Katie McManus splits people into two groups: those who need silence and those who need ambient sound. She works in loud pubs when assembling presentations or planning podcast episodes, where individual conversations blur together.
Some people to keep themselves from being distracted need absolute silence. They cannot have a single sound in their space. For others absolute silence is deafening. You need ambient sound. You might need music going on in the background. You might need to go and rent a space in a co working office so you can have background chatter. Hell you might need to go into like a busy cafe and do work. There's you have to figure out what kind of space is most conducive to you getting work done and what kind of work you get done in that space. For me I don't even drink but I find it's really helpful when I have to put together a PowerPoint presentation or hell if I'm plotting out a podcast episode to go to my local pub and grab dinner and have my laptop open and just start working. The key for me is it needs to be loud enough that I can't discern any particular conversation around me.