Increase Productivity – Music to Study With
Posted by Jon Lee in Efficiency, tags: Efficiency, music, productivity, radio
I find that I can’t focus properly unless there is some sort of noise or music in the background. I just can’t stand staying in the silent reading area of the library for a prolonged period of time without going half mad!
I much rather prefer to slip on my headphones and listen to music while I work. Studies have shown that listening to music increases concentration and memory retention (great for students!) Of course, not all types of music increases concentration and productivity. Studies have shown that the best genre of music to listen to are:
- Baroque – This is consistently one of the most highly recommended genres. Baroque music is from the 1600-1700s — right before the classical era. Vivaldi, Bach and Handel are some of the more popular Baroque composers
- Anything by Mozart – It’s been shown that students do better on math tests listening to Mozart and babies are smarter when the mother listens to Mozart during pregnancy. Why? I read it was something about the mathematically significant patterns behind his music. Whether or not you believe it will make you smarter, there’s no doubting the fact that it still sounds nice!
- Rock Music – This one came as a shock to me but apparently Rock music is great for visual memory retention. How about that?
- Jazz – No scientific reasoning behind this one but jazz has always been a personal favorite. It has been said that jazz and baroque music share many similarities so it can’t be that bad, right?
- Beatless music – Music without any underlying beat can be less distracting since it won’t make you start tapping your feet or fingers.
I wish I had sources to cite for this but much of it came from educational journals that have long been lost and articles I’ve read on the net years ago that I can’t seem to dig up again.
Where to find this music?
There are CD collections out there that are designed around the idea of becoming productive but they’re not easy to find. Mozart CDs and Baroque classics are readily available in bargain bins in department stores. However, I personally recommend finding a nice free Internet radio station that will continually play different songs (so you won’t know any of them well enough to be distracted).
Here is my playlist of Internet Radio stations I listen to while I work:
- SomaFM (Groove Salad and Drone Zone)
- Sky.FM (Smooth Jazz)
- 1.FM (Otto’s Baroque Musick)
- SmoothJazz.com
Another type of “Music”
In general, any type of music with no lyrics is a good choice since it isn’t as distracting. Apple users can take this one step further and use a program called Noise that generates “pink noise”. Non-Apple users can invest in a pink noise generator. Pink noise is a weaker version of white noise; it sounds like static and can be used to eliminate the distracting background noises of an office environment. If you ask me, I’d rather stick with my Mozart.
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