There are a lot of aspiring writers who never get serious about the idea because their homes are noisy. It sounds like a little thing, but when you’re trying to pour all of your concentration into the page, it’s an enormous consideration. If you have kids in the house or roommates that come and go and bring people with them when they do, having a silent home is never going to happen. You can beg for silence every day and just make yourself and those around you miserable in the process without making a dent in the noise. Ask me how I know.
The best that you can do in most situations is to mitigate the noise. Wearing earphones all the time isn’t fun, and it isn’t preferable if you need to be available should a child or stray roommate need you. And yet, your copywriting service needs a certain amount of calm attention in order to thrive. Here are a few ways to mitigate the noise well enough to allow for deep concentration.
Use White Noise
White noise, the kind made on a white noise machine or on an app that will generate it, is a steady stream of sound that doesn’t grab your attention. The sound is made up of lots of different frequencies, so it can drown out annoying sounds and keep the level of sound predictable. Part of the problem that comes with voices in the house is that humans are extremely responsive to other human voices. If you hear a conversation going on, you are going to instinctively listen to it. If you have white noise playing, there is nothing in the sound that your mind will try to concentrate on. Even if it’s louder than the voices, it will be far less distracting.
Use Even Noise
If you find white noise annoying or too boring, there is a way to even out the noise that can serve a dual purpose in your quest for less noise. Playing the TV at a moderate volume can keep an even level of sound playing so that you aren’t surprised by sudden noises and pop-up conversations. Leaving the TV on has a second bonus, though. If it’s on, there’s a chance that those making noise will stop and watch it instead of continuing to do loud things.
Redirect the Noise
If there is going to be noise, and you didn’t have a good experience with white noise or the TV option, there is the idea of containing the noise. Elsewhere. To put it more simply, the people making the noise have to go away. Creating a playroom that is so much fun to be in that they want to congregate in there and take their noise with them is a good option when possible. Another is to create a fun outdoor area where the same is possible. Having several areas where people can go to be joyfully loud gives them places to go when they get bored of one area.
The opposite idea also works. If you can make your own working space so small and boring that no one wants to be there, they won’t want to hang out there. They can go where there are things to do while you work in a small bedroom where everything fun has been removed, a home office that has nothing at all for kids in it or even a part of a garage where no one else wants to be.
Lizz S is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
