Sat down at your desk or on your bed, with your books and laptop open, it can be notoriously difficult to find your focus and keep it. Some people swear by studying in complete and absolute silence as there are not sounds to distract you from your work. Others can’t focus without background noise or music. If you fall into the second category, this will hopefully be very useful to you, as we look at various types of background noise that will help you study effectively.
In this sense background noise, is anything calming, soothing and undistracting that will aid you in staying focused for whatever task you may be performing. It shouldn’t be anything loud, or anything that may draw your attention away from your work for more than a moment.
Oil diffusers and humidifiers produce a gentle airy soft bubbling sound, perfect for those who need only a touch of background noise to stay focused. Place it towards the back of your desk and enjoy the little small shoot of water vapour that might also smell wonderful.
Essential oils are brilliant in themselves for helping you channel your energy into different things. Lavender helps you stay calm, prevents headaches and can even aid your sleep. Likewise, Spearmint invigorates the mind and memory allowing for better focus during study. Have fun and experiment with oils that will help you focus.
For those who wish to cut the world out completely and keep their eyes on their work, listening to an already pieces together ambience playlist on Spotify may help you. Often trance like and gentle with no lyrics, the music is unlikely to pull you from studying to sing along or get up and start dancing. Instead it helps you reach further into your mind. It’s not quite background noise as much as it is full immersion, but it’s an option that is suited to those that don’t do well in complete and utter silence.
Everyone knows ASMR is usually a lot of whispering and making sounds with a sensitive microphone to hopefully get you to feel tingles. Not everyone experiences tingles, but most people do turn to ASMR for soft and soothing, human made background noises to help them study, calm down and sleep. As there are so many videos on YouTube, if you don’t know where to start, try typing in ‘ASMR for studying’ and the best results will show you videos with millions of views.
Considered the Father of ASMR, Bob Ross’ soothing painting videos of the 80’s and early 90’s brought people comfort before we even know what ASMR was! If you haven’t watched any of his videos, quite a lot of them are up on YouTube and a few seasons are currently watchable on Netflix. His gentle voice and the sound of his brush strokes will most definitely help you study calm and effectively.
This is the studying trend that’s taken YouTube by storm. People have set up channels and live streams for you to study with people around the world 24/7. The study culture in countries like South Korea, China and Japan takes up a lot of a young person’s time, so to make sure everyone is staying on top of their work without chatting and distractions, people live-stream ‘Study With Me’ sessions. You don’t’ need a webcam, but if you choose to participate, there are a few streams on sites such as YouTube and Twitch that have a never ending ambience of crackling fire or rain and the sounds of a keyboard. Watching someone else study should theoretically push you to feel more motivated about studying, allowing you to me in the right mindset and stay focused.
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