How to Use Music to Improve Your Productivity
I’ve always had a deep connection to music. As a former pianist, it helped me express my emotions when I had a hard time doing so in real life. I also feel nostalgic when I listen to video game music — it makes me think of more carefree times in my childhood when I would lose track of time trying to get Mario to defeat monsters and explore different worlds.
As an autistic person, I’m extremely sensitive to environmental stimuli, and I’ve always suffered from a very short attention span and hyperactivity/restlessness. To combat this issue, I started exploring and experimenting with different kinds of music to help me focus better. I also studied the neuroscience behind listening to certain types of music.
Listening to music can help you get more work done and causes the brain to release dopamine, which improves your mood. It also reduces anxiety.
Why Music Helps With Focus
Music is considered a cognitive performance enhancer since it activates both the left and right sides of the brain. This helps a lot with learning and memory, as well as staying on task and not getting distracted.
Here are a few guidelines to follow when finding focus music:
- Find familiar music.
According to neuroscience research from the John Hopkins School of Medicine in 2011, it’s easier to focus when you listen to music you’re familiar with. Certain regions in our brains that improve concentration are more active when we listen to familiar music rather than unfamiliar music.
- Play music without lyrics.
Studies have shown that music with lyrics decreases our mental performance, while instrumental music helps with productivity. When choosing music to work with, choose music with minimal lyrics.
- Listen to music with a low tempo for a relaxed focus and music with a high tempo for upbeat work.
Music that has a higher BPM can be overly stimulating and suitable for tasks that require high energy, such as making sales calls. Baroque music is an example of exciting music that can help you get your work done.
According to researchers from the BME College of Engineering in Bangalore, subjects felt significantly less stressed when listening to music at 60 beats per minute. Slower music can calm you down and help you tap into greater attention and energy to tackle tasks.
The Neuroscience Behind Music Designed For Productivity
Executive attention is a function of your brain that filters out excessive noise to help you focus. When you encounter stimuli, a part of your brain called the lorus coeruleus determines which stimuli you should pay attention to. Constant distractions cause your executive attention to fight to keep you on track, which causes attention fatigue, which causes distraction and a lack of focus. Focus music blocks out distracting stimuli with one stimulus: music. The best music to focus on doesn’t have a lot of variety in instruments, pauses, or volume changes.
Companies like Brain.fm and Focus@Will have created music that’s specially designed to improve focus and concentration levels.
Brain.fm
Brain.fm is a company that creates functional music to help you concentrate. The music combines AI and human musical composition to elicit neural phase locking. This lets neurons in your brain make a concerted effort to remove distractions through sound. Music is categorized into focus, relaxation, and sleep. There are a lot of options to choose from, such as lofi focus or electronic music focus.
I love using brain.fm to help me get into a flow state.
Focus@Will
Focus@Will has several different music channels to choose from, such as meditative piano, ADHD Type 1, and Electro Bach. You can also choose the energy level of the music: low, medium, and high energy. The site notes that “The trick is occupying your brain just enough to let you work, but feeding your brain novel stimuli at just the right times so that you don’t try to seek novelty by distracting yourself. It turns out listening to music while you work can do the trick.” In other words, the music creates a balance between habituation, or your brain getting used to noise, and distraction.
I find it extremely effective for staying on task. Even though I’m so easily distracted by my thoughts, restlessness, and multitasking, once I start listening to a Focus@Will soundtrack, I’m able to complete tasks effortlessly. It’s been such a blessing in my attention-fractured life.
Although brain.fm and Focus@Will are paid subscriptions, they offer free trials, and it’s well worth giving the two companies’ music a try.
Other Types of Music to Listen to For Productivity
- Video Game Music
Video game soundtracks are also good to listen to while working or studying. They’re designed to keep players engaged as they navigate immersive worlds but stay in the background so that the player isn’t distracted from the game. Video game music usually doesn’t contain lyrics, so it’s non-distracting. There’s a wide range of soundtracks to suit many people’s music tastes. Some video game music, like Mario, is very energizing, while others, like Flower OST, are super relaxing.
2. Classical Music
Listening to happy classical music has been shown by researchers from Australia and the Netherlands to be more effective at facilitating creative thinking than working in silence. Listening to classical music also helps boost your ability to do visual tasks like manipulating shapes and solving spatial puzzles.
3. Ambient Music
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered that nature sounds not only boost mood but also boost focus. Soothing sounds like waterfalls or ocean waves are more effective than more cacophonous sounds like birds chirping. According to The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, listening to natural sounds also enhances cognitive abilities.
4. Motivational Music
Motivating music like cinematic soundtracks makes you feel like you’re doing something epic, even if you’re just filling out a spreadsheet or answering emails. It can feel empowering, not only lifting your spirits and restoring your energy but also improving your productivity.
Recommendations for Music
Video Game Music
I like listening to relaxing Final Fantasy music while I work: it’s calming and peaceful.
Ambient Noises
myNoise is fantastic for masking background noises. You can combine as many soundscapes, such as Irish Seascape and Japanese Garden, as you want! The intensity of lows and high sounds is also adjustable.
Classical Music
I enjoy listening to Study Music Project to feel calm and relaxed when I work. This playlist is a combination of new-age piano music and nature sounds.
Music has absolutely transformed the way I get work done. Hopefully, this article helps you choose music that helps you focus as well.
