Colored Noise and How It Can Help You Focus

[nelsonic]

I find it very difficult to focus on my work when there is noise in the area around me. 😞
Often resort to noise cancelling headphones dwyl/hq#147 and playing some form of music/sound to drown out the noise ... (see below for examples)

But what is the science?

https://youtu.be/9T978ES0LdQ

https://lifehacker.com/5365012/the-best-sounds-for-getting-work-done
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/white-noise-vs-noise-isolation-vs-playlists-best-sound-focus/

Focusing & Concentrating: What is better while working: white/pink/brown noise, or music? Why?
https://www.quora.com/Focusing-Concentrating-What-is-better-while-working-white-pink-brown-noise-or-music-Why

Top Answer:

Use Music for Repetitive Tasks
A study done with surgeons https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/379309

found that music improved performance as they did repetitive tasks that they already knew how to do well. So crank up that EDM playlist for your workout or bring up some Bach if you're about to perform your 251st molar extraction.

Ambient/Noise for Creating
If your work involves creativity and you're working on building something from scratch, you may be better off with ambient sounds or white/pink/brown noise. The lack of musical melody and vocals will not distract you from your work but will mask out other noises from your surroundings, giving you a cocoon of concentration in which to flex your creativity.

Links to: https://www.wrike.com/blog/10-free-productivity-apps-for-getting-things-done/
This list is slightly "old" now (there are other more up-to-date lists) but still has good tips.

Conclusion:

I have different background noise/sounds/music for different occasions/situations.

Examples (Free)

Classical Music for Brain Power - Mozart Effect

https://youtu.be/7JmprpRIsEY

"Smoothed Brown Noise":

https://youtu.be/FcWgjCDPiP4

"Nature Sounds of a Forest"

https://youtu.be/c2NmyoXBXmE

Deadmau5 - Chill Mix (Music to Work to) ... Accoustic/EDM

https://youtu.be/oMizeDmkI20

Note: I use https://en.savefrom.net to download the audio ONCE to my computer. ✅

I loathe wasting bandwidth unnecessarily on streaming the same music multiple times. 😕

[nelsonic]

https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl

[nelsonic]

While searching for a specific "John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme" sketch,
iFound a list of some of my favourite (and a few I haven't heard of) BBC Radio Comedy shows:
https://sites.google.com/site/welcometohellaudio/playlist-drive https://sites.google.com/view/playlistsnight/home

From this list I recommend:

• Cabin Pressure: Sitcom chronicling the (mis)adventures of a small aircraft crew/company.
  Probably the best comedy series ever. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabin_Pressure_(radio_series)

The series won the award for "Best British Radio Sitcom" for 2011, 2013, and 2014. Also it was voted "Comedy of the Year" across TV and radio for 2014, making it the first radio show to be given the honour.

• Count Arthur (character comedy)
• John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme: observational/sketch comedy. many genius skits.
• Hut 33: Sitcom set in WWII "codebreakers" Hut. great attention to detail including many historical references and deliberate "time travelling" jokes.
• Revolting People: "period comedy" set in the American Civil War.

[iteles]

I can't concentrate with anything that has words in my ear so if I'm going anything apart from admin tasks, I use acoustic music.

I have found that although I have youtube or Spotify playlists for working, I get bored of the music relatively quickly so I end up switching back and forth to focusatwill.com a lot. I'm a fan of the variety and the lengthy playlists. I'm also grateful for not having to expend energy on an active choice of what to listen to.
I'm not sure how much faith to place in the 'science' behind it as I usually seek it out when I'm already pre-disposed to doing focussed work, so I don't even have anecdotal evidence to back it up, but it's good background noise for me.
And above all, at $25 a year, I respect that they have kept their service at an accessible cost to all.

The only downside is that there is no offline functionality so you always have to be streaming. Not so great if you're working somewhere with a slow internet connection or with many people on the network (where you don't want to be setting the example that streaming is 'ok').

[nelsonic]

https://youtu.be/yydZbVoCbn0

[nelsonic]

This comment summarises my feelings: