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Ever wondered how listening to music whilst working affects productivity? Found a really interesting article about the topic: https://elemental.medium.com/do-productivity-playlists-actually-work-6d362bd23bf7
TL;DR:
– Maria A.G. Witek, a professor in the Department of Music at Birmingham University: “A lot of research seems to suggest that it’s best not to use any background music when studying,” Witek says. “The argument is that music will always reduce the amount of available attentional space, taking attentional resources away from the task at hand.”
– Witek speculates that it’s simply more fun and therefore more motivating, “even if concentration may be jeopardized.” If people are in a good mood while working, their performance might also be better, she says.
– Tram Nguyen, a member of the Cambridge Brain Sciences Team, recently found some evidence that low-tempo songs may benefit the regions of the brain responsible for memory and completing tasks.
8 Comments-
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I believe her!
More often than not I find that I also prefer silence (for which I use ANC headphones), but there are occasions when I feel listening to music boosts my productivity. Although I haven’t found what pattern works best for me, I feel it depends on my mood, the type of music and, more importantly, the type of work that I’m doing.
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I agree with both your points here Ben Legg and Jesus Iniesta, when I need to do deep work – I prefer silence but when I’m doing more creative work, I like to play a home spa playlist – it relaxes me 😬
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I’m kind of the opposite – when I’m doing creative things I often need silence, repetitive tasks/non-content tasks I’ll have an audio book or a film in the background, but when I need to get my head into a project I find music that’s familiar helpful but tends to be instrumental – my current go to is Einaudi’s Elements album.
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Ooh so interesting. I really need music. I use classical easy listening for focus stuff and then good stuff I like for admin easy stuff. But I associate it with more focus than silence now. I also sleep to white noise every night – blast the sea waves into my ears!!
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I used to have background music when working but now prefer silence – for intense concentration. My wife says I look scary when I am in intense concentration mode ….