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23
Apr 2013

Sound Masking: Recovering the Cognitive Cost of Distraction

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The Cost of Disruptions

There are many studies dedicated to showing just how distracted workers are in the office.  The average worker {not just the slacker} is distracted more than two hours every day!  This worker is interrupted over 70 times a day, and those interruptions are costly.

Interrupting a task at a computer user’s focus of attention often leads to a switching of attention to the source of the interruption [9]. Conversations with other people, including face-to-face conversations, phone calls, and talk through walls have been found to contribute to 15-45% of switches away from the task at a user’s focus of attention [2, 3]. Indeed, becoming engaged in conversational dialog may pose greater disruptions to users than alerts delivered within a computing system because social conventions on personal responsiveness may make it difficult to take the time and actions to prepare for the task switch [9, 10].

From social media to cell phones to texting to co-worker chatter, workers are hit seemingly non-stop all day to the point that many walk away frustrated, stressed, and aware that too much time was lost and too many errors were made.  For some, it’s a depressing reality that will be true tomorrow and the next day, and for others, it means extended work days and lost weekends.  For most, this lack of productivity is debilitating and rarely leads to a feeling of job satisfaction.

Sound Masking for Distraction

Interestingly, not all distractions are equally distracting.  In fact, the excerpt above shows us that face-to-face and people-initiated interruptions contribute to up to half of users’ switches of attention, and that a worker is able to ignore a computer alert more easily than a social interruption out of typical social norms- no one wants to be rude after all, even if they are trying to stay focused at work.   Thus, they discipline themselves against their screens but not their co-workers.

This is where sound masking comes in.  Like a white noise generator, aka sound machine, helps people sleep because the low-level background noise {ie white noise} allows their brains to tune out the noise keeping them sleepless, a sound masking system helps workers tune out distracting noise.  Distracting noise in the office is usually conversational in nature, and as we saw above, is difficult to ignore socially.  A few well-placed speakers work wonders for distracted workers because they minimize the office sound track and free up the brain to stay focused on work.

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09
Apr 2013

Speech Privacy for Confidentiality

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Sound masking works on the principle that when background noise is added to an environment, speech is less intelligible. In technical terms, the “Articulation Index” – a measurement of how intelligible speech is – has been lowered by this change in the signal-to-noise ratio. The “signal” would be, for example, the person speaking, and the “noise” would be the sound masking. A high signal-to-noise ratio means that speech is very intelligible – an amphitheater would have a very high Articulation Index, for example. Based on this principle, scientists and engineers realized that you don’t have to actually stop the sound waves from a speaker’s voice in order to obtain speech privacy, you just have to make the speaker’s words unintelligible. If I can see and hear you but I can’t understand the words that you’re saying, we have effectively established speech privacy.

This is important for two reasons:

  1. Reduction of distractions.  As mentioned above, workers can’t understand co-worker chatter, so they tend to be less distracted by it and more able to keep their focus on work, make fewer mistakes, and be more productive overall.
  2. Establishment of private confidentiality.  In addition to allowing workers to work better, speech privacy allows for privacy when necessary.

Speech Privacy for Confidentiality

10092059-300x20311While for many companies, privacy is a luxury longed for, but not a necessity.  For others, confidentiality is a requirement.  Private confidentiality is essential for:

By no means is this an exhaustive list, but it shows services and facilities prone to privacy breaches that are unacceptable professionally.  Thus, speech privacy becomes as useful as its name implies.

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04
Apr 2013

Why Your Business Needs Sound Masking

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Sound Masking Has a Past and a Future

Sound masking has many forms and a diverse past.  From fountains to drown out street noise to headphones to tune out co-workers, sound masking has existed much longer than most realize.  What is new about the technology is our ability to generate white noise, from sound machines to sound masking systems.  Systems are the most helpful for businesses and larger areas {versus single users}.  

There are two main reasons to use sound masking:

  1. Cover, and therefore reduce distractions
  2. Provide confidentiality through speech privacy

Why You Might Need Sound Masking

Facilities that require sound treatment frequently look to sound masking systems that have been designed to emit low-level, structured white noise through in-ceiling speakers via direct-field technology.  The benefits of systems are that they can be zoned to treat specific problem areas and that these zones are invisible.  No awkward walls are added, carpeting or absorbent paneling is not necessary- in fact, facility managers can install the systems themselves in a matter of hours for immediate, effective sound coverage!

But, how does it work?  Essentially, the white noise used in sound masking systems is structured , meaning it is uniform instead of constantly changing, like speech, music, or general office noise.  This consistent noise allows the brain to tune out the inconsistencies and therefore helps workers in two main ways:

  1. First, they are less distracted.  The average worker is distracted more than 2 hours a day!  By reducing the number of distractions workers face every day, you enable those workers to stay focused and be more productive.
  2. Second, they enjoy confidentiality.  Sound masking provides speech privacy which renders surrounding speech unintelligible, and therefore protects the speakers from being overheard if the information is sensitive for any reason.

As you can see, sound masking technology can be quite beneficial for many businesses or practices because it enables workers to be more productive, as well as more protected, whether it’s a trade secret or just personal.

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29
Jan 2013

The Benefits of Speech Privacy

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The Benefits of Speech Privacy

As you’re planning a new facility, it’s easy to forget a resource you may really need.  Few facilities could not be benefited by sound masking and the speech privacy  it offers.  Speech privacy is what it sounds like- speech goes under the radar for purposes of privacy.  This is helpful for businesses with trade secrets, medical facilities with HIPAA requirements, as well as government and military facilities.

In addition to private confidentiality, speech privacy accomplishes another major feat: it reduces distractions.  The average worker is distracted more than 2 hours every day, so every wasted hour adds up quickly to a big loss for businesses.  These facilities may not value speech privacy for confidentiality, but they can only be helped by its result: fewer overheard conversations, leading to less overall distraction.

This begs the question, how does a facility acquire speech privacy?  While a sound masking system can be installed in almost any existing facility, it’s usually easiest and most effective to plan for it during construction.  There are several factors to consider:

  • How will the building be used?
  • How many square feet will there be?
  • Will there be cubicles or individual offices?  How many of each?
  • Where are the main areas that need to be sound-proofed?

As you answer these questions, you’ll have a better idea of how many zones to create and where.

Benefits of Sound Masking

While helping your employees work more productively, you’ll also enjoy the benefits of confidential privacy.

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25
Dec 2012

The Art of Sound Masking

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The Art of Sound Masking

Two cubicles down, the guy is making his infamous sales pitch…across the row, Chatty Cathy is detailing her relationship with a colleague…next”door”, gal keeps getting texts and dings on her computer from who knows where, but possibly every social media outlet accessible….it all adds up to amused distraction and loss of focus.    And those of us with less patience find ourselves more irritated than amused, and we all struggle to stay productive.  That’s where sound masking made an appearance- from Roman fountains drowning out street noise to sound masking systems via speakers, for generations, we have used noise to counteract unwanted noise.  Unlike erratic, attention-pulling natural noise, white noise is structured and uniform.  It is in direct contrast with typical noise by its very nature, and thus is very useful in combating unwanted noise.

2 Benefits of Sound Masking

The Sonet is the most effective means of sound masking as far as individual machines go.

There are 2 main benefits of using white noise when masking sound.  White noise helps achieve speech privacy, which accomplishes two major things:

  1. Speech privacy helps reduce distractions.  The average worker is distracted more than 2 hours every day.  This makes them both unproductive and quite costly to employers.  Distraction adds up to about $600 billion per year for businesses.
  2. Speech privacy provides confidentiality.  This is a great resource for board rooms or anywhere that hosts conversations with sensitive information.

2 Applications of Sound Masking

The idea is that with background noise, people can tune out more bothersome noise, such as typical office noise or even street noise.  This background noise is called sound masking.  There are two main ways to sound mask:

  1. Sound masking system. Systems like the VoiceArrest are ideal for larger areas, such as corporate buildings, medical facilities, or government buildings.  Speakers are placed directly within the ceiling tiles and thus uniformly deliver low-level white noise to larger areas through well-placed zones.
  2. Sound machines.  Individual desktop or bedside sound machines, or white noise generators, are effective for individuals, such as those in cubicles or small offices.  While they use white noise just like a system does, machines only have a small speaker per se and therefore don’t carry as far.
As you can see, white noise in its various applications has 2 wonderful benefits: a reduction of distractions and the establishment of privacy.
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15
Nov 2012

Speech Privacy & Ice Cream

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Tips for Productivity

Being unproductive is frustrating.  It’s kind of like eating ice cream for every meal.  When my husband was a little boy, his parents wisely indulged his desire for ice cream for every meal.  He got to pick his favorite kind and go at it.  The catch was that he had to eat the ice cream, and only the ice cream, for every meal…and nothing else at all.  As he tells it, breakfast and lunch were awesome, but by dinner, all he wanted was vegetables!

I think getting distracted at work is much the same.  At first, it can be really fun.  You’re chatting with your co-workers, goofing off, thinking all the while you’ll get back on track soon…however, like craving vegetables, that time is far off, and while hungering for it, you can’t seem to get it until you decide to put the ice cream away.

Thus, it’s time to set aside that scrumptious bowl of ice cream and choose the vegetables you’re really hungry for.  Here are a few tips for doing just that.

Getting rid of distractions

  • It’s up to you which you choose, but the Sonet is a highly effective noise solution for increased productivity in any individual work space.

    First, clear off your desk of unnecessary junk and move all essential items within easy reach.

  • Next, try white noise via a sound machine to block unwanted noise.  We all know how loud offices can be and usually are.  There’s no reason you have to be held captive to it.
  • If you work from home, try to establish boundaries for actually getting work done so you still have a place to work and place to relax at home.   For work, it’s important to have a good home office, I definitely still recommend white noise, and general organization.

However, I’ll be the first to say that even the most organized person in the world still has to discipline him/herself to work, even when the ideas aren’t flowing.  Thus, check out the next tips for basic tips to getting the ball rolling and getting over writer’s block.

Getting More Done

So, here are a few tips for breaking the barrier when you’re staring at a blank screen:

  • Sit and think for 10 minutes.  Seriously, before you give yourself (another) break, try to come up with a starting point.  It’s not that I don’t value breaks- in fact I have a lot due to the nature of my work day and kids.  However, I think it’s easy to procrastinate by allowing yourself too many.
  • Make a list of things that need to get done and start doing them- it may be that you have a break-through as you make the list or start checking things off.  Sometimes, the feeling of accomplishment is enough to get your mind going.
  • Take breaks.  Be intentional about when and how you spend your break time.  Breaks are great for when you need to rest your eyes, stretch, and generally after a period of real work time.
  • Frequently, I work on an idea in the back of my head…maybe it’s a real life experience, maybe it’s not, but either way, I find that my best ideas come when I am not technically working.  I usually mull them over in the back of my mind as I wash dishes or pick up toys or even play with the kids.  Then, I either work on it the next chance I get, or I at least write it down so I don’t forget.
If you’re struggling to be productive, rework your work space for minimal distractions, then discipline yourself to actually work.
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13
Nov 2012

The ABC’s of Dealing with Unwanted Noise

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We’re Taking the Day Off, Boss!

Is your office noisy?  Do you feel constantly distracted?  If you do, you are far from alone.  Check it out:

  • workers are distracted more than 2 hours every day
  • workers are interrupted approximately 70 times a day
  • usually, there are 2 intervening tasks between an interruption and getting back on task
  • which is why, once interrupted, it takes minutes to actually get back on track
This drives bosses batty.  They are constantly fretting over lost hours of work and hundreds of billions of dollars lost to distraction annually.  What they may not know is that workers are just aggravated.  Losing that much time to distraction is frustrating because deadlines aren’t met, which can mean staying late and/or working on the weekend.  For those of us paid by the project, it means a smaller pay check.
So, what’s a worker to do?  Play hookie?  Maybe.  Okay, not seriously.  There really is a way to get away from distraction that does not involve leaving it.

Dealing with noise is just that: deal with it, not eradicate it.  There are 3 ways to deal with unwanted noise:

  • absorb
  • block
  • cover

Commonly referred to as the ABC’s of sound masking, these 3 techniques have been proven to aid in sound reduction.  The most effective means of the three is the use of sound masking is to cover noise.  Instead of adding carpet to absorb sound or building walls to block it, sound masking systems {ie white noise} cover noise so that people can focus better, while also enjoying speech privacy.  Essentially, the idea is this: white noise at low levels helps the brain tune out unwanted sounds, such as noisy co-workers.  That way, everyone can get back to work instead of trying to take the day off!

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16
Oct 2012

Sound Masking: Distracted from Distraction

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What Is Sound Masking

Most people are somewhat familiar with the idea of “white noise”, though they may not be as aware of how diverse it actually is.  Most think of a hissing noise that they find annoying.  In reality, white noise is the production of sound that represents samples from all across the sound spectrum.  It can be a hissing sound, but it can also manifest as nature sounds.  People use white noise to work more productively, relax more fully, and sleep more soundly- all because the brain is distracted from its distraction and can therefore focus on what you want it to.  That said, sound masking is the use of white noise on a more corporate, or broader, sense.

 Who Uses Sound Masking?

Businesses around the country use systems like the VoiceArrest because they’re tired of losing time and money to a solvable problem.  The average worker is distracted more than two hours every day.  This adds up to a $600billion loss for the US every year.  In addition to this lack of productivity, some businesses need confidential privacy for various reasons.  Here’s a quick look at reasons companies like yours take advantage of sound masking technology.

  • Call Centers: call centers are known for their noisy backgrounds.  For the sake of the caller and the people called, sound masking reduces the effect of ambient noise.
  • Real Estate Offices: Competing realtors share office space which gives the other parties unfair advantages at times.  Managers use sound masking to provide more privacy for their realtors.
  • Medical Facilities: HIPAA calls for a certain level of privacy for patients, but does not regulate oral communication.  Proactive medical facilities who want to satisfy their patients and keep their clientele as well as earn referrals use sound masking to provide confidentiality.
  • Cubicle Offices: Since workers are practically shoulder to shoulder, sound masking is a huge resource for reducing office noise, especially conversational distraction.

Sound masking is a great and highly effective resource for any facility looking to reduce distractions and increase confidentiality.

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02
Oct 2012

The Frustration of Interruptions & Distractions

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Please Quit Interrupting Me!

If you’re a parent, you know how frustrating it is to be constantly interrupted.  Precious as our children are, even when they’re just gushing about school, there are times we just need to not be interrupted in the middle of an adult conversation.  When it’s an annoying interruption, such as whining or tattle taling, our ire only goes higher.  I once had a friend comment that’s part of why parenting is so hard: if a friend did this, we’d not be friends anymore, right?  Constant interruptions and distractions do not lead to a two-way relationship.  As I thought about de-friending my child the other day {not really, of course}, I realized this applies at work, too.  We can try to deal with annoying co-workers, but in the long run, they’re like our kids in that we’re stuck with them no matter what.  Co-workers are pretty distracting when they want to be and when they don’t mean to be.  And according to a 2005 study,  office distractions and interruptions have never been more costly.

  • 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.  Yet, interestingly, 3 out of 10 believed it was not only acceptable, but a sign of diligence and efficiency.
  • Ultimately, this level of distraction is equivalent to a 10 point IQ loss.

Regardless of appearances and opinions, having this many distractions is apparently quite costly.  Workers already lose 2 hours a day to distractions, losing their mental capacities is not exactly helping the situation.  Thus, when workers face constant distractions and unintentional interruptions at their own desks, it’s time to turn to sound masking.  Systems like the Voice Arrest help reduce distractions by providing speech privacy.  Essentially this means that with the use of white noise, speech is rendered unintelligible so that workers aren’t inadvertently held captive by it the entire work day.

It may not seem like distraction is really that big of a deal, but it costs businesses like your hundreds of billions of dollars every year.  If you’d like to reclaim your piece of the pie, then do what you can to limit the effects of distraction on your work force.

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27
Sep 2012

Quit Blaming the Internet!

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There are many times I just don’t feel that motivated to work.  My mind wanders of its own accord, so every time a Facebook, twitter, or email notification pops up, I minimize my work screen just as quickly.  Who knows- maybe a friend just had  a baby, or maybe someone just pinned something I can’t live without seeing?  You don’t want to miss those life changers.  But as much as I love my internet wanderings, there are times I need to be productive and simply can’t!  I am not alone- a friend posted this on Facebook a few days ago:

Saying goodbye to all productivity for the remainder of the day…
The internet is a giant, shiny object.

The hard thing about computers is that they are as much of a curse as they are a blessing.  We need them to work, but they can be a huge time suck, too.  I’ll be the first to say that we could discipline ourselves more by closing certain windows or only checking social media at specific times.  However, this isn’t always realistic since some people need social media for work.

Interestingly, it’s actually not internet mischief that cause the most distractions.  As much as people blame Facebook, usually it’s office noise, such as conversations, that eat up our time.  We all waste about 2 hours every day!  So, this is where speech privacy comes in to play.  Rather than shut off the internet or drown out every noisy distraction at work, all you really need to do is achieve speech privacy.  Speech privacy is accomplished when conversation has been rendered unintelligible {note the difference between unintelligible and unintelligent}.  It’s like when you’re on an airplane and even though people are still talking around you, you have to physically move to actually understand them.  When conversations and office noise are masked like this, the brain is able to stay focused longer and is less likely to look for distractions.

Okay, you get it….but how can you do this at work?  The answer is simple: sound masking.  Fear not, I said sound masking, not jet engine installation.  With significantly less sound, a sound masking system accomplishes the same thing via white noise so workers can stay focused, less distracted, and less likely to immerse ourselves in shiny objects.

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