Same here. The problem is that after a while I don't even notice the noise anymore but it still hurts my concentration. When I am in a quiet place focusing on something is suddenly really easy. It's not only people talking but the whole white noise like air conditioning.
I also get really tired sitting the whole day in a cube farm. In my home office I can go for 8 hours straight and am still fresh at the end.
White noise SHOULD help as long as it's consistent and uninterrupted. Aircon coming on and off will get your attention but a constant drone should be eventually ignored by your brain.
You could try some active noise cancellation headphones with something like http://rain.today or http://mynoise.net, I use this all the time at work to generate non-musical noise at low volumes and it blocks out all the office noise.
Recommended headphones would be the Bose QC series or the AudioTechnica ones. I'm sure there are others!
Studies have shown that background noise increases stress even when we are not consciously aware of it. The best reference I could find with minimal effort is about halfway down ("How does background noise affect our concentration?"):
Not to stereotype people but the white noise thing seems to be very American. Same as having TVs run everywhere so there is some background noise. Personally I want it just quiet. I also don't want to have headphones on my ears for an extended period.
Agreed. It drove me insane (almost literally) with the number of people that insisted on having a loud fan or a tv on just for the notice once I moved to the US.
I did a little unintentional experiment about this. I worked at a lab in a basement where there was a lot of constant basically white noise. Nothing stood out, it was just a lot of things like ventilation ducts.
I noticed after a few months that I couldn't figure out how to solve some problem until I was walking home. Curious if it was the timing or the noise, I got some hardcore machine shop ear protection that I wore from then on. Suddenly I was dramatically better able to focus at work.
The dull roar in the background was definitely just sort of consuming attention unconsciously and seriously slowing me down.
It was really loud in there though, every place I've worked since it's always conversations and sudden noises like doors opening that distracts me. I would never have heard a conversation a few desks away at the earlier place.
> White noise SHOULD help as long as it's consistent and uninterrupted. Aircon coming on and off will get your attention but a constant drone should be eventually ignored by your brain.
My anecdotal evidence from talking to friends and coworkers is that this varies from person to person. Some people can work very well in a crowded coffeeshop with loud random background chatter, and find complete silence to be distracting. Others like working to a sound like rain or ocean waves. Others like a rhythmic sound like fast-paced electronic music. Others need complete silence, and can’t deal with pure white noise. My speculation is that it has a lot to do with past experience/practice.
However, now that I'm reading other comments, I'm wondering if it's still a concentration breaker like others are saying. I def don't feel I can concentrate as much as I did a year ago, but I've got literally 3x as much work as I used to have, so I can't really tell if it's the noise or just too much on my mind... :/
Been wanting to try the QC30, but reviews indicate the noise cancelling is less than the QC20, not more.
It truly depends with me. I'd rather have music than a bunch of things shuffling in the background - studying in the library as a kid was just torture. I'd hear folks turning pages and dropping things and any murmur people did. And it was just absolutely horrible. I'd lose my place reading and stuff like that.
Quiet class time was the same. This has decreased a little with age: Yet it comes back just the same while meditating or doing some other tasks. Sometimes it is nearly painful.
Yet I find actual quiet - the type I get at night when the neighborhood is sleeping - quite wonderful at times.
