[cweagans]

A good, noise cancelling headset has been one of my best investments - and I'm not talking about one of the nice looking $50 models from Best Buy. I'm talking about something in the $200-300 price point - high end gaming headsets are particularly nice for a number of reasons, but anything will do.

It seems like a lot of money, but if it triples your productivity while in the office (and I'd recommend measuring it with something like RescueTime - if the headset doesn't help your productivity significantly, you can always return it), it's worth it.

[hanniabu]

Can confirm, always was skeptical when I heard people say this, but I borrowed my brothers for a week when he was on vacation and it was a game changer. Now I've become a proponent myself.

[zimpenfish]

I have in-ear Etymotics - they do an effective job of blocking most noise at a decent price point. But the combination of noises and movements and people banging laptops on the omnidesks and ... mean they're at best a limited stopgap.