And the winner is....

Earplugs! Earplugs are the clear winner of this contest. I did alternate between earplugs and music for equal numbers of work hours but this isn't a very scientific experiment for loads of reasons, and I know that. Sorry, I didn't track the progress in the sidebar as promised, because my HTML skills are pretty limited.

It was hard to quantify productivity in terms other than words/hour. But I not only wrote more words with earplugs in my ears (almost 1,000 more over the two weeks) than with headphones on, I also had a major breakthrough on my manuscript with earplugs in. All of this despite my bias towards thinking that music made me more productive.

Maybe it keeps me company while I'm working, I don't know, but the truth is, I think I am addicted to music. I'm not sure that even after such definitive results, I can switch entirely over to earplugs. I will have to wean myself off of working to music :(

4 comments:

Notorious Ph.D. said...

Maybe music for mechanical work, and earplugs for creative work?

AliceAcademic said...

I love that compromise, esp. because it means I don't have to give up the music while writing...what is your habit these days, are you using earplugs?

maepress said...

funny, my research is on the cognitive effects of auditory distraction. Maybe there could be something interesting in your earplug productivity.

AliceAcademic said...

Hi Maepress,
That sounds like a fun research topic! Hope you'll share some preliminary results over at your blog sometime.