I used to work at a small startup in a coworking space that was shared with other small startups. In one large room, there would be loud conversations, sales c

I used to work at a small startup in a coworking space that was shared with other small startups. In one large room, there would be loud conversations, sales calls, people coming into the office for meetings, people eating lunch together at common tables, a beeping microwave at the kitchenette, and a lot of movement as teams would go to and from meetings. I found that a cup of coffee, 25 minute pomodoros, large meeting-free blocks of time, noise-cancelling headphones, white noise, and lyric-less music was the best combination for getting work done. I also found that I was particularly productive in the off hours. I was taking classes during the day and would sometimes stay until 7:30 or 8 to offset the time spent at class. When nearly everyone left around 6 or 6:30, this meant that there was a lull in the noise and activity around me as well as no Slack messages or meetings, which was also very helpful for concentrating.