Noise-cancelling headphones to reduce the impact of noise around you.
A number of people with ADHD talk about:
- Noise cancelling headphones being very positive to reduce unwanted distraction noise around them.
- Using headphones as a visual indicator to people around that you are not to be disturbed lightly
Strategies for any noise from the headphones
- A number of people talk to having silence in the headphones. “A socially acceptable way to wear ear guards in an office environment”
- A number of people talk to using white or brown noise. This can be bought in music stores, found in playlists and some more modern phones have white noise generators.
- A number of people talk to having familar music on repeat. To act to drown surrounding noise but not be stimulating in itself.
Downsides to noise cancelling headphones:
- Colleagues nearby and/or managers may perceive them to be so good that in allows them to make distracting noise nearby. There can be a perception that wearing noise-cancelling headphones deals with all distracting noise; whereas, best case, it dampens it. Most noise cancelling aims to reduce hums and other background noise rather than conversations and other less predictable noise.
- Playing any music or noise has the potential to be damaging to hearing.
- It can create a division in the workplace. A barrier from the non-work conversation that helps a day go by and builds relationships in an office.
- If you need to be aware of some noises around you – for instance, the telephone or a machine – then headphones may cause a new issue. There may be solutions to that issue, for instance, a light alert, but that in turn may product additional issues.
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What others have said:
| Star Rating Given | Comment |
|---|---|
| 5 | An excellent tool to organise thoughts, ideas and so they become lost in the sea of emails or collect on piles of sticky notes on the desk, one stop memory bank. |
| 1 | I dont know why but to me it feels like a prison:( |
| 1 | Can't see what exactly is on offer or what the voucher is for. The webinar is a previous date, and I couldn't sign up (probably because the date has passed). It's all a bit confusing. |
| 5 | When I got two monitors, I was so pleased that I almost instantly wanted three. Now that I have three I want more. Which has led me to the painful conclusion that I am really just using multiple monitors as a cope. the root cause of my productivity issues--my inadequate ability to prioritize means that I actually get more done the fewer screens i can access. |
| 3 | This quote actually was created a number of years ago in relation to Gifted kids (I first read it in 2019 when I was going down the Giftedness rabbit hole). I guess @omgamiautistic has adapted it and now ADHD UK have done it too! It’s certainly useful in all those cases to help explain how labels help us to find our place. |
| 5 | The two minute rule works for me, despite the risk of distraction. Some things feel small but are very important. Brushing teeth, cleaning up my dishes from lunch, watering the plants. These are things I could go days without doing because it always gets shifted to ‘later’ and then forgotten altogether. I’d rather risk getting distracted from work, than end up with cavities in my teeth and dead plants on my windowsill. |
| 4 | I can see the value in using this technique in limited contexts - say, helping a school student with ADHD to focus on homework. It links in very well with 'Accelerated Learning' principles (see Alastair Smith - brilliant) in recognising that the brain (that's 'anyone's' brain too) works at its best for a limited time before it begins to switch off. |
| 3 | i like to use this for getting started on big tasks, because if the timer goes off then i dont have to stop its just a thing for me to get started but it also helps with little tasks like chores. |
| 4 | Massive risk that setting up the system becomes a distraction, and then another system comes along... But yeah the right system can help a team manage tasks while letting people present / organise things in their own way. |
| 5 | Hadn't thought about this until I saw it on here as a strategy - I use two monitors so that I can have reference material up on one and work on the other. Stops me going off track when I toggle between windows and something unrelated catches my eye. |