Listening to music or just ambient noise has many different benefits. In the past, we have created many articles that show how writers, painters, people suffering from sensory overload or insomnia can benefit from listening to white noise or ambient sounds. But even when working, the correct background sounds can improve productivity. Thus, we wanted to find out how ambient noise can help businesses and the workforce behind them.
Also, check out the article in which we asked ourselves: Should You Listen To Music At Work?
The Benefits Of Ambient Noise Backgrounds For Businesses
Below, we summarized the 4 main benefits of listening to stimulating background sounds while working. Using ambient sounds instead of music with lyrics while working can greatly help workers and employees to improve their work.
Please keep in mind that the background sounds should not:
- distract employees
- annoy customers
- prevent communication between employees or customers and employees.
Increase Focus
Difficult tasks, no matter in which field, require a high amount of focus. And yet, distractions hide everywhere. Newsfeeds, noisy colleagues, sirens and traffic outside, … Being distracted, annoyed or even startled is counterproductive and heavily impacts the work you do. When thinking about a tricky problem or working on something that requires a lot of concentration, even the smallest noise can be enough to pull someone out of their zone.
If you are able to work with headphones on, or even when not, music in the background can help to focus. Oftentimes, turning on the radio is enough to create a background atmosphere that drowns out distracting noises and helps you and your employees to focus. If lyrics or catchy tunes are not what you want, however, you can turn on instrumentals or simple ambient atmospheres as well.
Boost Productivity
Working is one thing. Working effectively and productively a whole other!
If we work, we typically do not want to finish mundane tasks, but work as effectively as possible. This requires an environment that boosts productivity for all kinds of tasks. Luckily, many aspects in live can be changed with minor adjustments to become more productive. A personalized way of working, different apps, a positive outlook and the right working environment can do the trick quite easily.
Spark Creativity
Another important aspect for many jobs, nowadays, is creativity. New ways to entice an audience, sell products or tackle problems are hunted after. Sometimes, the old ways how things are handled aren’t the best and new, creative ideas can bring a company forward. For this to happen, you need to foster a creative mind in your employees.
Humans are very sensual, which is why triggering all human senses can increase creative thinking. Decoration, drinking enough water, breaks, all these things foster the creative thinking process. The sense of hearing should not be left behind though! Which is why certain pieces of music or ambient atmospheres should be part of a strategy to boost creativity in a productive team.
Stay Motivated
In the US, the average work week for an adult working full-time consists of 47 hours of work, according to the Washington Post. Deducting approximately 56 hours of sleep per week (oh, we wish), that doesn’t leave much time for much else. And that is definitely a damper on our motivation to go to work.
This means, sometimes one needs to actively motivate themselves or be motivated by colleagues or bosses to not fall into a mundane routine. Motivated employees are happier, more productive, more creative and overall more pleasant to work with!
