The importance of a quiet and comfortable workplace

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the importance of a good workplace in order to be productive.

Writing is a very demanding task as the author has to be fully focussed on the writing process in order to convert the own thoughts into written passages. Structuring and experessing the own knowledge is very demanding for the human brain as it has to extract the meaning and finally to express it in an understandable way. Furthermore, the demand for brain power increases when the topic becomes more complex and/or abstract as it is mostly the case in scientific writing. For the purpose of productive writing, it is absolutely necessary that the brain can fully focus on the task and does not get distracted by other events taking place around the writer. Moreover, the writer himself should feel comfortable as feeling not well can result in a reduced concentration.

In this case, it is very important to have a quiet and comfortable workplace in order to be productive. In general, a good workplace will increase the productivity as the author will not be distracted by other events and thus can fully concentrate on the writing without being in danger of losing focus. In such a productive environment, the writer can dive into the work and potentially get into some kind of flow that will keep him motivated to continue the writing process.

However, it is very easy to lose focus while writing as even the smallest distraction can reduce the required amount of brain power and disturb the process. In other words, a phone call, a playing radio or even a loud noise can disturb the writing process as the brain will automatically allocate some brain power to analyze the event. In this case, it is necessary to eliminate all potential distractions at the workplace in order to be productive.

Unfortunately, I had some issues with my workplace during the last weeks and thus all my scientific writing came to an abrupt hold. Normally, I can keep my workplace quiet and I feel very comfortable sitting at my desk. However, both conditions were no longer met during the last weeks as my region experienced a very hot summer period and thus my workplace was everything but comfortable. Aside from the heat, the silence of my workplace was disturbed by two large excavators that were demolishing the building on the other side of the street.

A noisy workplace

It might be true that science will never sleep, but science can be disturbed by unforeseen events …

Winter solstice

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the winter solstice and the fact that the data gathering phase of one of my research projects is over.

Half a year ago, I wrote about Midsummer–the longest day in the northern hemisphere of our Earth[1]. At the summer solstice, the northern part of our Earth experiences the longest exposure to the sunlight during a whole year. At the exact same date, the southern part of our Earth experiences the shortest day of a year–the winter solstice. The reason behind this phenomen lies in the tilt of the rotation axis of the Earth relative to its orbital plane around the Sun. During one year–or an orbit around the Sun–the tilted rotation axis is causing the difference in the exposure to the sunlight.

Now, half a year after the first article, everything is flipped around. The Earth completed half of an orbit around the Sun and the northern hemisphere will experience the winter solstice tomorrow. In other words, the northern hemisphere has the longest night and the shortest day on December 21st. Regions north of the Arctic Circle will not have sunlight at all. These regions are now experiencing the polar night, because the Sun will not raise above the horizon. Moreover, it is the beginning of winter and this is hopefully resulting in freezing temperatures and a lot of snow!

Happy winter solstice everyone!

Schneeberg

Apart from the announcement of this special day during a year, I do have also other great news to share: the data gathering phase of one of my research projects is over. This week, I conducted a final test in order to determine possible positive effects of playing a particular computer game. Of course, the research project itself is not over yet. Now, I have to analyze the data and to write a paper about the results. Although this will result in a lot of work, it is still a nice feeling of having finished the most essential part of a research project.