Pod detox
Image by Uwe Baumann from Pixabay
Earlier today, while repainting our garage, my wife came up with the expression “Pod detox”. We have been painting for days on end now, often more than 10 hours per day. Neither of us have listened to any music, audiobooks or podcasts during these days. Usually, I listen constantly to conversations or audiobooks, so it has been a new (old) experience for me to only listen to silence. It is just like it was before, only that I had forgotten how to do it.
When I am working on cognitively demanding tasks at work, I never ever listen to anything. I cannot bring myself to the necessary level of concentration unless I have complete silence around me. That is also the primary reason why I detest open plan offices, with a passion. I am unable to function. Certain tasks however, when it is possible to engage the autopilot, e.g. creating 3D models or drawings, work nicely with background music or podcasts. But it is rare. My work as an engineer is perhaps the reason why I am hungrier than average to listen to podcasts and audiobooks. Other people might have a line of work where it is appropriate to have background music, and thus they won’t crave background sound to the same degree as me?
Either way, background sound will require some signal processing by your brain, and this consumes resources and brainpower. Think of it as a background service on your computer. In silence, the CPU in your head will have a bit more power. Noise is analogous to bloatware. Personally, I find it quite easy to listen to background sound during physical activities. Painting is indeed a physical activity. But before long your hands will be covered in paint residue, so you will not grab any phone in that state. There is also a risk of dropping your airpods into the paint bucket. So, there are plenty of rational reasons to listen to silence while painting.
When working in silence, more focus is unconditionally devoted to the task at hand. That’s what makes pod detox while repainting our garage interesting. It is a very long time since I was fully immersed in a physical activity, well suited to background sound, and choosing to have it dead silent. Consequently, I entered another state of mind. I found it pleasant. Besides, there are plenty of sounds in nature to listen to. We heard various birds, including eagles, for example. I also heard the low frequency of a buzzing insect that I first believed to be a dragonfly. Turns out it was a huge hornet. The biggest I have ever seen in Sweden, and it did a flyby in front of my face two times. Proper scary!
To conclude, I think that the pod detox has been healthy for me.