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Office Distractions: Water Source Taste Test

May 31, 2010 By 5 Comments

The Great Taste Test

Could you determine a water source by tasting it? Should you use office time to develop this skill?

I’ve mentioned before that we live in Scotland for my husband to get his PhD in Divinity/Theology.  Interestingly, I did not marry a theology student, and we haven’t always lived month to month as we pay school bills.  Back in 2001, I married an electrical engineer.  I’m not sure what happened…?  (We jokingly refer to this as the great bait and switch.)  So, back in his computer chip design days, Josh (my husband) would come home after “work” and tell me all the junk he and his office mate did during the day.  He claimed that programs were running behind him as he and his buddy coworker played pranks, wen tout to lunch on the company, and just generally goofed off.  I think my favorite was their “water source taste test.”  As all engineers worth their salt are, Josh’s office mate was confident in (and proud of) his ability to taste bottled water and determine not only what kind it was, but also which spring it came from.  After much smack talking, a blind taste test was put together and you can believe everyone in the office joined the audience as Jason tasted ad correctly determined water sources.  No one questioned him again.  (I’m still not sure hoe we paid our mortgage from this job.)

Distracted at Work

As funny as it was (and still is), I can only imagine how much more work could have been accomplished in a work day.  After hearing stories like that, I am not at all surprised to hear that the average worker is distracted more than 2 hours every day.  What actually worries me is that not all workers have programs running behind them that they have the skills to oversee and manipulate every now and then.  Most workers need to be engaged.

If you find that you are annoyed by these office shenanigans, or just can’t help being drawn into them, you might want to try white noise.  White noise, like this free generator, can help you tune out office noise and coworker distractions.  It’s worth a shot.

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How to Use White Noise and Still Hear Your Children

May 28, 2010 By 2 Comments

We live on a very busy road in the middle of town in a building that is over a century old. This means that 1. there is a lot of noise from the road below (yelling college students/drunks, very loud semi-trucks, and lots of sirens) and 2. the walls and our solid wooden doors are very thick. As in my children have to be screaming for me to hear them sometimes if my door is shut all the way. So we like to employ white noise while we sleep, but I still need to be able to hear my children if they need something in the middle of the night. Here are some tips for just how to do that.

I am sure this woman looks way better when she is sleeping than I do. That could be because she is sleeping in her make-up.

My husband and I have always slept with some white noise. Before we had children, we would have a fan running in the corner. After we had our first child, she slept in the room with us for the first few months, so we didn’t want to run a fan. (First time parents. We didn’t want a draft on our new baby!) After she finally moved out we could turn the fan back on, but then we worried we couldn’t hear her. Cue my first tip for you: use a baby monitor and either have the white noise in your child’s room  piped in over the monitor to be the white noise you use or have your own white noise machine in your room with the monitor turned up loud enough for you to hear your precious child if they cry. We used to just use our kids white noise until my daughter started yelling “I’m AWAAAAAKE!” at the top of her lungs every morning. (Now THAT will wake you up.) So, we turned her monitor to a much more reasonable level since we weren’t using her white noise for us and bought ourselves a white noise machine to put in our room.

Now, we also have the opposite problem at times. I can hear my child in the middle of the night and I don’t want to. Now, I am not talking about screaming and crying where he obviously needs something. I am talking about the situation where I have already been in to check on my one year old son and for some reason, he just decides it would be great if he woke up and started talking happily to himself at 4am. I want to be able to monitor the situation, but I also don’t want to lay in bed just listening to him and stewing because I can’t go back to sleep. Cue my second tip for you: use a timer for your white noise machine. Ours has a 10 minute, 30 minute, and 1 hour timer that I will use if I hear one the children awake in the middle of the night. When I come back into my room after checking on the awake child, I just press the timer button on my way back to bed.  Once the white noise turns off, I usually don’t even wake up unless I still hear my child and now I can reassess the situation and perhaps go back in and check on them. Or press the timer button again if they still sound okay.  Mama still gets her sleep and also doesn’t get mad. Beautiful! (Daddy wears ear plugs so he misses all of this stuff. Its okay. I still love him. He would get up if I really needed him to.)

Here are some other helpful things we have written in the past about white noise to help with sleeping.

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Can Washing Your Hands Help You Work Better?

May 27, 2010 By 5 Comments

A new study just came out by the University of Michigan regarding psychological benefits of hand washing.

The study, conducted by U-M psychologists Spike W. S. Lee and Norbert Schwarz, expands on past research by showing that hand-washing does more than remove the guilt of past misdeeds.

“It’s not just that washing your hands contributes to moral cleanliness as well as physical cleanliness, as seen in earlier research” said Lee, a doctoral candidate in social psychology. “Our studies show that washing also reduces the influence of past behaviors and decisions that have no moral implications whatsoever.”

According to the authors, the results show that as much as washing can cleanse us from traces of past immoral behavior, it can also cleanse us from traces of past decisions, reducing the need to justify them.

This “clean slate” effect may be relevant to many choices in life. Does washing away the urge to justify one’s choice of one car over another, or even one partner over another, result in less rosy evaluations of them in the long run? If so, does this increase buyer’s remorse because buyers are less likely to convince themselves that they made the best choice possible?

If you are having trouble working or making a decision, could washing your hands be beneficial to you? Perhaps. If your coworkers are annoying you and you are regretting something you said to them (and wishing you had just blocked them out entirely) would washing your hands make you feel better about the situation? This study seems to think so.

In my mind, I figure it couldn’t hurt. Not only does washing your hands help to reduce your chance of illness by washing away germs, now it seems like it can refresh my mind as well. Its a win-win-win.

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White Noise for Day Trips

May 26, 2010 By 1 Comment

Why didn’t I bring white noise?!

The only feature this bad boy doesn't have is portable white noise. I can solve that!

Last week, we had family visiting us in Scotland.  We quickly decided that a day trip to Edinburgh was in order, which meant hoping our 2-year-old son would nap in his stroller.  Now, I’ll be the first to say that we all have different gifts- since I write for 5 different blogs, I’d say mine is blogging.  For others, it’s radar-like instincts, like my good friend’s one year 0ld son who can spot tasty crumbs from a mile away.  For my son, it’s sleep…but only in his own bed!  I figured it was just one day, no biggie if he didn’t have a great nap- we just had to make it through the day.  To my great surprise, once given his lovey and his paci, he was out like a light in his umbrella stroller!

45 minutes later, I was reminded why I love white noise.  It’s not that my kids need noise to sleep- they just need consistency.  Whether it’s trucks vrooming by or total silence, it just can’t change all the time or go back and forth on the spectrum.  So, what would have normally been a 2-hour nap was cut down by almost two-thirds due to a lack of white noise.

Next time, I’m packing our portable, battery-operated white noise and placing it in the basket of a fully-reclinable stroller.

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My Steps toward Green & Organic Living

May 23, 2010 By 5 Comments

Green & Organic Living

Going green and living organically is all the rage these days.  Even my home state of Texas is starting to recycle…baby steps, friends, baby steps.  In all honesty, I have fought these things.  I never really bought into the why’s behind the change, I just fought the change and the expense that came hand-in-hand.  It wasn’t until moving to Iowa and then overseas {and also having children whom I want the very best for} that I began to see the benefits of living greener and more organically.  I’m not fully evolved, mind you, but I have become convinced that being a better steward of nature and ultimately what I believe God has given us is critical to our own and our children’s health and well-being.  We recycle everything we can and have even been known to compost {mostly due to limited trash pick-ups, but I’ll still take credit for it.}

Coping when things are not the way they’re supposed to be

Some types of noise actually bring peace.

That said, we still have to live in an imperfect world.  There are still a lot of things left to be desired, one of which is peace and quiet.  Living has gotten quite loud and distracting, and many find it it hard to concentrate or sleep even when exhausted.  It’s practically impossible to shut out the worries of the world and the anxiety they bring.  As a result, I have found that part of my desire to connect more with nature is using nature sounds for relaxation and even for better sleep.  I tried ear plugs to tune out  noisy neighbors, but they felt oddly unauthentic {and actually made my ears sore, too- double whammy}.  In contrast, listening to waves crash or birds chirping merrily or even the constant, peaceful sound of a waterfall, while generated, felt more natural, more organic.  Plus, with generated white noise, you get all the advantages of real nature without buying oceanfront property and none of the downsides, such as hurricanes or tarantulas.

In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need sleep aides, but things are not the way they’re supposed to be, are they?

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Using Social Support to Stay Motivated

May 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A study recently came out from Stanford “showing that small amounts of social support, ranging from friends who encourage each other by email to occasional meetings with a fitness counselor, can produce large and lasting gains against one of America’s biggest health problems—physical inactivity.” Now, you may be wondering how this is applicable to this blog since the topic is Noisy Coworkers, not Unhealthy Coworkers. Stay with me for a minute while I explain.

Your Work Buddy may have to close the mini-blinds for you so you can actually concentrate.

I would like to propose that you could also use social support to help keep yourself on track while you are working. I know. Gasp! We are always decrying conversational distraction, among many other forms. However, there are just some days, like today when it is SO nice outside and I keep finding myself peering through the mini-blinds, wishing I was outside, that it would be nice to have a Work Buddy to gently encourage me to stay on track and to keep going. I suspect you might have the same problem occasionally–you have blocked out all the other distractions, but your mind just keeps wandering. Perhaps you could then inform your Work Buddy that it would be nice if, every once in a while, they would email you or just walk over and say “You can do it! Keep working!” or something similarly encouraging. It sounds cheesy, but based on the results of that study, I bet it would work.

So, I’ll be your Work Buddy today. “You can do it! Keep working!” (And now I am going to go close my mini-blinds so the gorgeous weather will quit calling out to me.)

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Work Distractions Cause IQ Loss

May 19, 2010 By 2 Comments

Would you like to lose 10 IQ points?

Would anyone really?  According to  a 2005 study,  distractions at work are equivalent to a 10 point IQ loss.  Yikes.  In addition to that staggering loss, you might be surprised by the rest of the findings:

  • 1 in 5 workers will interrupt a business or social engagement to respond to a message.
  • 9 out of 10 people thought colleagues who answered messages during face-to-face meetings were rude.  Interestingly, 3 out of 10 believed it was not only acceptable, but a sign of diligence and efficiency.

What fascinating findings- 20% of workers interrupt business meetings.  90% of workers think that is rude.  30% of workers think these interruptions are not only not rude, but good business tactics.

More on IQ loss

Dr. Glenn Wilson of King’s College London University monitored the IQ of workers throughout a work day for 80 clinical trials.  Dr. Wilson found that a 10 point IQ loss resulted for those workers who were distracted.  This is equivalent to missing an entire night of sleep and more than double the IQ loss of 4 points from smoking marijuana.

Um, does this bother anyone else?

Possible Solutions

  • Never, ever smoke marijuana.  This should never be in question.  Moving on.
  • Get good sleep- this may counteract some of the losses.
  • Prioritize actual work and work-related meetings over gabbing and answering messages of any sort.  Very few messages take precedent over work-related tasks or face-to-face meetings.
  • If all else fails, try white noise, like this free white noise generator.  Nothing like tuning it out.

Good luck and may your IQ never fall!

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How do you take your down time?

May 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

How do you kick up your feet at the end of the day?

Kicking Back

Everybody decompresses differently.  I am fascinated by it, really.

Take my husband.  After a long day of writing for his PhD, he decompresses by playing around online, looking for deals or the latest news.  We download a few shows, such as 24 and LOST (fairly predictable, I know) and kind of veg out.  I work in the background, briefly pausing every few minutes to see who just got killed (or brought back to life).

My good friend, Kate, winds down by listening to a podcast while she does dishes at the end of the day.  Not exactly my thing, but it works for her because she does an unenjoyable task while rewarding herself with a pleasure.  Her husband relaxes by doing graphic art, like fixing my header.  I am happy to be the recipient of his decompression.

As for me, after a long day of being a mom and at the beck and call of 3 people, I unwind by working.  Weird, I know.  I drop my daughter off at afternoon preschool, put my son down for a nap, and turn on the white noise.  I think it’s all about feeling like no one can interrupt me while I actually accomplish something.

As you can see, we’re all different and we all need different things.  I think what I am realizing is that none of us wants to be interrupted during our down time.  So, we guard it- either by saving it til the end of the day when kids are asleep, or by trying to tune out the world’s distractions through an ipod, a good TV show, or white noise.  And I think that’s okay- after a long day of doing a lot of musts, it’s nice to have a few minutes, or an hour, to ourselves to spend as we please.

So, I’m crankin’ up the white noise and enjoying peace.  I hope you are, too.

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It Could Be Worse……….

May 12, 2010 By 6 Comments

Instead of your coworkers always talking and distracting you, they could also do stuff like this.  Do these people really have that much extra time on their hands?! I don’t know about you, but I find stuff like this  way more annoying. (Go ahead. You can call me a stick-in-the-mud. I can take it.)

I guess you could turn the tables and target those most annoying/distracting to you. You know, channel all those passive-aggressive feelings you have.

Just offering a little perspective for you on this bright and shiny Monday morning. Happy work week! May it be peaceful, quiet, and prank free!

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10 Tips for Studying for Exams

May 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

It’s May, and for most students, that means exams.  Besides being brilliant, here are some sure-fire ways to best prepare for exams (in no particular order).

10 Study Tips for Exams

With a little planning and a game plan, you can feel confident as exams get closer.

  1. Find a quiet place to study, or use free white noise to help block distractions.
  2. Inventory your notes.  Make sure you didn’t miss any (surely you never skipped class…ahem).  Ask friends for any notes you missed and write them out yourself.  Do NOT photocopy them.  By writing them yourself, you ensure that you understand what they scribbled down and you familiarize yourself with the missed material.
  3. Organize your notes.  Pay attention to quantities.  If a professor spent 3 weeks on one topic and 1 day on another, chances are you need to study the 3-week topic more than the 1-day topic.
  4. Imagine you’re the prof. Based on the class and notes, what questions would you ask to see if someone understood the material?  Then, ask yourself those questions.  If you can’t answer them, study more.
  5. Practice answering questions without your notes in front of you.  Anyone can do it with notes in front of them.
  6. Study.  Did I mention this?  Reading your notes is NOT the same thing as actually studying.  Studying involves thinking, analyzing, and processing.Form a study group with 1 to 2 people who are doing better than you in class.  Buy them coffee or dinner for their efforts since they’re not getting any benefit from you. :
  7. Get good sleep.  Invest in a sound machine- you know dorm rooms are not quiet.  Do not let others and their noise keep you awake.
  8. Go over old quizzes and tests and see what you missed.  If you don’t understand what you missed, chances are you won’t get it right on the test either.  Make sure you sill remember what you got right (or got lucky enough to answer correctly).
  9. Meet with your professor or TA to go over any questions you still have, if possible.  This ones involves planning- don’t wait until the day before the exam.
  10. Familiarize yourself with the format of the exam.  Will it be like the tests you have already taken, or a different format?  Knowing is half the battle.

Good luck!

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