What’s your ideal level for background noise while you’re working?
“I work in loud music — hard-rock stuff like AC/DC, Guns ‘n Roses, and Metallica have always been particular favorites.” – Stephen King
Stephen King isn’t alone in preferring high volume accompaniment to his writing. Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Michael Chabon also is rumored to crank it up while cranking it out.
“Noise” and “quiet” are, of course, all about perspective. You might hear a leaf blower and wish an anvil to fall, cartoon-like, upon it because until it’s silenced you know you’ll never get any work done. Someone else might easily tune it out. Someone particularly talented could perhaps even reframe the sound of the leaf blower to be some soothing crashing ocean waves.
Google the term work in silence” and you’ll get over 25,000 hits. Not as many as if you searched for Britney Spears or gummi worms, but still, nothing to sneeze at. A lot of people have strong opinions about what’s acceptable and what’s not when it comes to background noise while working.
How is it that some people can work, or even need to work, with the TV blaring, or the radio droning, or Modest Mouse cranked up to ten? And why is it that others need dead silence to produce?
Most importantly, what’s your definition of the right amount of background noise when it comes time to settle down and get stuff done? What do you like to hear? How loud do you like to hear it? Do your sound level needs vary based on the actual task at hand?
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8 responses so far ↓
1 Lauren // Dec 8, 2007 at 6:50 pm
I completely tune everything out when I work from home, in offices… anywhere. So any noise from from 0 to 11 works for me. Which is great for leaf blowers and barky dogs but has been considered rude by chatty office mates. What I’d like to figure out is how to selectively tune things out…
2 Marie // Dec 9, 2007 at 10:38 am
My needs have changed over time. These days, if I need to take care of a bunch of smaller things, where I’m doing alot of context switching (client context, or project context) I prefer to have silence around me, or very quiet music.
If I’m in (or need to be in) ‘the zone’, I like having things at a medium volume. This helps me force myself to concentrate on the work at hand.
When I’m doing “mindless” (drudge-y) tasks, I like listening at a higher volume!
3 QOTU // Dec 9, 2007 at 3:27 pm
When I am in production mode, music (mine) helps me “crank” into the zone. But anymore much of my work involves being on phone or voice, so I create noise for others.
As I’ve gotten older, I have begun “hollerin” on the phone like my parents used to do on long distance :P I’m not as bad about it using my headset and VOIP for some reason.
You’re gonna need to build me a soundproof phone booth. Hope that’s in your plans :)
4 spike // Dec 9, 2007 at 4:43 pm
I most prefer complete silence when I am writing. It’s why I most often like to write late at night or on weekends– seems the phone rings less then, people don’t knock on the door, and something about knowing most of the world is either sleeping or off playing makes the quiet somehow more quiet. That said, sometimes I go to coffee shops to work and I find I am able, sometimes. to just block out all the sound UNLESS they are playing music I love. Which is sort of a bummer since my current favorite hangout– they play such good music (I even swap music with one of the baristas) that I get really distracted.
5 Julie Gomoll // Dec 10, 2007 at 11:08 am
QOTU - As a matter of fact, we are going to have phone booths to accommodate “hollerin” :) Would you automatically go use one when you’re on the phone? Or would you need to be asked to take the call to a phone booth?
spike - I’m the opposite. I can work and mostly tune out coffee shop music unless its music I *don’t* like. Then I get distracted and cranky.
For me it’s all about what I’m working on. I can usually tune out almost anything, even a conversation happening right next to me, unless I’m reading or writing something “hard” (like reading leases or writing a business plan), in which case I need silence. Mostly though, if I’m working alone, I prefer to have either music going fairly loud or have the news on in the background.
6 John D. Berry // Dec 11, 2007 at 2:37 pm
For me, it depends on the kind of work I’m doing. For design work, I like music, but music of my own choosing. For writing, I need silence when I’m in the hard conceptual part, where I’m feeling my way toward what I want to say, but then when I get to the point where it’s all in my head somewhere and I just have to get it out, that’s when music can actually help.
Really loud music (probably not that loud by some people’s standards) is for cleaning up the office.
In a bar or espresso joint, it seems that too often the music is chosen for the sake of the staff (who after all aren’t trying to write or read, but just boppin’ through their day) and not for the customers.
7 Tori // Dec 11, 2007 at 5:08 pm
I seem to be incapable of tuning out anything at all. Barking dogs, leaf blowers, the earth-shaking thump from the drug-dealer’s car down the street all distract me and make me cranky. I don’t want to be subjected to anyone else’s music unless I’m doing something trivial. Otherwise I prefer minimalist, jazz, and instrumental only for interaction design, and alternative and rock for visual design. If I’m in production mode, then I’ll sometimes “watch” missed tv episodes. Yes, I did really just say that.
8 Coworking and children // Jan 14, 2008 at 5:28 pm
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