Here is a quick aid to setting the ambient sound in your work from home space.
Just two websites and I fool my brain into thinking I’m sat in a busy coffee shop.
Because of the foibles of public transport when travelling to clients workplaces I always give myself an extra hour to ensure I arrive on time. One of the more enjoyable aspects of arriving early has been discovering the wide variety of coffee shops scattered around the towns and cities. Each of these have their own particular ambient sound. Enough chatter to keep you company, but quiet enough that you can still work.
When I started working from home, I realised I missed that background noise. The Internet came to my rescue. There are several good ambient noise generators to help disperse that feeling of isolation.
My favourite is Ambient-Mixer. This free to use website allows you to pick the ambient background noise to meet your needs. There are hundreds of pre-made noise locations to choose from, but the best part is being able to make your own. For me it was to build a busy coffee shop environment with the conversations and clinking of cups, old till ringing out, people occasionally laughing, etc. To complete the setting, I then open a second browser tab and have a radio station running very low on top. For me, this is the perfect mix. I set the ambient sounds to random repeat and the radio station ensures I fool my brain into thinking the whole sound experience is realistic.
The impressive thing about the ambient-mixer is you can construct just about any environment, Hogwarts library anyone? If you are missing the hubbub of the human collective, give it a go.
You can find my all day coffee shop sounds here.
I’d love to hear what your ideal ambient environment is.