Like many offices today, Hammock’s home base is largely cubed up. Oh, we’ve got really cool cubes, all right, but you’re still sitting just feet from the next person. Even the few offices we have put us all within little more than arm’s reach of each other. Close quarters are great for collaboration — many times I can ask a question in my normal speaking voice and get three or four answers immediately.

But sometimes you need to tune out that background chatter and get down to business. A number of Hammock people use music to help them focus. A few of us — me, Barbara L., Patrick R. — don’t work well to music. I can’t drive without it, mind you.
For others, music is the key to productivity. “As a bookkeeper, I work with lots of numbers and repetitive data entry, so shutting out the office noise and listening to music puts me in the zone for quick and efficient work,” says Lisa. “Office chatter sometimes causes interruptions and music gives me that tunnel vision for long projects.”
[After the jump, learn more favorite tunes from around Hammock.]

Kerri agrees with Lisa on how helpful music can be: “It seems that finding the time to get really serious and design something is hard to come by. I spend a lot of time organizing and art directing via email to photographers, doing quick one-off projects, invoicing and recording information. But my favorite thing in the world to do is have a block of time where I can put on the headphones and work on a layout without interruptions.”
Selected staff favorites:
Lisa: Popera, Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, and of course, David Ask, her husband
Megan G.: Recent faves include “Baba O’Riley” by The Who, “Helicopters” by Barenaked Ladies and “Solisbury Hill” by Peter Gabriel.
Bill H. rarely listens to music at work, either, but offers these tunes when you need a pick-me-up: Lately I’ve been on a reggae kick, which seems to lift me out away from the day-to-day, esp. Bob Marley (“3 Little Birds: “Don’t worry, ’bout a thing/Cos every little thing’s gonna be all right), and Jimmy Cliff (“Sitting in Limbo” and one of the all time great songs of any genre, “The Harder They Come”).
Barbara M.: I recently found some JoAnn Kelly, a white British blues singer, who died years ago. I had her on cassettes!
Megan P.: “Whiner’s Bio” by Mates of State.
Rex: Wait a minute. Isn’t this the Internet? If you want to see or listen to the music I’m playing, all you have to do is click over to last.fm/rexhammock.