4 Noisy Distractions People Who Work from Home Hate (and How NOT to Deal with Them)
Home office distractions
One of the perks of owning your own business is being able to work from home from time to time, as I am today. As I write this, I’m in my house in Brooklyn – which, on the weekends, is usually a nonstop cacophony of laughter, shrieking, crying, and everything in between.
My wife and two babies also make some noise as well.
During the week, though, is when I want to buckle down and get some serious work done. Living in a residential neighborhood as I do, it should be no problem to get the peace and quiet I seek on a workday… or so you’d think.
The reality is that people working from home – especially in a urban setting such as New York City – have a host of unwanted sounds they have to deal with. Here’s what I find most infuriating, as well as my knee-jerk, gut reactions to each (to be clear, how I’d LIKE to respond, not actually respond – which happens to be 100% wrong in every case):
1. Half-Deaf Downstairs Neighbor – The guy who lives below me is either unemployed or underemployed – either way, he’s home a LOT – like, every day. While our wives are at work and I’m trying to run my NYC team building company, he’s doing either one of two things: A) blasting his television at full volume, or B) jamming on his guitar while singing along to classic rock music – again, at full volume – in his “rock room,” conveniently located directly below my office.
- How I’d like to respond: Turn my 80s music up at full blast and point the speakers at the floor.
2. Car Noises from Outside – No matter where you go in this city, you can’t escape it: car horns, car alarms, back-up beeps, garbage trucks, street sweepers, engines revving as drivers try fruitlessly to drive over snow embankments. It. Does. Not. Stop.
- How I’d like to respond: Throw snowballs and expletives from my balcony.
3. Baby Home Sick – Kids get sick, and guess what? They can’t go to daycare; no, the parent without a “real job” (ie: the guy with a trivia company who can work from home) gets to watch said baby while attempting to go about his workday. Know what a baby with a fever sounds like? For those without kids, rest assured it’s NOT quiet.
- How I’d like to respond: Put the screaming kid in the crib, close the door, and pretend everything’s normal.
4. Doorbell – You’d be shocked if you knew how many uninvited guests come by your house while you’re at work – trust me, I was once I started working from home. I’ve had everybody interrupt my workday: deliveries, petitioners, census takers, Jehovah’s Witnesses, wrong addresses, you name it. Because our intercom doesn’t work, this means with each ear-piercing blast that shatters my focused attention, I have to go downstairs and answer the door.
- How I’d like to respond: Throw snowballs and expletives from my balcony.
Needless to say, my instincts for dealing with noisy intrusions on my workday are not necessarily the best choice for you (or me). Perhaps you’ve got some better suggestions for coping with unwanted noise when working from home?
(Image courtesy of Muppet Wikia)
How’d you forget the sirens! Fire department, police cars, ambulances. And if there’s a traffic jam nearby, those sirens continue to blare for minutes on end.
As for “coping” there are a few options I tend to go with. Headphones help. If you put together a playlist of music that is appropriate to what you’re doing, that can work quite well. there’s also ear plugs, which are pretty useful at times, if music isn’t a choice.
Otherwise, I just try to ignore those noises as best I can. If I’m writing something that carries me into the story, that can happen. But it’s an active, not a passive thing, so it’s only as successful as the effort I put into it! And, frankly, a lot of the time, I don’t feel like putting effort into not hearing things!
Great tips, Dean – certainly more sensible & productive than my knee-jerk reactions…!
Add to the ‘Doorbell’ problem 3 barking dogs every time someone comes to the door. The dogs (or the people knocking) don’t seem to care if you’re on the phone or not!
Yikes – sounds brutal, Larry!