It's hard to work in a vacuum. Look around the office or the classroom; people congregate together, even to work separately. Try working silently in your room; how long is it before you start bouncing your leg, shuffling your papers, clicking your pen, or drumming your fingers? The thing is, if it's too quiet, we find it just as hard to work as if it's too loud.
For a nice background level of noise, there are a few different free online tools I use. My office is far removed from other workspaces; without these tools, I'd be a pen-clicker extraordinaire.
Pandora is a free music site (although a sign-up is required). I set my stations to mostly play songs I already know, so they fade into the background as I work. Since I use the free version, the commercials are well-timed reminders to stretch, get up, or move around. I find this level of background noise ideal for routine-type tasks.
Simply Noise is a free white-noise generator, with no sign-up required. My preference is the "brown" noise on oscillate: it sounds like the ocean. I prefer to use this level of sound when doing something that requires intense concentration and focus; the consistent oscillation regulates my breathing. It gives me something to hear without having to actively listen, so it's comforting while not taking up brain space. It's my spreadsheet soundtrack.
What inspired this post is my latest find, Coffitivity, a free tool that channels in ambient noise from a coffee shop environment. It's tagline is "Enough noise to work." I've been listening to it while creating this post, and I can see using it when doing other creative work (designing flyers or creating original content, for example). Use Coffitivity alone, or overlay it with your own playlists.
Homework just got easier.
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