When a programmer complains about noisy, distracting offices (with 30 years of unambiguous research behind it) the immediate response always seems to be “wear headphones”. The studies on the effects of background music are broad and it’s easy to misapply (eg. studies of factory workers vs. knowledge workers). This analysis separates those out and for the tasks that look most like programming (comprehension, recall) concludes things like:
In all of the eight studies, the impact of music on text understanding was negative (r ̄ weighted = –.11, N = 8 studies, n = 680, r min = –.39, r max = –.02).
Haven’t had a chance to read the paper yet…do they take into account habituation to the music? E.g. when I need to get serious work done, or have a particularly tough problem to solve, I have a few playlists that I always turn on. I’ve heard these playlists literally hundreds of times and my brain just tunes it out. But I find I focus better with these playlists rather than downright silence.
I imagine it has less to do with music itself, and more to do with the setting: playlist XYZ == focus time. Just like studying with caffeine means you should take tests on caffeine, etc. But it still gives a noticeable boost (to me) in terms of focus as compared to pure silence.
The only time I’ll fall back on pure silence is when trying to comprehend tricky math. For all code-related problems, familiar music works best for me.
(Note: Not disagreeing with the point about noisy, distracting offices however. Absolutely agree with that :) )
It seems like every programmer has a different opinion regarding background music, but personally, I find that having my headphones turned down to 25% and just listening to random classical music makes it much easier to focus than just pure silence.
Sigh. Speaking as someone with an autism-spectrum sensory processing issue, familiar music is worse for my ability to concentrate than unfamiliar music, which is worse than the noise of an open office. And earplugs are even worse than that, due to a different sensory issue. :)
Oh well.
Completely agree. I would often prefer the office noise to listening to music, if the office noise was nondescript. However, if colleagues nearby were having a discussion or anyone were on the phone for a long time and I found myself starting to tune in to that rather than work, I’d have to block it out somehow…
I’m sure most people would work better in silence than with most music. But that’s never our choice, is it? It’s music, or ten conversations going on around you at various distances and volumes.
Noise cancelling headphones playing silence? :)
They barely dim speech at all, just slightly distort it when it’s more than 10 feet or so away. I do sometimes just play white noise through them though, usually some variation on recorded rain. It becomes sort of a numbing audio “pressure” rather than a peak/trough distraction that you get from overheard conversations.
The ones designed for aircraft pilots really will block speech; they’re also heavy, uncomfortable, and expensive.
Noise cancellation isn’t my preferred solution, but hopefully it works for some people. :)
That’s isolation and filtering though, not noise cancelling. As I understand it speech can’t be cancelled in real-time without sub-atomic near-0-latency electronics.
This statement from the conclusion resonates strongly with me:
I don’t like to listen to music when I work in front of a computer, at least not music I like, because it distracts me from work. In the past; if the office was too noisy; I would use white noise, sound of rain on a car roof, or ocean waves lapping on a beach; to drown out my colleagues. I would have preferred silence, but that’s possibly because my headphones were not comfortable enough. (Now I have a private office and absolutely love it.)
However, I feel that music helps me take my mind of humdrum activities like washing up, cleaning, mowing the lawn etc. Likewise I may put on music when driving a familiar route, but I find it stressful to have music on when driving somewhere unfamiliar.
Yeah, that’s a good point. If I’m in a new city or lost, I’ll always turn the radio off to help focus.
Regarding music and computer, perhaps I’m just conditioned to use it now. I work from home, so I basically have music running all day long. I’m rarely without music, but I do change the style depending on what I’m trying to get done. And interesting, if I really need to focus, I find headphones + music better than speakers + music, for some reason.
Podcasts are my salve for monotonous activities. Dishes/mowing/driving etc almost always have a podcast playing.
Yeah! For dishes/cleaning/hanging out washing.
I program with open office noise at work, but when programming at home I play whatever is in my Youtube playlist (I skip anything resembling a TV show or movie while programming). I think they have about the same productivity.
Sometimes I watch TV shows on Netflix at home while programming. If the show is a 8/10 or higher then I am definitely less productive (By 50% or more). If it is less than an 8/10 then I think I am only negligibly less productive (About 10-15%?) but get through my TV show backlog.