51.279 --> 00:22:53.119
I'm not only working in the operating room.
00:22:53.200 --> 00:23:00.400
That's my most special work, but when I'm doing other things, I'm incorporating these techniques and tools and ideas as well with where I'm looking.
00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:08.720
Like I put my computer up when I'm working instead of down, just for the simple visual gaze types of things like at my nose level or above, which is kind of weird sometimes.
00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:10.160
Can't always do that.
00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:13.519
But when available, I'm trying to take advantage of those same things.
00:23:13.680 --> 00:23:27.599
And I guarantee the next time you walk into a big vaulted space, whether you're working in there or not, um, you will have now that you know what the cathedral effect is, you'll have that idea and that visual, and you'll be like, oh yeah, I definitely felt that before.
00:23:27.680 --> 00:23:34.000
Um, but now that you're aware of it, it's something you might be able to leverage in your workspace or depending on the type of task you're doing.
00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:36.160
So hope you found this very helpful.
00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:42.319
Uh, a little insight into how my brain works, what my operating room looks like, and how you can take those tools into your everyday life.
00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:47.039
If you have any questions or topics you would like me to explore further, please leave them in the comments.
00:23:47.200 --> 00:23:50.400
I read them all and they often help shape the future conversations here.
00:23:50.720 --> 00:24:03.759
I also want to be clear that the views shared on this podcast are my own and are not associated with or representative of my clinical teaching affiliation with the University of Washington School of Medicine, nor should this be taken as individual medical advice.
00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:05.440
Thank you for spending your time with me.
00:24:05.519 --> 00:24:08.319
I appreciate you being here, and I will see you on the next episode.