Background Noise

Distractions not only hurt productivity, but they can make you seem unprofessional. Stakes are even higher when communicating with prospects and customers.

Introduction

“Noise is the most impertinent of all forms of interruption. It is not only an interruption, but also a disruption of thought.” - Arthur Schopenhauer

“By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at their chosen goal or destination.” ~ Christopher Columbus

Background noise may strike you as an unimportant issue, but it can actually have a big impact on your effectiveness as a remote worker. It could even affect your overall career. The good news is, reducing background noise is easy, like picking low hanging fruit. It’s a simple concept which, when practiced consistently, sets you up for greater levels of success.

There are two primary areas in which a quiet background provides support:

• Deep work

• Professionalism

Quiet focus for deep work

The largest impact your work environment has on your career comes in the form of deep work. Scientific research supports a simple formula:

better focus = deeper work = higher productivity

This doesn’t mean that working in a coffee shop every now and then will stifle your career. Yet, it’s obvious that such a noisy work environment wouldn’t be sustainable. When setting up your personal work environment, imagine working in that space for the next five years. What characteristics would your workspace need to ensure sustainable levels of comfort and functionality?

Quiet professionalism

The other large impact your workspace will make is in the area of professionalism. Most non-written communications for remote workers happen on phone and video calls. Distractions not only hurt productivity, but they can make you seem unprofessional. Any noticeable distraction, however small, is noticeable by everyone on the call.

Your boss, co-workers, and team members may think you’re unserious about your work - or about quality - if your work environment is full of distractions. Stakes are even higher when communicating with prospects and customers. Unprofessional distractions can make your business seem not only unprofessional, but untrustworthy.

Practical tips for minimizing noise on calls

One of the most common distractions we encounter on calls comes in the form of feedback loops, or echo. Such a small distraction, yet, what a large impact it can have on the quality of your communications and, ultimately, of your work.

To avoid creating loops and echo during calls, always use headphones. If you don’t have headphones available, mute your line at all times that you are not speaking (then immediately go buy a set of headphones!) Feedback loops, or buzzing, can also be caused by using an ungrounded outlet or adapter to plug in a laptop or a CPU. The best way to prevent this distraction is by using only outlets which are properly grounded.

If that’s not possible, you can try using a wireless microphone. However, this will degrade audio quality slightly, especially over Bluetooth. In a pinch, you can even maintain constant contact with your laptop (i.e., physically touching it so your body, itself, becomes the grounding element), however, this is a short term solution, at best.

Investing in a quiet workspace

If you’re unable to establish a quiet, professional workspace at home, then you will want to consider investing in a co-working space or private office. If you’re skeptical about the value of such an investment, consider your long-term goals as you build the foundation of your remote career.

If your ambitions are only short-term, then you can risk the potential negative impact that an unprofessional work environment may have on your performance, and on your career. However, if your aspirations are for the long-term, then the investment you make in a professional workspace will seem small when compared to the lifetime earnings of a high-performance career.

Microphone quality

A good quality microphone is one of the best investments you can make to reduce background noise, and to present yourself as a professional remote worker. Low quality microphones are a chronic source of echo and feedback for others attending the call. It is useful to disable other microphones to avoid unintended, low-quality transmissions.

Most modern computers have good quality, internal microphones. However, a quick two-minute call with your coach will be enough to clarify whether or not your microphone is of sufficient quality.

Your sound quality should be crisp and clear, with human-sounding throughput. Anything else is simply not acceptable. When your sound quality is inconsistent, or you sound different than everyone else on a call, you are, ultimately, limiting your own success in the remote sphere.

Our recommendations

We’ve tested numerous microphone configurations, ranging from $10-$350, and the simple Apple headphones have performed the best. Headset microphones, like those pictured below, can also work well (and some people prefer them to traditional ear buds), so long as their sound quality has been verified by your coach.

Also, a good quality webcam (i.e., not the lowest-of-the-low) will usually have an acceptable level of sound quality. For example these Logitech devices are affordable, yet, provide a range of good-quality sound.

Conclusion

As Schopenhauer is quoted saying at the top of this article, noise is not only an interruption, but it’s also a disruption of thought. That is to say, not only can background noise cause you to appear unprofessional, it also gets in the way of you performing your best (deep) work.

Creating a quiet workspace (or investing in one) will provide invaluable benefits as you continue to develop and grow your remote career. Removing unwanted distractions supports and sustains a quiet, focused, and professional work environment in which you can produce world-class business results for your customers and teams.