White noise is the sound many of us grew up with when a TV was turned to the wrong channel. I never turned to those channels on purpose in the past, but now I have a dedicated app to produce that very sound. Yes, I actively sought it out, but I have my reasons.

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It’s Time to Focus

Almost the entirety of my professional career consists of deep focus. I’ve worked remotely since I was 23, and for hours each day, it’s just me, a screen, and the words that I must come up with. Anything that can help me focus is a gift.

This situation led me to a white noise app: Noise Machine. This affordable piece of software has among the most minimal designs I’ve seen in an app.

Here’s the rundown—there are four types of white noise that aren’t all white (white, pink, green, and brown). Each comes in five types (classic, ambient, deep, super deep, and clean). You get the classic version of each color for free, but you have to pay $3 once to unlock the rest. I did this almost immediately.

If 20 options sounds like an overwhelming amount of choices, well, it really isn’t. Each one sounds like variations of TV static. They all serve the same fundamental role of blocking out background noise in a way that actually helps achieve a genuine feeling of silence.

I can vouch for the feeling. With a white noise app, I don’t hear the steady hum of the fridge or the ticking of a clock. It’s just me and the task at hand.

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Better Sleep

It’s arguable that as effective as white noise apps are for work, that’s not what they’re best used for. Many people turn to white noise to help them sleep. There are even dedicated white noise machines for the job.

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Sometimes dumber is better

For light sleepers like myself, white noise can drown out the small sounds that would jolt me awake. White noise can also be soothing in and of itself. I personally find it relaxing enough to help quiet my mind and help me fade off.

While there are advantages to using a dedicated device over a phone app, your phone really is a good place to begin. After all, the sound quality is superb when paired with Bluetooth earbuds, which you’re probably already accustomed to wearing anyway.

More importantly, the sounds are always available to you no matter where you’re working. White noise machines can serve this role also, but unless you have one in an office you work in each day, that separate device isn’t available when you need it.

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Less Distracting Than Music

Various types of instrumental music form the soundtrack of my life. I have had a bit of a Lo-Fi Girl obsession in the past, though my heart has long yearned for ambient and neoclassical. I still prefer to purchase MP3s, and the music I’ve bought in recent years consists almost entirely of this kind of music.

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There’s nothing like chill background music to help a gamer focus.

For the most part, this music helps me focus, but there are times when it does the opposite. Sometimes, I find myself scrolling through albums, unsure of what I’m in the mood for. When this happens, my mind can easily wander off as I find myself checking out album art and occasionally falling down the Wiki rabbit hole. Soon I’m reading about the history of an artist or publishing label. I know this doesn’t only happen to me.

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Much Cheaper, Too

Often enough, my distraction leads to me opening the Bandcamp app and curating a wishlist of instrumental music to add to my library. This can get expensive with Lo-Fi Girl in particular, which releases several albums a month, at least half of which I enjoy. This regularity turns attempting to own the albums that resonate with me pricier than keeping a subscription, my legend for ownership not withstanding.

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Streaming or physical media? I’ll take option three.

A white noise app doesn’t just spare me from distraction. It also reduces temptation, since I have no desire for more variations of white noise. Arguably, I already have more options than I need. It only takes one to do the job.

While I did make a one-time purchase to unlock all the variations in Noise Machine, that’s less than one album and much less than a month of Spotify. If, like me, you need background noise to help get your job done, few options are as effective and economical as a white noise app.

I’m not saying white noise hasn’t completely removed my desire for background music. Sometimes I really need the upbeat sounds of music to wake me up and get the creative juices flowing. Sometimes, music serves as inspiration. But there’s something beautiful about the pure utility and effectiveness of a white noise app that makes one worth having around.