How I “hacked” my productivity using the right music
no your playlist doesn’t have to be boring…
We have all been hearing for ages that music can supercharge your productivity levels and make you Bruce Almighty — well honestly there has been a lot of debate on this topic as to whether it actually works or not.
Experiments were conducted to gather data whether music is a proven productivity booster, and indeed it was proven right — but the results were less appealing to me than it might have been to other people.
There are numerous articles and softwares out there to help you use music to spike up your productivity — honestly, very few of them are practically feasible in our daily lives, at least that’s what I feel.
I have researched this topic too many times now to actually make it work for me. Well I wouldn’t say I have been totally satisfied with the various mantras available online because though they might have worked for a sometime, I got bored.
Nevertheless, I tailored my own solution or “hack” as you wish you name it and it works wonders for me — every single day. I can’t live without my headphones now.
The “science” stuff
Music is scientifically proven to improve productivity as it blocks out noisy distractions by isolating yourself from the chit-chats and other loud noises around you.
This way your mind can focus on the work that you want to actually do rather than being distracted by the dog barking right next door.
I work in an office which is full of people shouting their hearts out and dogs barking like there’s no tomorrow. And believe me, isolating myself from these distractions has been the only way I am able to survive there for over an year and complete my work on time.
Music is the strongest form of magic — Marilyn Manson
However, there is one teeny tiny caveat to this approach. What the researchers suggest is that you listen to music which doesn’t contain lyrics in them — in short like Mozart tracks, sounds of nature, etc.
The primary reason behind this is that lyrics itself can become distracting — because you know, you want to hear what the artist says rather than focusing only on the music and this defeats the whole purpose of blocking out distractions.
This actually might not be a problem when you’re doing a routine mundane task which doesn’t require much of your brainpower, like — washing dishes, cleaning your room, shopping, etc.
However, in cases where you need to think, this truly can hamper your ability to concentrate on the “real” job in front of you.
No “lyrics”?
I don’t know how it works for a lot of people, it clearly doesn’t work for me. I get bored pretty easily with music which doesn’t have any words in them.
I have tried Mozart. I have tried listening to birds chirping. I even tried listening to the rain — well yeah artificial sounds obviously.
Guess what?
None of them worked for me. Yes, they did helped initially maybe for a few minutes, and then I gave up. I can’t listen to “just” music for a long period of time.
Though it can appear splendid for the first 2–3 times — it gets dull pretty soon. And then I usually gave up on this approach, every single time.
You can give it a shot if you think you might be able to handle this torture and actually skyrocket your productivity to a whole new level with these “selected” sounds.
However, if that doesn’t add up well, then this trick will certainly to the job.
The “workaround” I use
Like I said — I couldn’t listen to “just” music for a very long period of time, but I had to make this trick work for me, as it’s really hard for me for focus on my work with all those distractions around me.
What I have noticed is that if you listen to songs which you have already listened to like 20–30 times and remember well, the mind doesn’t seem to get too distracted by it. And then when you start immersing yourself in your work, the song just becomes a background score to block out annoying sounds.
However, you need to make sure that you adjust your volume level to a soothing one — which just blocks out the outer sounds and also doesn’t become too loud for you to focus on your work.
Simple isn’t it? Most things are.
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated — Confucius
Your playlist can be of any genre you like. Neither do you need to pile up classical songs (if you, like me don’t prefer them) nor do you need to install any software which plays the various peaceful sounds of nature. My playlist mostly contains Pop, Rock and Dance songs and it works great for me.
The key is to experiment with your playlist and sound settings until you get the perfect mix and when you do — it will do wonders for you, like it did for me.
I can work all day with my headphones on and not be distracted, maybe that is why they call me “headphones guy” at the office.
Start making your perfect playlist right now and feel the difference.
P.S. — I’m listening to Versace on the Floor by Bruno Mars right now, while finishing up this article.
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