Noise? 5 ways to master your home-office acoustics
Create a more productive, less stressful home office set up with these simple tips.
Washing machine spinning, neighbours shouting, workmen drilling. Urgh, are we right!? But noise isn’t just annoying, it can also make you depressed.
Mounting evidence shows noise can hugely impact our cardiovascular and metabolic systems, and chronic noise can lead to mental-health disease (including depression and anxiety), can impair cognitive development, and lead to sleep disturbance. Elevated environmental noises can also cause hearing impairment, tinnitus, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, irritation, and sleep disturbance.
So what can we do to combat this?
Block
Given modern urban living environments, it is likely there is external noise - trams rattling past, ambulance sirens, highways, aeroplanes etc - penetrating your walls and filling your home.
You can easily do some DIY window soundproofing, including getting soundproofing curtains, sealing gaps in window frames (using noise-proofing cork or adhesive tape), or wearing noise-cancelling headphones. An alternative is to invest in proper window soundproofing or to upgrade your windows to double glazing.
Reduce
There are two types of interior noises (which includes talking, moving, cooking, printing etc) the one we produce ourselves and the one others produce.
You are in control of the amount of interior noise you yourself create, so take control of it! Invest in equipment which produces low decibel sound, and don’t use lots of noisy equipment at the same time - i.e. the washing machine, dishwasher and printer. It seems simple, but it makes a huge difference.
Absorb
You can fill your home with things that help absorb all the noise we can’t block or reduce. One of the best ways to do this is with the use of plants. We love weeping figs, rubber plants and money trees, which are all excellent at absorbing noise. You need to strategically position these plants inside your home to ensure they are effective, i.e. put them between your desk and the noise.
Other solutions include acoustic furniture, something designed with the aim to provide privacy and comfort, and printed acoustic panels, which are much sleeker and can be designed to look like paintings.
While furnishing your home, it’s worth remembering that many natural materials, such as bamboo, kenaf and coco fibres, have good sound-absorbing performances. Of course, wall curtains and carpets also absorb sound.
Mask
While masking doesn’t remove sound, it does help create a sense of calm that can promote concentration and reduce stress; this type of sound is commonly referred to as white noise. The principle of sound masking is not to cancel ambient noises but to make them less perceptible to our ears by reducing their dynamics.
For instance, the soothing sound of water flowing over rocks is a natural source of white noise and is ideal for blocking out environmental noises. We love this resource: https://noises.online/
Replace
Some people need noise around them to work, but very specific noise: the chatter of colleagues, the coffee machine grinding beans and the tapping of keyboards. This is because we’re conditioned to know that working environments come with these noises.
For all of you who need the sound of the office, check this out: https://imisstheoffice.eu/