Strategies For Noise Reduction in Your Home Office

Strategies for Noise Reduction in Your Home Office

Sometimes you have to stay silent because no words can explain what is going on in your mind and your heart. - Anonymous

Working from home is either a blessing or a curse, based on your working conditions and mindset. Instead of looking at these two factors separately, it’s pretty safe to say that these two can be intertwined. In terms of stimuli, an ideal working environment is a quiet one.

A quiet place is often a calm and relaxing place, a place of focus and finding your inner center.

Productivity Made Easier

There are also a lot of ways in which peace and quiet affect one’s productivity. For creatives, whether the place is quiet or not may determine whether the conditions are suitable for work. When it comes to conferencing, outside noise can seem unprofessional. This will make the offer that you’re trying to make less impressive, thus severely restricting their success.

All in all, people working from homes need to learn how to reduce the noise in their homes, that much is clear. Here are a few strategies to help you get there.

Have “The Talk” With Everyone

The first thing you need to do to ensure peace and quiet in your home is to talk to the person/person you’re living with. Your family, roommate(s), and significant others should understand as long as your words come from the right place.

It is important that you understand a couple of key points:

        Remember, they did not choose your profession, and they’re not the ones responsible for why you’re working from home. This is either due to your own choices or a special request of your employer.

        This is their home, as well. They’re also either paying rent or pulling their own way in other ways. They may also have their own job, and when they get home, they want to rest and relax.

        Finally, when you ask for a favor (and make no mistake, this is a FAVOR that they’re doing you), it is only fair that you offer something in return. Sure, they may not be allowed to bring people over while you’re working; they may have to stay a bit quieter during your business hours, but what happens after?

This will help you get into the right mindset before this conversation. Remember, sometimes, how you say it can matter more than what you say. Just remember that everyone has rights and responsibilities and that balancing between the two makes all the difference.

Make Your Room Soundproof

The next thing you need to do is try to restrict the amount of outside noise reaching your room. There are several things you can do to make this happen. Here are some of them:

        The first thing you can do to soundproof a room is to install acoustic panels. These panels are relatively inexpensive, and the difference they can make in the acoustic structure of your home is quite substantial. This way, you’re not just protecting your work from the outside noises but also reducing the amount of noise that your office is spreading around the place.

        Those with bigger budgets need to invest in better doors and windows. Internal doors are seldom impressive, but if you see this home office set up as a long-term thing, it might not be premature to make this investment.

        Keep the window closed. The only way you will do this efficiently (and still make the conditions indoor bearable) is to invest in better ventilation. An AC unit or an air purifier can also make a world of difference.

        Add a rug. A rug can reduce the volume of foot traffic quite drastically. In fact, it might also be a great idea to add a runner rug to a hallway right in front of your home office.

This way, you will limit the input of all the outside noise. Just remember that the position of the room that you choose as a home also matters. So, if you have a chance, pick the room facing the backyard rather than the one facing the street.

Look for Quieter Equipment

Contrary to popular belief, people are not necessarily distracted only by other people’s noise. There is a lot of personal equipment that you can get to keep the volume down. For instance:

        Buying a noise-canceling headset can help you cancel out distractions coming from the world around you. In some cases, this alone would be enough to help you get the setting you need. Just bear in mind that others in the conference call might still be able to hear the noise caused by your roommates/family.

        Getting a silent keyboard can also be quite helpful. For a lot of people, buying a mechanical keyboard is a must. Seeing as how these keyboards are already a bit more expensive, why not go all the way in and pay a bit extra to get a silent version.

        Keep in mind that some people have a more extreme auditory sensitivity, which means that they can even get distracted by a ticking clock. In that case, you can go for a digital clock instead of an analog one. Also, whenever buying equipment, it’s best if you can check just how loud it is.

The biggest problem with choosing proper equipment lies in the fact that you already have a long list of quality-related features to consider.

This means that their volume usually falls further down on the priority list. Still, if you’re determined to make your home office situation work, you can’t afford to overlook such an important factor.

In Conclusion

From all this, it’s more than clear that reducing noise in and around your home office benefits more than just your productivity.

When applied properly, these strategies can also improve your quality of coexistence and your relationships with your roommates/family.

On top of this, your quality of work and your overall satisfaction with your working environment will increase drastically. The above-listed improvements are so simple and systemic that executing these strategies shouldn’t be too costly or too difficult.

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