Let’s face it, many of us have been forced to work at home and just stay away from places where normally a lot of people converge in. Visits to coffee shops and cafes we’d otherwise frequent to study and get work done, will no longer be the same because of this pandemic.
And for some of us, coffee shops and cafes provide the perfect place to get productive — because we would otherwise get lazy and uninspired if we did it in the comfort of our homes. Was it the fast WiFi, comfy furnishings, or company of friends? Or maybe just the general coffee shop vibe?
We checkout online tools that help to recreate the coffee shop or cafe vibe when you’re working at home. Its a proven method with research to back it up. Read on and perhaps give it a try. We hope it helps!
Moderate Noise Helps Boost Creativity
A study published in the Oxford University Press, points to the benefits to creativity when there is a moderate amount of ambient noise present.
While ambient noise is omnipresent, our understanding of its impact on human cognition, particularly creative cognition, remains limited. In this study, through a series of five experiments, we demonstrate how and why ambient background noise can affect creativity. Specifically, we show that a moderate (vs. low) level of ambient noise induces processing disfluency, which leads to abstract cognition and consequently enhances creativity. A high level of noise, however, impairs creativity by reducing the extent of information processing.
Mehta, R., Zhu, R., & Cheema, A. (2012). Is Noise Always Bad? Exploring the Effects of Ambient Noise on Creative Cognition. Journal of Consumer Research, 39(4), 784-799. doi:10.1086/665048
It is also interesting that the study also found out that ambient noise “is an important antecedent of creative cognition. A moderate level of noise not only enhances creative production but also leads to greater adoption of innovative products.” This is noteworthy advise to marketers too.
If you are looking to creatively address your daily problems the study finds that “instead of burying oneself in a quiet room,” getting out of your comfort zone and immersing into a relatively noisy environment like a coffeeshop may help to trigger the brain to think in abstract terms and result to the generation of creative ideas.
Coffitivity
Backed by this research, this online tool called “Coffitivity” is available to help you immerse in this moderate noise as you do your work and try to get creative and productive.
Coffitivity is basically free and offers various background ambience sounds for you to choose.
If you want to access its additional ambient sounds, then it will require you to switch to “Premium” access that’s only USD $9 per year.
You can also use its special app for Mac OSX users.
Spotify
Then there is of course Spotify. Numerous albums and playlists are available to help you recreate a coffee shop vibe.
But you will need Spotify Premium access so you won’t be bothered with ads, and lose you creative train of thought.
Here’s one album you can try out.
Brew that Coffee!
Now that you have the ambient noise solved, it’s time to prepare that hot cup of coffee to complete the coffeeshop vibe.
Hope this helps! We wish you a creative day ahead!