Sound for Reading vs Sound for Writing vs Sound for Email
Short answer: Reading leaves the least room for background sound, writing a little more, and routine email the most. The reason is how much of the task is language. Set the sound by what you are doing right now, not once for the whole day.
| Task | Room for sound | What I'd use |
|---|---|---|
| Reading something dense | Very little | Silence, or a low steady sound if the room is noisy |
| Writing something new | A little | Quiet, wordless, nothing to follow |
| Clearing email, routine replies | The most | Almost anything. Avoid speech. |
Reading
This is the best-studied case. A review of 65 studies found that every kind of background sound had a small cost for reading, and that speech and music with lyrics cost the most. So for reading that matters, the rule is simple. Use as little sound as the room allows, and none with words.
If the room is noisy, a low steady sound is still better than hearing every interruption. I wrote about that in Silence Is Not Neutral.
Writing
There is less research here, but one result is clear. In an experiment on writing essays at a computer, background music slowed people down. They produced fewer words per minute, even though nobody asked them to pay attention to the music.
Writing does come in bursts, with pauses to think, and in my experience a quiet wordless background sits fine in those pauses. That part is my own impression. The study only tells me that music has a cost.
I found no research on email, so this is reasoning. Most email is short, routine and low-stakes. It doesn't need the sustained attention that reading a contract or writing a proposal does. Here music you like does no harm that I can see. The exception is the one message a day that needs care. Treat that as writing.
The switch is the point
Most people choose one sound in the morning and leave it. That gives you the wrong sound for half the day. What works better for me is two settings: something slow and wordless for reading and writing, and whatever I like for the rest. For the first I use my own project, Ambient Sound Online, because it has no words, no tune and nothing that loops.
Sources
- Vasilev, Kirkby and Angele, 2018: review of 65 studies on background sound and reading
- Ransdell and Gilroy, 2001: effects of background music on word processed writing
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