The Work Soundscape

Ok I'd like you to bear with me as I share a little bit of insanity below. Or, my thinking is what I share below may seem like insanity to some of you. Others of you will 'get' it.

Here's the thesis: My brain isn't one that benefits from absolute silence when trying to get stuff done. Silence for me is an active deterrent to starting deep work - an invitation for my brain to pull itself a million different directions, as the lack of noise seems to invite in distraction instead of fortifying my position against it.

The magic, though, isn't just having any old thing playing on your headphones. Music is great but it's not the end of the equation - the really pro level move is to build a combination of inputs that are your own personal perfect potion for blocking out the world and shielding the productive side of your brain from its counterpart, which will always bombard you with its highly effective storm of distraction.

After years of experimentation I think I've dialed in the perfect combination for me - some amalgamation of 5 things that are key to achieving real peace before work can get done. Importantly, combining the five below also makes my remote work more pleasant, and isn't that the point?

I think these might be good building blocks for anyone who's read the above and thought 'this doesn't actually sound that insane at all'. I have thousands of hours testing these inputs over years of work, so you can trust me slightly further than you can throw me here.

Below I'll go through the combinations and tell you what I'm doing right now to build the perfect soundscape. Build your own, put them on your headphones* next time you work, and get back to me with your results.

1. The low, controlled babble of a happy crowd

Somewhat paradoxically the most effective tool I have for locking in and distracting me from distractions is controlled background chatter from a cafe or a coffee shop. This could just be working at a coffee shop, but I like to bring the coffee shop to me. Importantly I feel that the voices are individually indistinct - you can just hear a low happy hum of conversation. This lets my brain sit back and know it's time to lock in. I use Noizio to do this on my Mac, but this one on YouTube is also good and free.

2. Low, lyric-free music

For this category I have a ton of favorites, but to build my first combo I'm going to go with Tycho's Awake, which I found freshman year of college originally through his art moniker ISO50. This album in particular is the perfection of a work album. Melodic and interesting without being forgettable, something you'd listen to even if you're not trying to be productive, but doesn't get in the way when you are. Side note: Tycho also has one of the coolest home creative spaces around.

3. A transportive environment

When I'm trying to get deep work done I crave cold, rain, and snow. Knowing that it's nicer to stay inside than go out tells my brain it's cool to take your time and get the tasks done right. This could be just a desktop picture but I love getting the sounds of that type of day along with the visual aspect. For that I use Portal's incredible desktop app, which turns backgrounds into 8k moving backgrounds of nature scenes to transport myself to an appropriately crumby day - or not if I feel like it's time to go to the beach.

4. A constant background thrum

Somewhat controversially I'll put this fourth, as I think fan and air conditioner noise ranks higher for some people - however I see this as a nice to have rather than a necessity (and this is my blog so shove off!). For this I'm going with the trusted Levoit air purifier humming in the background as I work in the graffice (garage-office). Its constant background humming is for me wildly soothing and allows my brain to retreat from the distraction of the silent empty void.

5. Wildcard ambient sounds

Ok, now here's your chance to flex a bit. I use Noizio to add in a little crackling of a fireplace, blowing of winter winds, or a babbling stream depending on the day and how I'm feeling. I also use Klack to add a delightful little mechanical keyboard sound when I'm typing on my laptop. There are a million little pleasant background noises that could work here - experiment and see what fits.

Ok so we've now built a great soundscape. We have the noise of the coffee shop playing on a low murmur, Tycho's Awake at half volume in the background, it's snowing outside, I've actually moved away from the air purifier so we're not picking that up as much, but my keyboard is clacking in the background and I'm getting a bit of that lovely wind blowing and fire crackling.

God it's pleasant. I feel calm and ready to dive into deep work, and it all took about 30 seconds to set up.

Note that all of this is more effective if you're wearing some form of noise canceling headphones (I'm partial to the Bose 700), and you get another boost in noisy environments for putting in foam earplugs underneath - sure this sounds insanely silly but it's amazing how much blocking out unwanted inputs can add to internal peace. I keep a pair of foam earplugs in the carrying case of my headphones - not always needed, but when it is (crying baby on an airplane, metal music in the coffee shop, answering emails while getting your brakes fixed) they're very welcome.