RASHA SAFIA JAHFAR

November, 2013



SOUND AND PRODUCTIVITY

SOUND AND PRODUCTIVITY
1


Table of Contents
1. OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................... 2
2. AMBIENT SOUND ..................................................................................................................... 3
3. BACKGROUND NOISE ............................................................................................................... 3
4. MUSIC ...................................................................................................................................... 5
5. SUMMARY................................................................................................................................ 8
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................... 8
APPENDIX A ..................................................................................................................................... 9


SOUND AND PRODUCTIVITY
2

Some workers like to listen to anything when they find themselves losing focus. They may also
plug in their ear phones to escape a work environment thats too noisy or too quiet or to
make a repetitive job feel more lively.
An article in Psychology Today reports that while listening to music may be productive for some,
it can also be a distraction to others.
Therefore, this report (via secondary research) aims to look at sound as a whole and explain its
many forms. It also aims to find out if listening to some form of sound while working boosts or
hinders productivity.
1. OVERVIEW
"Sound affects us psychologically, physiologically, cognitively and behaviourally, even though
we're not aware of it," says Julian Treasure, Chairman of The Sound Agency.
With the constant hum of modern life is taking its toll, Treasure thinks we're losing the ability to
listen. Partly because the ability to easily record audio and video using smart phones and
tablets has made the premium on accurate and careful listening disappear, but also because
the world is now so noisy, both visually and auditory, listening has become a chore.



"Many people take refuge in headphones, but they turn public spaces into millions of tiny
sound bubbles," says Treasure. "No one's listening to anybody. We're becoming impatient; we
don't want oratory, we want sound bites, and the art of conversation is being replaced by
personal broadcasting." Wearing headphones is like sticking a plaster over the problem of
sound in cities. "It's frightening just how many people are now wearing headphones, as if
they're trying to escape the world we've created," says Poppy Elliott, who runs Quiet Mark. (1)
SOUND AND PRODUCTIVITY
3

2. AMBIENT SOUND
Ambient music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without
enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting. Brian Eno, musician.
True silence is rare, so the best defence against annoying noise is distance. In the modern
office, youre unlikely to have that option; so lacking volume controls for your co-workers, you
have little choice but to try to mask distracting noise. Listening to music with a top-notch pair of
noise-reduction earphones can be an effective way to do so, but then you make yourself
inaccessible to others.
This is where so-called ambient sound comes into play. Strictly defined, ambient sound is just
about anything youd expect to hear in the background of life: dogs barking, cars passing,
distant voices, the dishwasher, the whoosh of the A/C.

As used in productivity circles, however, ambient sound is defined as soothing, quiet, often
cyclic recordings that create a sonic space allowing the kind of purposeful focus that
heightens productivity.



At about 12 cycles per minute, for example, the sound of the seashore comes pretty close to
the breathing cycling of a sleeping human. Both tend to be comforting and you rarely have to
worry about the ocean snoring. Birdsong also tends to relax us. Wind through trees, rainfall, the
soft rush of waves on the seashore, even gentle music is all touted as productivity boosters. (2)
3. BACKGROUND NOISE
We hear background noise always and everywhere. Whether or not it is a distraction depends
on a) how loud it is, and b) its characteristics such as tonal hum, modulating volume, impacts or
beating etc. Most people at one time or another have found themselves irritated or distracted
SOUND AND PRODUCTIVITY
4

by the background noise in a building. The irritation might have resulted in minor aggravation
or may have been dramatic enough to hinder their work.
People encounter different types of noise often in their everyday environments. Noise from
heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems is typically a major source of
background noise in buildings. In offices, HVAC noise can potentially cause annoyance and
concentration problems for workers. Ten subjects completed performance tasks and
perception questionnaires under six different HVAC noise conditions. Math, verbal reasoning,
and typing tests were used. It was found that perception of noise did impact performance.
Scores on typing, math, and verbal reasoning tests tended to decrease when subjects were
more annoyed by the noise. These findings support the idea that a more neutral-sounding
spectrum is desirable in working environments. (Jessica Errett, Erica E. Bowden , Marc
Choiniere, and Lily M. Wang. Effects of noise on productivity: does performance decrease over
time? 2006, Architectural Engineering). (3)
According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, background noise also
affects peoples health by increasing general stress levels and aggravating stress-related
conditions such as high blood pressure, coronary disease, peptic ulcers and migraine
headaches. Continued exposure does not lead to habituation; in fact, the effects worsen.
Stress resulting from background noise, then, may decrease higher brain function, impairing
learning and memory. (4)

Julian Treasure says that people have the capacity for about 1.6 human conversations, so if
you're listening to one conversation particularly you're only left with 0.6 for your inner voice
that helps you write," claiming that office workers are 66% less productive in an open-plan
office than when left on their own.
SOUND AND PRODUCTIVITY
5

Many students, especially those who are easily distracted or who have trouble keeping their
attention focused, will find that it doesnt take much noise to pull them out of their reading and
into their surroundings. And its not just about volume the din of a coffee shop may provide
so much noise that it helps screen out other distractions, but a leaky faucet with its intermittent
drips may drive you insane and cause you to reread the same sentence four or five times. (5)

THE SOLUTION: First, get to know yourself. Do you do better in silence, or are you the kind of
person who thrives amid the buzz of background noise? Try a few settings, and pay attention to
how each work/ study session goes. Give the library a go one day, and see how that hushed
environment works out. The next day, try a coffee shop or the park. After each session, write
down some notes about how the working/ studying went and how well you were able to
understand and retain what you were doing. Once you know how your brain handles noise, pick
study locations that match your sound profile. (5) Workers can match environmental sounds
that they perform best in and listen to those using headphones while at office.

4. MUSIC
A major problem - and a solution - too distracting or uncomfortable sound is music itself. Take
music in shops: how often have you entered a shop or a cafe that blasts out a commercial radio
station or TV channel seemingly as loud as possible, subjecting everyone inside to meaningless
adverts and over-familiar songs? Store owners ought to be trying to create a comforting,
calming atmosphere that makes customers feel relaxed and encouraged to make carefully
considered buying decisions. Instead, loud, harsh music through tiny speakers makes many of
us unconsciously about-turn and take flight without even considering why. (1)

When you listen to music (or nasheed, as it may be in your case), a part of your brain called the
nucleus accumbens activates. This triggers the release of the pleasure chemical dopamine
that lives in a group of neurons in your brain called the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA). This
pathway in the brain is called the Reward System and Dopamine is strongly associated with it.
Dopamine is the same chemical that gets released when you eat your favourite food or when
you get a like on Facebook, causing you to want more.

Research from University of Windsor in Canada showed the effect of music on the work
performance of software developers. According to the study, without background music the
designers quality of work was lowest and it took them more time to complete tasks. With
background music, participants reported positive mood change and enhanced perception while
working. Plus, the researchers noted that this positive change in mood correlated with
increased curiosity an excellent thing to have when doing creative work.
SOUND AND PRODUCTIVITY
6

However, the same research showed that listening to music at work doesnt provide
automatic benefits. For those people who dont usually listen to music while working, it takes
a bit of time for them to get used to it and reap the rewards. At the same time, once youre
used to having work music, your productivity and work quality are slightly diminished when
the music is taken away.
To conclude, the researchers state that over time music listening based on workers choice
to listen when they want, as they want, is beneficial for state positive effects, quality-of-work,
and time spent on a task. (6)

Another study published in the Journal of Music Therapy, says that excitative music tends to
increase feelings of vigour and tension, while sedative music eased tension. That may be stating
the obvious, but heres the interesting part: Listening to your favourite type of music, whatever
it is, lowers your perception of tension. This means you dont feel as stressed or tense. But your
heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure is higher when listening to excitative music even
if you like it. (6)

In a study published in the journal of Neuroscience of Behaviour and Physiology, it was found
that a persons ability to recognize images, letters, and numbers was faster when rock or
classical music was playing in the background compared to when there was no music. A similar
effect was noted in another study where workers on an assembly line listened to music.
The workers who listened to music were more happy and efficient and made fewer errors. So
whatever type of music you like, as long as youre listening to something, youll enjoy
repetitive or boring tasks more and get them done faster.

In 2010, researchers at the University of Wales Institute showed that when adults were asked
to complete a relatively complex task of recalling a series of sounds presented in a specific
order, their performance decreased while listening to music.
The study concluded that your ability to learn something new that is cognitively demanding
decreases when you listen to music. [7]
So when youre tackling something new and complex, it takes more focus and mental energy
for you to grasp and apply that knowledge. So put your headphones down and learn without
distraction.

A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that surgeons worked
more accurately when music they liked was playing in the background (music that they didnt
like was second best, and no music was least helpful of all).
SOUND AND PRODUCTIVITY
7

If youre working on something that you have done many times before, even if its
complicated, your performance can increase and errors become less likely when you listen to
music you like.

So should you or should you not listen to Quran recitation, nasheeds, and educational talks
while you work/ study?

If you're trying to work, don't fill your headphones with anything with a 'voice', such as radio,
podcasts or even lyric-filled nasheeds since they'll only further use up your concentration. The
best sounds for concentration are natural and unpredictable [refer to Appendix A], with a
general mood replacing a narrative that your brain will unconsciously be distracted by. "Over
hundreds of thousands of years humans have learned that when the birds are singing, we're
safe, so it makes us feel secure," says Treasure, though as well as birdsong, streams, waves and
forest sounds all help. (1)

The answer also depends on the individual. Research has shown that studying with headphones
on tends to decrease memory and information retention, while background music can be a
study aid

THE SOLUTION: Background sound, especially familiar tunes youve heard often before, is much
easier to "tune out" than other environmental noises like people talking or construction work
outside. Listening to familiar background sound that isnt too loud or distracting can help drown
out other, more distracting environmental noise and can create associations that actually help
you remember what youre studying better. (5)

For strong focus, audio tracks that have little variety and little to no lyrics are best. For creative
tasks, the noise from a coffee shop can be enough to do the trick says a study published in the
Journal of Consumer Research. Moderate background noise (about the volume of a vacuum
cleaner) can create enough distraction to allow you to think more imaginatively. (7)

As for listening to Qur'an recitation, we recommend you do so with full attention and, out of
respect for the word of Allah [swt], avoid playing it merely for the purpose of creating
background sound.



SOUND AND PRODUCTIVITY
8

5. SUMMARY

In an open office scenario, where there is a lot of background noise- opt for listening to
ambient sound/ environmental sounds (using noise reducing ear phones/ head phones)
to help block noise out and increase productivity.
Listening to audio tracks can make rote or routine tasks (think folding laundry or filing
papers) less boring and more enjoyable.
Performance and productivity can increase when you listen to sounds that you like
when completing tasks that you are an expert at even if they are complicated ones. This
depends on the individual and if he/ she is used to having something to listen to while
they work.
When you need to give learning and remembering your full attention/ perform complex
tasks, REMEMBER silence is golden.

REFERENCES
(1) http://www.techradar.com/news/audio/how-your-noisy-open-plan-office-is-making-you-
66-less-productive-1148580

(2) http://theproductivitypro.com/blog/2010/10/office-productivity-can-ambient-sound-make-
you-more-productive/

(3) http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=archengfacpub

(4) http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ask-the-brains-background-noise

(5) http://www.wgu.edu/blogpost/improve-online-study-environment

(6) http://gigaom.com/2010/07/12/can-listening-to-music-boost-your-productivity/

(7) https://ooomf.com/blog/the-magic-of-music-and-what-it-does-to-your-brain/






SOUND AND PRODUCTIVITY
9

APPENDIX A

Links for Ambient/ Environmental Sounds:
Birds in the forest
The perfect storm
Small creek in a forest
Underwater whale
Grey noise
Seashore
Coffee shop