Gone are the days when each knowledge worker had the luxury of an office. Back in India, my dad had provided me with the luxury of having a big room for myself, where I could lock myself up and work when required. I could play music as loud as I wanted late into the night without affecting my dad sleeping in the next room. I believe that these luxuries never spoiled me but really gave me an edge over some of my friends who needed to step out of home for entertainment. I did well in academics, cracked the GRE and TOEFL and joined UMASS for my Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
When I first walked into my cubicle (or office) in the VLSI research lab at UMASS Amherst, I felt very uncomfortable and uneasy. I had never worked in a cubicle before. Most research labs and workplaces are cubicles separated by thin partitions. I had entered a world where my attention was distracted by anything that moved. And why not? Your neighbor’s visitor is your visitor. You can hear the discussion and hope that it ends quickly. His cell phone rings and he talks loudly, with little understanding that you are trying to get work done. Over a period of time, I got adjusted to this new environment, well before joining the corporate world.
At work, from where I sit, I immediately know if there is any communication happening in any one of the 31 cubicles that are around me. That simply means my distractions are multiplied 32 times , including mine. Is that bad news? Not necessarily. How do I ever get work done? Let me explain.
Walk into any software development company. I am sure that you will find at least one developer punching away on his keyboard, blissfully unaware of his surroundings, with his ears surrounded by headphones. At UMASS, I have seen some senior professors doing the same. While it is very easy to assume that the person is whiling away his time, some of the most productive students in my computer lab at UMASS used to spend long hours listening to the radio while working on their research projects. Do you see a trend here?
I believe that headphones are our way of isolating ourselves from all the confusion, distraction and chaos around us. Instead of hearing all the noise around, why not listen to some music? Reduce the total number of distractions from 32 to 1 . Tune into a radio station and start programming. Since it is a radio station, I cannot control what is being played and that is why I think it works. Any given day, I would chose a radio station over an mp3 player. I can work for as long as 5 hours with music on. Most of the times at the end of the session, I can’t recall even one song that was played. The focus on work is intense and my work gets done quickly. Sound’s awesome? Try it out and let me know if it works. One awesome channel that I would recommend is 102.7 FM (New York). If you are connected to the internet, you can listen to this channel online at http://www.fresh1027.com/
If you are a manager, it might help trying to ignore the headphones on your employee’s ear, as long as he / she generates results. With that little extra freedom, his / her productivity might soar and you get increased employee work satisfaction in return.
PS: I wrote this article while listening to music. I am not sure I would have written something as long as this otherwise. Something would have distracted me in between and this article would have been truncated to about 1/5th of it’s current length.
