F·14
Focus & Deep Work
Speech Is the Worst Noise
Background speech you can make out words in degrades reading, writing and arithmetic. Meaningless noise at the same volume does not.
- Evidence
- solid
- Topic
- Focus
- Things to do
- 3
- Read
- 1 min
solidHow strong is the evidence?
Good evidence behind it, but fewer people have checked it independently.
- Salamé & Baddeley, 1982 — the irrelevant speech effect
- Banbury & Berry, British Journal of Psychology, 1998, and open-plan office field studies
Why it works
Language you can parse enters the phonological loop whether you attend to it or not, and that is the same system running your own reading and writing. Traffic hum does not compete for it; a conversation two desks away does.
What to do about it
- Mask speech rather than chase silence — rain, brown noise, or instrumental music.
- Lyrics count as speech. Songs in a language you do not speak do not.
- Take the calls somewhere else and the writing somewhere quiet. It is the mixing that costs, not either alone.
Where people go wrong
Assuming you have tuned it out. Habituation happens to steady noise, and does not happen to speech.
Read next
- Friction Beats WillpowerTwenty seconds of added effort kills a habit; twenty seconds removed creates one.proven
- Habits Live in Contexts, Not in YouAbout 43% of daily behaviour is repeated in the same context. Change the context and the habit has nothing to hold on to.proven
- Proximity and Repetition Make LikingWho you become close to is mostly a function of who you repeatedly, incidentally encounter.proven
- Attention ResiduePart of your attention stays on the previous task — unless you left it with a written plan for resuming.solid