How the right music can boost your concentration and productivity
I am always on the lookout for useful strategies to help increase my focus and performance I have found that music can be a great way to increase my productivity. The film and computer game industry has been using music for years with great effect for adding a level of emersion.
There's been a lot of research done on how Music can increase your productivity and in fact, studies have shown that by listening to melodious sounds you encourage the release of dopamine into the reward area of the brain, also music can bring your focus to the present moment reducing mind drift as well as boosting your creativity.
So what type of music is the best music? Well, the truth is this is a very personal thing, but studies have shown that music with lyrics is more disruptive than music without. Mainly because you aren't distracted by the words as you try and sing along with the tune or your brain scans your memory for the next lyric robbing your brain of valuable processing power for the important task at hand.
White noise such as waves on a beach, thunderstorms or wildlife around a river have also had shown to have massive benefit, this type of sound creates little distraction but can be used to drown out the negative white noise that might be going on around you, for example you may have other people in the same office talking or answering phones, if you're working at home you may have distractions like children, pets, traffic a Noisy neighbours all can be problematic if your trying to concentrate on something important.
I think it's important to take some time to choose the right music for your focus playlist, only because you want to make sure that you're getting the most out of your time and not be distracted by the music you're listening to as that defeats the object. My list has a range of music and below you will see a few examples, I often update my own personal concentration playlist in my membership area which often gets popular comments on.
Movie soundtracks:
- Gladiator
- Apollo 13
- The Martian
Game soundtracks:
- Elder Scrolls
- Call of Duty
- Battlefield
- Homeworld
I don't always choose full albums from the same film or game, I like to pick and choose as it gives me a variety of tracks from the album rather than the whole album themselves unless it's a good album, I also include Beethoven and other composers in my focus playlist.
So why not take the time today or this evening I'm sure you've got work to do to create your focus playlist, have fun and please share with me tracks that you find the help you for other strategies that you find increases your productivity.
Wishing you the greatest success and have a fantastic day.
