I guess that your environmental conditions really matter when you are performing a task.
I never realized how sensitive I was to external stimulation until fairly recently.
For most of my life I have been able to live and work in a fairly controlled environment. I have lived alone and I have worked from home. As such, I have been in charge of my entire set of environmental conditions, from the lighting to the sounds that surround me. I was in for a big surprise when I went back to working in an office a few months ago. Suddenly, I realized how reliant I was on my indoor air handling devices and thermostat tyranny at home. I never really noticed before but my indoor air temperature control equipment played a big part in my daily work. Because I was always at home with my own central heating and cooling system I was able to adjust the thermostat however I wanted to. This month, my air conditioning unit and forced air furnace were consistently running throughout the day. I got very accustomed to the sound of my air conditioning unit outside my office window. I was used to hearing the forced air furnace chugging away from the basement. When I entered the modern workforce and returned to working in an office… Suddenly it was way too silent without an ancient HVAC system running all the time. After several unproductive weeks wishing that I had my normal indoor air handling devices to drown out the sounds of my coworkers I went out and bought a background noise machine.