Working from home is wonderful. You can set your alarm a little later, make time to stretch in the morning and stay in your most comfortable clothes all day if you want to. However, with all of the benefits also come a few hurdles that you might need help overcoming in order to make working from home benefit your wellbeing.
One of these hurdles is maintaining concentration. For many of us working from home, there’s a whole array of distractions within the domestic environment that can break our flow, disturb our focus and intercept our attention. In this blog post, we explore how using white noise can help alleviate some of this disruption so that you can maintain better concentration throughout the day.
But first of all:
What is white noise?
White noise comes in a whole spectrum of different forms. The ones you’ll likely be most familiar with – consciously or subconsciously – are things like ocean sounds, pouring rain, the whirr of an oscillating fan, static sounds between radio channels and the monotonous drone of machinery.
Whatever the source, white noise is generally a continuous, low-frequency sound that drowns out, or at least muffles, other (undesirable) noise.
For example, if somebody struggles with sleep due to living on a busy street with lots of traffic and chatty passersby, they could use white noise audio to mask the outside sounds. This would have a calming effect and enable them to fall into an uninterrupted slumber much faster.
How white noise can help you concentrate when working from home
Playing a white noise soundtrack can significantly help drown out background sounds so that you can better concentrate on what’s in your foreground without distraction. This means you can work for longer periods of time without interruption, even if things like the TV or other people chatting are making noise around you.
White noise works by shifting your perception and cognition so that the brain’s auditory centres can focus more effectively – making you more productive. It pulls the brain into deep concentration by using sounds that aren’t broken by negatively-stimulating things like lyrics or change of beat.
White noise is also great if you’re looking to dampen background noise but don’t want to shut off from the world entirely by plugging yourself into headphones all day. Using white noise means you can find your focus but still hear when the delivery person knocks at your door.
In an office, it’s easier to seek out somewhere quiet when you want to focus or eliminate distraction but at home, it’s much more challenging. Implementing white noise into your working day is one of the most effective ways to find your focus when space is limited and background noise is inevitable at home.
Where can I find white noise sounds?
There are a number of places you can access white noise that will help you focus and sleep better, including YouTube and Spotify. However, if you’re particularly fond of sounds of the sea like us, you’re going to love our Sea Cast audios.
Sounds on The Sea Cast include a continuous diesel boat engine, a rolling thunderstorm, waves at high tide and even the captain’s hairdryer – to help you push away distractions and hush the outside world.