Scott Friesen
Hello everyone! Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, and if you're wanting to work at your productive best, you're in the right place. Sometimes in order for us to focus on the task at hand, we need a little help with music or at the very least, maybe some background noise or soundscapes.
This is especially true if you work in a noisy office or if you're distracted by the other conversations which may be happening around you. But even if you work at home, studies have shown that music can be a very powerful way to help you focus.
So in today's video, I want to share with you five of my favorite websites to help you find both music and also background noise so you can have the most productive day yet. The first website I want to share with you is called Noisli, and Noisli has a very simple interface.
Noisli
Here you can see it's only a single page, and it's made up mostly of a number of different icons. Now these icons represent different sounds.
Here you see we've got some rain, thunder, the sound of a forest, and if we scroll all the way down to the bottom, we even have three different flavors of white noise. The great thing about the Noisli interface is that we just need to click on one of these, and now you can hear a bit of a forest in the background.
Maybe I want the sound of a forest in the rain, so I'm gonna select the rain, and now I've got a combination of those sounds. Now I'm gonna take the rain down a little bit.
Each and every one of the sounds has its own volume slider, so you can find the mix which is best for you. Maybe I want to add in some nighttime sounds.
Oh, there's the sounds of some crickets in the background. I'm gonna take that down just a little bit, so you can customize your own combination of sounds here on the screen.
Let me just turn those off for a moment. They do have a few presets here, both a Productivity preset and a Relaxation preset, or you can just choose the Random button.
Here you can see I've got "Summer Night," "Fireplace," and a little bit of waves, a little bit of seaside waves in the background here. So a very simple interface, very quick and easy for you to find something to either help drown out that noise or help you focus on the task at hand.
Brain.fm
The next website is called Brain.fm, and they categorize their sounds into three different areas: one for Focus, one for Relaxation, and one for Sleep. Now if I start by clicking on the Focus one, it's going to load a pre-loaded sort of soundscape.
There's a mix of some background noises along with music in the background. Let me just give you a listen for a few seconds.
Now, as you can see at the bottom of the interface, you can choose if you want this for a predetermined set of time or if you just like it to go on forever. But this is a continual passage of music which will change over time.
I was really amazed at how effective this particular playlist and some of the other playlists that I experimented with, how much of an effect it had on me in just as little as ten minutes. Now of course, you can explore more playlists which they have here categorized under Focus, Relaxation, and Sleep.
Maybe I want a Night Sounds Relaxation mix, and I'm going to choose it for 15 minutes to perhaps help me get to sleep. So a variety of ways in which you can find different mixes, different sounds.
Here we have some of the similar background, maybe forest or animal sounds in the background. Of course, the great thing is that most of them come with a preset timer, so you can determine when they finish.
In this case, if you want to help yourself get to sleep, this will shut off in just 15 minutes' time. Now the next one on my list is called MyNoise, and you'll find it at MyNoise.net.
MyNoise.net
Now the interface may seem a little more intimidating compared to the other websites which I have shown you, but MyNoise is a series of noise machines which are a little more complex. There's a few more things going on, but for all of you audiophiles out there or for all of you who would like to tweak your sounds in a little more detail, this just might be the website for you.
Here you can see that they have a variety of noise-making machines or noise-making generators in different categories. We've got natural noises, tonal drones, we've got transport, and if you hover over any of these noises, it will actually give you a brief preview of what that sound is.
This one's called "Sleeping Dragon." Now that's all good to give you a preview of what these sounds sound like, but the real power of MyNoise.net—I'm going to click on Airport Terminal because sometimes that sound of bustling activity or people talking in the background can actually be most helpful depending on who you are.
Here you see this terminal noise generator, and in front of us, we have a number of multicolored sliders. Well, each and every one of these sliders represents a different component of this Airport noise.
So let's say I want to hear a little bit more of the airport restaurant. Well, I just move that slider up, and I can get more of that in my mix.
Maybe I don't want to hear the sound of people moving around or walking down the terminals. I can take that out of the mix.
So you can get really customized with your sound depending on what you select. Again, MyNoise.net has a few hundred different sounds that you can play with.
You can even build your own. Another nice thing with the MyNoise.net interface is that you can save this as a URL.
Not only will it just save this particular noise generator, but it will also save your particular settings. Now this may be a little more time-consuming for those of you who are just wanting to quickly look for some background noise, but for those who like to dive a little bit deeper into the controls, you might really enjoy playing around with MyNoise.net.
Now the fourth one on my list might just be my favorite one, and partly that's because it rhymes with Simpletivity. Let me introduce you to Coffitivity.
Coffitivity
What you may have guessed from the name is that Coffitivity aims to recreate the sounds of a coffee shop. Let me play you just a little bit of an example.
So here you might envision yourself at your local Starbucks or your favorite coffee shop. Studies have shown that recreating this sound can often help a number of people be more productive and be more focused on their work.
In fact, I'm sure there's a number of you watching today's video who actually get their most work done at their local coffee shop. It's not just because they're away from the office; it's not just because they're away from other individuals.
But there's something about that noise. There's something about other activity going on in the room.
Now, Coffitivity has a few other sounds that you can choose from, including the sound of a Lunchtime Rush. University Undertones is the sound of a campus cafe.
So a few different sort of eating establishments, restaurant environments that you can play with here on Coffitivity. They give you three to start out with, and if you'd like to hear their entire playlist, you can subscribe to their premium version.
Spotify
Now last but not least, I don't want to leave this list without mentioning Spotify. Now many of us are probably familiar with Spotify as a place to go to listen to our favorite music and maybe listen to the latest hits or our favorite albums.
But Spotify is so much more than just the Top 100 on the Billboard charts. If you select Genres and Moods and scroll down, you will find that there is an area called Focus.
Here you will find 12 different curated playlists, all intended to help you gain more focus and help you be more productive with whatever it is that you're doing. Whether it's work-related, maybe it's something related to a hobby or something that you do in your off-hours.
Everything from "Productive Morning" to "Peaceful Piano" to "Instrumental Study." Let's click on "Music for Concentration" for just a few seconds.
Here you can see that this particular playlist maybe has a lot of piano or music-based songs as a part of this playlist. But you know, you can play around with the different ones here—a lot of variety that goes on within these playlists within Spotify.
So I might encourage you to play around with a number of the websites which I've mentioned in today's video. I know for myself, sometimes I'll start off on a Monday with one of these playlists within Spotify.
Then on Tuesday, I might want to recreate a coffee shop. You know, it really depends on the mood that I'm in.
It might also depend on what else I'm trying to drown out or trying to mask in my own environment. So I would love to hear from you.
How do you combat the noise around you, or what types of music help you to work at your productive best? I'm looking forward to your answers in the comments below.
And if you haven't subscribed to the Simpletivity YouTube channel, I would encourage you to do so. I upload new videos each and every week.
Thank you so much for watching today. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.
In fact, it's very simple.
