How to handle workplace noise?

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At my office, the building makes lots of settling noises, which can be quite annoying.

On Friday, I came up with a little experiment: for one hour, keep tally marks of every time the building makes a settling noise, and categorize it as either:

painful - Loud enough to cause physical pain as my body reacts
Loud - High enough volume to startle me
Medium - Clearly audible and somewhat distracting
Quiet - Audible but not an issue

I stopped after 25 minutes because I was running out of room on the post-it note. Here were the results:

Painful 3
Loud 5
Medium 25
Quiet 28

There is also loud constant noise from the air system and the huge number of computers that the office has.

I have some in-ear earphones (which they do allow), but my ears are having difficulty with having the pieces inside my ears (uncomfortable, build up of dry dead skin cells). Real earplugs aren't an option (since people need to talk to me sometimes), and my ears begin to suffer from fatigue if I have any kind of music going all day (I can only handle an hour or two at a time), and the earphones only take the edge off of the noise while the volume is off.

Earplugs, baby! I got some at a music festival not long ago and they're magic. You can still hear people talk, but it blocks all the other crap out. I loooove them.

I'm not sure if your workplace allows them, but our workplace is filled with people who have noise issues, and many have the Bose noise-canceling headphones. I know that they might drive me batty if I wore them too long --- I wouldn't like my ears constricted --- but they might be a possibility.

My boss complains about me making noise because I talk so loud .

I've had some success with a software program called ChatterBlocker (http://chatterblocker.com/). On the web site's Reviews page, near the bottom there's a link to a review by an Aspie (not me, and no, I do not work for the company).

Still not as good as a private office with a thick door, however ...

I found a partial solution to the wall noise, and I don't like it...

Keeping the window shutter closed.

Apparently the heat from the window is a big part of the reason.


I'm an outside person, and always find myself longing to be outside (not to mention away from my current job!) the entire time I'm in the office. Maybe having the shutters closed will help me focus a little more on work