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PA Enterprise
attend to the distraction in the environment for it sound altogether isn’t always possible, research
to impair our performance. Even when trying to shows there are things you can do to help to
block out background sound, mental disruption keep disturbances to a minimum.
still arises. Simple tasks such as mental arithmetic
are impaired by acoustically varying sounds – Prepare your space
such as speech and music – as they clash with our Background sound can reduce performance
brain’s ability to process information in a certain on some tasks by up to 50%, so it’s worth
order. thinking about what might help to keep this to a
Similarly, tasks that involve understanding the minimum.
meaning of language, such as reading and If you really need to concentrate on a task, think
writing, are more impaired by sounds that about swapping desks or moving to a quieter
contain language – such as speech and music area. If this isn’t possible, then noise-cancelling
with lyrics – due to a clash of processing semantic headphones may help block out background
information. So while it may feel lovely to be back noise. If nothing else, wearing headphones sends
surrounded with your colleagues again, it might a message to co-workers that you are less open
initially be a little harder to get your head down if to conversation and therefore less likely to be
lots of conversations are going on around you. interrupted.
While ignoring interruptions or background
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August/September 2021 9
