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.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Entries (RSS)
I find I get the most work done to 80’s music.
Domo!
Mr. Roboto….
Anyways, I find that any music with lyrics makes it difficult for me to do my work, given that I’m a freelance writer. Words get all muddled as my thoughts intertwine with whatever I’m listening to. It either has to be quiet enough that it serves as background music or it has to be lyric-less for me.
I can’t concentrate if I listen to music with lyrics, but th classical music is really relaxing and it doesn’t bother me at all, on the contrary, I can do my job better.
Best regards!
Back in Java class at school there was techno music nearly every day, somewhat hard to work with since it had lyrics. I can work fine in complete silence though and I usually do.
Hmm … so I must be some kind of freak. I find that I can sit back and hammer out some really solid code when listening to rap music. Nothing else seems to fit the bill.
That said, if I have to write documentation or a report, I need to hear the sound of my dual-opteron servers running happily in the background
Seems like the general consensus is lyricless music! Glad I’m not alone.
I enjoy a little rap from time to time but I seem to always end up rapping along and getting up to dance haha
I get into the zone with ambient electronic music – thank goodness for Digitally Imported
I agree it has to be lyric-less music, otherwise productivity suffers. However some times I do find that I have to put the pop/rock music on otherwise I will just stop working all together and then productivity is zero
I’m definitely a Mozart man myself. It might have something to do with the fact that babies remember and prefer music which was played to them when they were in the womb.
Thanks for sharing this! Now I’ve got something to show my mom when she tells me that I can’t possibly understand what I’m studying because I’m listening to music simultaneously… LOL.
[...] That headline probably goes against everything your parents taught you about studying. However, during high school and college I found it pretty easy to study while listening to music. I wish I could site a study that says that listening to music increases productivity, but until then I’ll just trust Jon Lee’s word. [...]
Hi Jon,
Thanks so much for recommending our SKY.fm radio network to people. I noted some here liked 80s and what now, we have a lot of these genres. In fact just last night we launched 5 new SKY.fm channels, such as Bossa Nova Jazz. A reader also mentioned Digitally Imported, which is also our company, great to see fans all around.
Keep up the great blog!
[...] Sound The most important aspect, what it sounds like. Although I can’t give any exact measurement of the sound quality, I can tell that it is a hundred times better than my old no name earbuds. The bass is rich and the sound is clean and clear with no audible scratchiness. Reading other reviews, other people claim that it offers a wider range and more balanced sounds than other more expensive headphones but frankly, I have no idea. I just know they sound great when I listen to my productivity increasing music. [...]
Cool site. Thank you.
http://magazine.awesomewebspace.com/ls-magazine-preview.html ls model bbs
we just found out that my wife is pregnant, maybe i should get her some mozard cds so we can have a smarter kid
i also hear music when study
Hearing the melodious music will change the mind and relaxed it. But I can’t concentrate on studies while hearing to music.
People who need music or other noise to study, are suffering from the same delusion as the musician who thinks he plays better when he is drunk. The real solution to both problems is to get seriously interested in the subject matter and you will no longer need a crutch.