Comment by ronaldx

I understand that you don't personally find this appealing, but I suggest that you are likely in a minority:

1. Background noise is said to be good for creative-type work: http://www.prevention.com/health/brain-games/how-noise-makes...

2. Breaking up your day into chunks and physically moving around are both potentially great for productivity. Joel Runyon recently dubbed this 'workstation popcorn': http://impossiblehq.com/workstation-popcorn