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Office Space: Is it Quiet Enough to Write? · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for riding success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're continuing our series on upgrading or moving your office.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: As I've mentioned a couple times so far in this series, I recently started renting an office down the street from my house.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, a couple of reasons were that I wanted to be more creative and productive, and I also wanted to put myself in a more professional environment.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now those things are true, but to be brutally honest, a big reason why I got a new office was because of three barking dogs.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not sure what it is about Missouri, but it seems like almost every household around here has at least one dog.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: However, not every household with a dog has a good owner.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Over the last two years of working from home, I have spent quite a bit of time trying to drown out the noise of three dogs in my immediate neighborhood.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: The owners don't seem to have enough social awareness or consideration to realize that leaving their dogs outside to bark incessantly for long periods of time is perhaps not something that they should do.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, yes, there are ways to deal with barking dogs, and you can involve the authorities and stuff like that.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: But in suburban Missouri, it's kind of like playing whack-a-mole.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you deal with one, another one's gonna pop up immediately, so I've just learned to deal with the barking dogs as best as I can.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: But when I had a chance to rent an outside office, I was thrilled because I wouldn't have to listen to those stinking, barking dogs anymore.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And to be honest, the longer that I worked from home, the more the barking bothered me to the point where it was having a negative effect on my mental health.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know this all might sound kind of petty and juvenile, but honestly for me, having someplace to go has been a real game changer.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: In my new office space, I hear people in other offices talking sometimes, and I hear the dull roar of traffic on the nearby highway, but those things are actually a comfort, not an irritation.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: They're nothing like listening to incessant barking dogs.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want you to think about your current work area or the office that you might be considering renting.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: How quiet is it?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: How much does it let you concentrate?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Are there factors like barking dogs or other noises that make it really hard to concentrate?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you might have a higher tolerance than I do for disruptive noises.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if so, that is fantastic.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: I consider that a gift if you can put up with that stuff, but I can't.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: For whatever reason, I'm just wired in such a way as to where I find barking dogs and highly repetitive noises and irritating noises like that.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: I have a really, really high sensitivity to that for whatever reason.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're like me and you're easily distracted by that kind of stuff, is there another space where you can work?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Is there maybe a solution to help prevent the noise or deal with it on a level that is better for your mental and emotional health?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And if so, take that into consideration.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Your thinking and your concentration are pretty important parts of what you do as a writer.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: So here's today's challenge.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, thanks for listening to this uh semi-rant on this episode.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't rant very much, uh, but I do once in a great while.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks for hanging in there with me on this episode.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of just had to get this off my chest, if you know what I mean.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Here's today's challenge.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Be honest about the level of disruption and noise in your current work area.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Is it enough for you to consider switching office locations or coming up with some kind of other solution?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Just some things to think about.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.