I always thought: let’s put on some music and work. This helps me to concentrate and this helps me to better get stuff done. But, hey, have I been wrong. My latest experiments show: that does not work at all.
Do you know that? Sitting in front of a computer, and you have to do a task and that is so damn hard, you do not even want to start working? I have that a lot of times. It cringes me, I do a thousand other things, I scroll my phone and I look out of the window to realize that I cannot remember what happened the last 15 minutes staring.
That’s when I came up with the grande idea that I could instead play some music. Music relaxes me, it helps me to follow the tones, to come into a state of calmness and relaxation. And so I would put on music to start to come in that state that would the allow me to start working. But of course. It helps me to get started, it helps me to calm down, but does it also help to get going?
I always thought it helps: playing music to be more productive
I was convinced that music helps to calm down, I was convinced that it is what I need. For years, I would play music. Not the exciting, loud and voice-intense music. No, these were the calming Spotify playlists that you find, “Relaxing music for concentration work”, or “Calming music for working life”. The music that simmers in the background and gives you some relaxation. And I was in a workplce, where they would also play music and I thought to myself: “Hey, how cool, they play that music here too. Seems to really be working: working and listening to music.” And I willingly and excitigly always listened to music while working.
But then I made an experiment that changed it all
I realized for some tasks over the last years, that my brain started to follow the music during the task. I would get caught away from the task at hand and instead following the rythms of the music, the songs immersing within myself and would have problems to switch back to my task. In the beginning I thought that is normal, that helps my brain to relax and to find the tones helpful to concentrate. But over time, I began to question that thought. “Is it really that helpful for being focused and productive when the brain is switching off to that music over and over again?” did I ask myself. I learned that it takes time to switch our attention and that every time we switch our attention from one task or thought that we are having to another, that it takes extra time to make that switch. So, when the switch between one task and another task takes some time of our attention simply for the switching, what happens for the music switching: how much time in between do I “lose”, when my brain switches back and forth?
That sounded like a great experiment to test and a couple of weeks ago, I gave it a go.
For dedicated tasks music is shitty and for shallow ones it may be ok
You see the result. Indeed, listening to music compared to not listening to music made me much more slower in my productivity and made me more tired as well.
But what did I do? I wrote an eBook and for that eBook I had to concentrate on the content itself, I had to put together the pages and design them. I decided on the number of pages I would want to create per hour and then dedicated 4 hour blocks to the task. I would then check how many pages I would be willing to produce during that time frame — one time frame with music and the other one without music.
Over time I was able to see a pattern. And this was a considerabe pattern. On average, I was able to produce 20% more pages without music compared to with music. Image, how much faster I was able to bring my book to life? That was an incredible result and I was over the moon.
And yet, it also made me sad. Now, I would have to find other methods to start to motivate me to sit down and work. But hey, for that outcome, I was willing to overcome that motivation hurdle. If that meant that I was that much faster that was ok. And I felt better. my mind learned to focus and concentrate on the task at hand and over the time of the eBook, I was able to fully immerse in the task and that felt amazing, just by doing that alone.
Still, there are exceptions to that rule — see below
Does that always work and do I never put on music? No, I use music for several other things I do. Not necessarily for concentration but for the flow of the senses. And because I love music. I put on music for dancing, for jogging, for other fitness workouts, for shallow work like cleaning my kitchen and my apartment. Will these activities be easier and faster done without music? Probably they do, I have not tested it but I am sure that will be the case, as I often forget my work when I listen to the music, but the task of for example cleaning my apartment gets much more fun when I am listening to music and dancing with it through the rooms.
Not everything is about productivity, and not everything should be solely productivity. And that is fine. And ok. And human. And much more fun than always being part of more, better, faster productivity.
But if you want to concentrate, if you want to bring something to life, if you want to get things done, then the only way to do it fast, and on point, and produce a good outcome, is to be totally and utterly focused.
You will be amazed to what your mind is capable of when you allow it to focus at the task at hand and not doing anything else. You will be faster. You will be moe focused. Your words will be flowing more willingly (in the case of my writing) and your mind will be more relaxed. You will feel it not only during the task, a calm sense of relaxation, but also afterwards. Your brain was focused, it did its work and then you can let go again. And start the next task.
It seems so easy, yet it is so hard
That’s what I always told myself. But in the end, it is easy, once you overcome the first hurdle of getting started. You will realize, that once it flows, it flows. And it will be easy in that very moment. And if you need extra motivation, put on the music, switch off the phone, sit down and start. And 5 minutes later? Switch off the music. You do not need it anymore. You are in your flow. And that is all you will need to get going.
Do you like what you read? Then I would be delighted if you give me a clap of your hands for that article :)