Nicco Heng
Marketing Executive
Should you listen to music while you’re working? The answer is yes, and no. Find out what kind of music will help increase your productivity!
– 2 mins read
Can Sound Improve Productivity?
Should you listen to music while you’re working? The answer is yes, and no. Sounds can increase your work productivity, but it depends on what kind of sounds you listen and also what type of work you are doing.
Here’s what you should consider:
- What is the task
- What are the sounds work best for that task?
- What is your personal preference?
Task that is repetitive and simple
Studies show that listening to music with lyrics can actually help you to focus on repetitive work. Compare to the work that needs you to think and keep your brain occupied, repetitive work may make you crave for an escape. Lyrics can provide a sense of relief to your mind and motivate you to complete the boring repetitive work.
You can pick the music that you are quite familiar with so that your brain won’t get distracted by what lyrics might come next. Choose to listen to the music with lyrics only when you are completing simple and repetitive work.
Tasks that require thinking and focus
If your work requires you to think and concentrate, music without lyrics will help you to focus and concentrate more. According to the study from Cambridge Sound Management, 48% of people who work in office are distracted by speech. If your intention is use music to block our distracting speech and other office noise, listening to music with lyrics will distract you even more.
It is best to pick something you are familiar with for example: soundtracks, classical, jazz are all good options for non-lyrics music. For deep focus, ambient sounds can improve creativity and productivity.
Personal Preference Matters
It turns out that even if you match the type of music and work, your personal preference still matters. When choosing what kind of music should pair with your simple task and what kind of ambient music should pair with your focused work, you need to pick what’s best for you!
Where to Find Productive Sounds?
1. Spotify
Spotify is a useful resource for finding soundtracks or background music. You can just simply search for “soundtrack” will get you hundreds of new releases as well as classical soundtracks.
2. FMA – Free Music Archive
Free Musci Archive offers a large selection of ambient music in several different genres. They have an interactive library of high-quality and legal music for you to download. You can search for the genres that you’re interested in, and all of it is free to download.
3. YouTube Music
YouTube is also one of the best platforms for you to listen to music, no matter it’s the latest song or ambient background music, you can easily find your favorite music on YouTube. If you hate the ads interrupt you while you listen to your music, you can simply subscribe to YouTube Premium to get your YouTube music ad-free!
Trying some of the tips above could make a difference in your productivity levels. It works for me so give them a try and see if it works for you too!
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