Hacker News Reader

I have similar issues with distractibility with sounds. Music sometimes helps, and white noise is good, but sometimes I’d love to be able to just turn my ears off.

The worst situation is feeling the need for enough audio stimuli to feel “right”, but that level is too distracting to allow for focus.

View on HN

Agreed with you there. It is so hard to find the right sounds that could help me to focus but it turns out it made it worse. There are few sounds that does help me to focus like heartbeating, I have a 30min opus file that is purely heartbeats. I gravities toward repeating sounds because they are easier to focus as they are rhythmic. Anything that are not rhythmic will mess with my pacing.

I find that wearing hearing protector earmuffs (like the 3M Peltor Optime, which cuts 30 dB) cuts out so much sound that I feel almost stone deaf and the rest of the world goes away. It takes a little practice for them not to be disquieting, but it helps if I turn my attention elsewhere.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com