I work at a coffeeshop/sandwich shop (Panera Bread/St. Louis Bread Company, to be exact). With our espresso drinks, accessible coffee shops, and quickly-made food, the company prides itself in being "an everyday oasis for our customers." I see it everyday: Most of our regulars only get a pastry and coffee and then spend hours on their laptops working. I've seen interviews, business meetings, organization gatherings, studying, project working, business, etc, you know, "computer work" everyday. Hell, one of our regular customers (in every day from the minute we open [we usually even let him in a few minutes early]) has his own mug so he's only charged for a refill, and he has his own internet card so he's not using our wifi. Yet, he's in every single day from the second we can let him to about three hours later working on his computer before he actually goes to work. He's been doing it for years. Why? The atmosphere. As a college student and self-proclaimed writer, I often myself looking for quiet places to get creative...but I still haven't found the "perfect" spot, just preferable ones. Another of my regulars introduced me to a study: Too much noise in the background is distracting and frustrating; hence, you have trouble focusing. Too much quiet doesn't work either for most people. There is a balance: the collective background noises of places like coffeeshops, usually paired with music, is the perfect type of white noise that allows you to be creative and productive. (The study spawned a free app called Coffitivity. If you work on your computer a lot, this will be amazing for you). Anyways, personal anecdote-infused information out of the way, for those of you who do this kind of work (homework, writing, video projects, reading, etc. any thing on a computer): Where do you find yourself working best? Do you have any personal routines or rituals? Do you like background noise? If so, how much and what kind? What prevents you from being productive? And as a personal fact: what kind of work do you do?
Before anything else, I'm just really surprised that nobody's replied to this yet. I usually don't have/take the option to go anywhere outside of my home. Even so, I feel like I do much better work at school (might just be that I'm in the "it's time to work" mode + the lack of internet access) when I have some of my tunes playing. I will elaborate in the next couple points. Not really. At least, there isn't anything that I'd consider ritualistic. It really just depends on the kind of/level of work I'm doing. Again, this one depends. I can't work in silence, so I suppose my answer would be yes, but at the same time I can take the smallest thing and turn it into a 30 min distraction... It can't be too much (like a tv playing in the background), but at the same time it has to be loud enough that I can hear and enjoy it. I do thoroughly enjoy my mid-work music -- although there are times where I'll waste an hour just deciding on what song to play. Myself. I'm not kidding. I will use literally anything to get out of doing work that I don't enjoy (SCHOOL). And apart from that, sports. I have NO idea why but if someone is watching sports in another room and it's up too high, I will start to care, regardless of whether or not I hate the team/sport. Might just be part of the above, but I'll leave that up to the imagination. Forgoing the above, I usually go through this routine when I'm editing or writing -- despite the fact that the former involves listening to one song over and over and over -- or just trying to be creative at all really. When I need to give something my complete and undivided attention, I need that "background" noise to be there. Even if it ends up distracting me for a few minutes, I just don't do as well if I haven't got it there. For example, I just wrote up this whole post while listening to Paint It Black. Sure it pulled my attention a few times (I WANNA SEE THE SUN BLOTTED OUT FROM THE SKY), but it makes me feel a bit better about what I'm doing. idk, the feeling's hard to explain, but it all boils down to personal artistic mojo imo
I too have heard the white noise fact, it does make sense but when I'm working I find it easier to be in complete silence, I can work with white noice but I find it harder to concentrate. Too much noise is just frustrating though xD At the moment, I've been revising for my exams which means I have a lot of work to do each day and it's much easier when I'm home alone as I get a good silence with no other distractions in the house. The other week though, both parents were off work so I was getting agitated, so I went to the school library and found it so much better. I'm still not sure why, it could be just getting up and going out the house but it was noisy more often then not due to classes in the library going about their normal lessons >.< I could eventually block it out but I just liked the atmosphere of working in the library. As for routines, at the moment I wake up at about 8am, do about an hour of revision, eat breakfast and watch a bit of tv, do a bit more revision until my brain needs a break and then I'll go through facebook on my phone to give it a rest before getting back into work, I will then work until I've finished everything I have to do for that day. I normally finish at about 5pm which is then a great time to go outside and read (if it's sunny which it has been the last few days : D) otherwise I have dinner and come on KHV to spend my free time. I tend to be slow at replying to texts and messages during this time as otherwise I get too distracted and I am quite disciplined with myself when it comes to work. I can't deal with music as I sing along, I much prefer silence but I've already covered that above xD Things that prevent me being productive is normally when I'm just really tired. I don't tend to be distracted by thoughts of doing something else as I know I have to work, my mind is very focused during such strenuous times of studying. Of course, I still get distracted by my surroundings, I have to work in a room with the curtain shut so I don't stare out the window and I keep all interesting things away from me whilst working in case I pick them up xD The kind of work I do at the moment is just studying for exams which includes Psychology, Chemistry, Biology and English literature (although I've finished English for good now ;-;). Most of my time is spent doing chemistry because it's so difficult, biology is just a meh subject, English was hard to revise for but I ended up having to learn about 12 poems off by heart as well as various Hamlet quotes and critics comments (we had to include interpretation of other readers for some weird reason O.o). Psychology is always fun because the concepts are brilliant but I just hate the exams as I feel they don't give you enough time and you just have to learn all these studies which is tiresome but I still quite enjoy some of the theories. I hate it sometimes but to be honest, I like the ritualistic feel it has and it gives me something to do and makes me feel smart : D
