More than ever, music has become an ubiquitous part of our modern hi-tech society. With millions of songs and vast catalogs of music available on services such as Apple Music, the literal on-demand availability of your favorite songs has a big impact on our productivity and creativity at home and in the workplace. With more offices using the open plan environment concept, many workers are now working with a pair of headphones or earbuds. At many companies, it’s common to see people working as they listen to beats, but what influence does this really have on their focus, productivity and success?
From Wall Street traders in New York, Enterprenuers in Seattle to Coders in Silicon Valley, music improves your mood and reduces stress by unleashing Dopamine, a chemical known as the brain’s “motivation” molecule. Studies have shown that music makes repetitive tasks easier, and it increases efficiency, creativity, productivity and ultimately the success needed for achieving our goals.
Music makes repetitive tasks easier
To evaluate the effect of music on productivity, it’s important to consider how immersive the tasks you undertake are. This means the creative demand of the work or its variability. For example, you need a lot of creativity to write about a task from scratch. Doing a task over and over again might feel draining and the motivation to perfect your skills dies out gradually. However, with music on, it has been shown that you can keep off the thoughts that a task is mundane. Different experiments have pursued the relationship between playing music in the background while doing repetitive tasks and the efficiency with which you do the task. The results offer a strong link that shows music improves focus and could be used as a tool to streamline productivity.
Best escape in a noisy workplace
Noise can halt productivity and make it difficult to concentrate on tasks at hand. When you are working in a noisy workplace, you should consider having a pair of headphones with noise cancellation capabilities. One study found that people who listen to music while working completed tasks with higher accuracy and did so faster. Music also helped them to come up with better ideas as it improved their mood. The constant noise from your coworkers can derail your line of thought and this could mean taking longer to string together ideas.
Ambient music elevates your creative spirit
During creative sessions, your focus might be to immerse yourself in a quiet environment with no distractions. But research shows that with ambient music you could take your creative energy to a new level. Moderate noise gets your creative juices flowing. However, the line between cool music and noise is so thin and it would be difficult to concentrate when the sound is too loud. Blowing basses or screeching synths might create distraction rather than give your mind the peace you desire to work. You should aim to achieve a soft background noise if you are working on something that requires a creative application of actions. Natural sounds like beach waves could also improve your ability to concentrate. Therefore, it could make sense to log on to SoundCloud for the best hits. Choose good hits based on number plays, although many artists buy plays for SoundCloud on Social Media Daily, which might not necessarily mean their music is not good, but largely as a way to promote themselves. For work, you should choose soothing tunes.
Familiarity is perfect for focus
Listening to music you are familiar with is beneficial. It works perfectly when you are having a project in which you need intense focus. The reason for this is that new music comes with a surprise and because it’s not familiar to you, you are inclined to engage your mind in listening to know how it flows. This is not the case when you listen to music you are familiar with because you always know what lies ahead and so it requires less effort to pay attention. This is important if you want to keep your mind focused on what you are doing as new music would act as a distraction.
Best music for immersive tasks
It’s obvious that the first priority should be given to music you like. But while at it you should remember other types of music that, as shown above, are perfectly suited to make you more productive especially while you are handling immersive tasks. Below are some forms of music you could use to keep yourself focused on the tasks at hand and avoid distractions.
Classical music
This is music that lacks in lyrics that is regarded the apex of a craft. It’s a popular choice when you want to get things done, but you should understand not all classical music has the same effect. There are tunes with dramatic twists that might not work as well like those with delicate sounds.
Electronic music
Electronic music, including its sub-genres of ambient house, downtempo, and chillout tends to satisfy the need for present and unobtrusive. Something about this genre is that its music tends to be repetitive in a satisfying way, and the songs maintain a constant tempo in a smooth progression. Its rhythm helps you to raise your focus because repeating tones are perfect when received from the background.
Video game music
Game design comes with a unique depth and includes great composers, who understand the perfect music for some situations that is played in the background yet ensure the player is not distracted. Composers of game music understand how to come up with music that flows in the background to keep you focused. The secret in-game music lies in the ambience that gets you to calm down and focus on the things at hand.
Experts have been studying how music affects focus and productivity and the results are impressive. Many of the studies done on the subject suggest that music could be used as a tool to eliminate distraction and elevate focus while working on tasks. While working on repetitive tasks, music helps to keep your mind at ease, and you will not feel that you are doing mundane tasks. And if you are tired of distractions from noise in your workplace, a pair of headphones might be all you need to bring back your focus at work. Ensure to choose soothing music, especially natural music that helps to activate your creative juices. So, music can be considered the “secret tool” of a Millionaire Mindset which motivates you to focus on successfully achieving your goals.
