I've carefully tuned my use of headphones and music to my preferences and to minimize distractions. Here's my list: 1. Earbuds that block sound, or over-th

I've carefully tuned my use of headphones and music to my preferences and to minimize distractions. Here's my list: 1. Earbuds that block sound, or over-the-ear headphones that block sound 2. Nothing with lyrics. Voices are distracting. I'm really just here for the noise that's not other humans having a conversation. 3. Use a streaming service that tailors the music to my preferences. Pandora was my favorite, but I'm currently on Spotify. I don't have to curate my own lists and I still get music that's all similar and not distracting. It usually ends up being trance-like. Anything "jammin" or "fun" is indeed distracting. What I'm not getting here is how the generalization "music is a distraction" is justified. Was a large sample of music types used? As for "being watched," I'm not particularly ashamed of my work habits. I do indeed post to HN (in case you didn't notice), read news, read comics (oh, forgot to catch up on those this morning...), keep up with my online peers, ... and I work. Watch me all day if you like. I'd prefer that you also get work done, though.