Noise

I don’t know about you but I am so much more productive in a coffee shop than in the quiet section of a library, and I have a couple theories as to why that is:

Theory 1
I adapted to working in noise as a child. If you think about it, we do most of our mental work in classroom settings, where there is undoubtedly noise. So is it really a surprise that coffee shops and similar settings are go-to work places?

Perhaps this is more true for me because I grew up in a loud house with a big family, and so I never even had a chance to work in silence as a child. I wouldn’t be surprised if people who had quieter home situations are able to work more effectively in quiet spaces. To be quite honest, I don’t remember a single time when I reached the flow state in silence.

Theory 2
Our brains are capable of so much processing, arguably too much for what our day to day lives require. This leads to extra processing power that gets spent on mental “busywork”. The overflow can be spent on distracting daydreaming or it can be occupied with background noise, or even rote activities like sweeping or coloring. I believe we can’t reach flow state unless the brain is doing something rather than just wandering in the background.

I haven’t done any legitimate scientific research on this, so I may be wrong. I do think this is a generally universal experience. Have you ever put on headphones and then realized half an hour later that you forgot to start any music? That’s my sign of perfectly balanced background noise. When it’s just right, it provides the backdrop for the flow state.

Or take shower thoughts, as another example. We’re mindlessly doing our shower activities, which occupies ome of the brain space, and then the rest is free to think.