Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Should you listen to music while doing intellectual work? It depends on the music, the task, and your personality
Big Think: Given how many of us listen to music while studying or doing other cerebral work, you'd think psychology would have a set of clear answers as to whether the practice is likely to help or hinder performance. In fact, the research literature is rather a mess (not that that has deterred some enterprising individuals from making bold claims).
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Right now while writing this article I’m listening to music. Even though I am listening right now I don’t always listen to music while working, for me it depends. I don’t know if listening to music helps or distracts me. Music definitely helps with homework such as drafting, where the work is mostly doing not thinking. Besides that I sometimes opt to listen to this one band I like, and artists similar, Kikagaku Moyo, I mostly instrumental band. But when it comes to an assignment that comes to reading, writing, and analysis, I struggle to do work and focus with music on, or I haven’t really tried. I’m definitely looking for an answer that the article questions in the title, “Should you listen to music while doing intellectual work?”. They say how prone you are to boredom plays a role, even though I have ADHD I don’t get bored to easily. Most of what the article brought up is what resides in “it depends” for me, it all depends on my mood, the task and finding the right music for the task.
I think it’s really interesting that there was a study done on the effects of music, when, as the article says, the results really change from person to person. Personally, I listen to music while doing pretty much all of my work, unless it requires really focused reading. Especially if there is a lot of ambient noise around me, if I’m in a busy room, then music can really help me focus on what I’m doing. I also find that if I don’t really enjoy the work I’m doing, then music can help cheer me up and motivate me to get my work done. I do, however, have to be careful about what I listen to when I’m working. I find that if I’m listening to music that I haven’t heard before then I get distracted because I want to listen carefully and I just won’t be able to get my work done. Because I have been listening to music while working for such a long time, however, I know what works for me and what doesn’t work. I also think that because I have such specific criteria for listening to music while I work, that it must be really difficult to glean credible results from any kind of study.
It is funny how even as I write this comment, I am listening to music. I feel this article does a good job of elaborating all the aspects of listening music while working which I believe can be helpful to a lot of people.
I am someone who can listen to music all day long, so it is no surprise that I need to listen it even while I am working. I feel like music helps narrow my attention to one thing and stops my mind from getting distracted, which is something I need a lot. But something that I had never thought about and this article addresses is the type of music that is being listened to while working.
I have never had a preference of music while working; it has been mainly what I would want to listen. But after reading this article, I feel like I can increase the scope of my work's end result, by just choosing more appropriate type of music.
I feel like this article can offer that framework for me.
I think it makes sense that whether or not music is helpful depends on the person and the task. I know I personally like music in the background for some kinds of tasks but not others, and typically I do best with music I am already very familiar with so it distracts me less. I’m listening to the complex music from the study while writing this, and I’m definitely finding it somewhat distracting, but I know I could listen to far more complex songs that I already know and have no problem at all. Whether or not I want background music when I work is also very dependent on what kind of mood I’m in. Sometimes I’ll really need it to help me for a task, even if a few hours earlier I would’ve found music distracting for that exact same task. I think this study helps show that some things a too complicated to easily quantify.
I listen to music most moments that I am not speaking to someone or being spoken to. It is just what I do. I get overstimulated very very easily so blocking it all out with just music is really good for me and something I wish more teachers I had growing up understood. This is why I am able to listen to the same song on repeat for hours and not be annoyed. This is actually very in line with what the study suggests. I think something that would have very much affected results, at least for me, is familiarity with the music as well as whether the task was physical or not. For me, music that I listen to a lot is the kind that I use for reading or anything that isn't physical because reading, writing, and the like requires a lot of internal thought to be happening. When I listen to music I haven't heard before I am focused on the lyrics and on whether I like it or not, so I use this for when I am drafting, drawing, and sometimes doing CAD although at the moment that takes a LOT of my brainpower so it varies. Listening to a new album when I am trying to write an essay is incredibly unproductive for me. I wonder if that would have been backed up in this study had they introduced those variables.
I am listening to music while sitting in the Atlanta airport while writing these comments and, personally, I need mental stimulation in order to keep my productivity up or else I will just lose myself in social media. This is, however, a very fine line with my personality. The article suggests that if you are a boredom prone individual, then you should consider not listening to music while completing tasks. I understand how the article came to this conclusion but my way around sitting in silence is by listening to music that I do not know. By doing this, my mind does not get distracted by the lyrics or the beat because I can not predict what the song is going to do, so it is just playing in the background. I was always told that classical music helped you focus and I never actually knew that this theory was discredited, although it makes sense why.
Like almost everyone said, I’m sitting at my computer right now listening to music as I finish out my last comment for the week. You can ask pretty much any of my friends, I am always talking about or listening to music. It is one of my favorite topics and discovering new things within it brings me so much joy. I almost need it to work on anything I need to finish. Like when people are in the freshman studio all working on a project, it is way too much stimulation coming from so many different directions that just listening to a random song I love helps my body and brain calm down and focus. A lot of the time, the task becomes more of a subconscious activity as I get more into my music. I have heard in so many movies and books about listening to classical music, I have tried and failed. While I enjoyed it, it just completely took me out of my work zone. I think it could also help with memorizing the things you’ve done, I usually remember what something looked like if I remember what playlist or song I was listening to at that moment.
I am like many of the other people who have commented on this article because I also listen to music while doing almost all of my work, including right now doing these comments. I have never thought about what kind of music it is though, I probably listen to the same kind of music doing many different activities. The only time I don’t listen to music is while reading books or plays because then I get distracted from the reading. But I don’t find that while reading shorter things that these articles. I’m not sure why it doesn’t distract me while reading shorter articles. I always read articles like this and then think maybe I should take these articles’ advice and maybe not always listen to music while working, but I find it so hard to work without music, so regardless of what these articles say, I am probably going to keep listening to music. I have tried not to and I just don’t get as much work done because I get so distracted by everything else happening in the room around me.
I find research on music and tasks very interesting. I really like that right of the bat this article dispels the myth that classical music makes you smarter. It also lets you know that music while doing tasks actually worsens your ability. I have read so many articles and research pieces on this topic and I still find it fascinating. It is also very fascinating how many people will argue the opposite of what I say or in other words, what research says. Music is constantly proving to lower work ability and I experience it all the time. I don’t listen to music when I work on things involving mental aptitude of a certain degree, basically any work involving a computer. I find that lyrics of songs get stuck in my head and it influences my paper usually in negative ways or the tone becomes distracting and I can’t focus as much, usually because I enjoy the song. However, some people will swear by music and prefer to listen to it while they work. It still lowers their productivity as I have seen people work without music and with music. Those people may only elongate their work period by five minutes but that’s five minutes per assignment. Over ten assignments, that’s almost an hour of time lost. However, I also listen to music when I work but usually on things that don’t involve my mental being to be intact like when I write papers. Such is when I work in the shop, it usually just becomes background noise, or when I am cleaning or unpacking. I don’t need to think that much to move boxes around and put things in places. Music actually lightens the mood during those tasks. Overall, this is a very interesting article and it just goes to prove the effects of music just that much more.
I find it particularly interesting that within these comments all but one prefer music a lot of the time. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that we are all into arts in some way given by the fact we are at theatre school or it's just coincidence, or maybe it because this is an “off week” for comments and the people who do comments on the off weeks are more likely to listen to music. Who knows. Nevertheless I personally was always taught not to listen to new music or music with lyrics I don't already have memorised because it makes me try to process that information as well as the task at hand. I personally cannot listen to music when reading, writing, or doing math because I have challenges with my short term processing speeds so anything to slow that down is not a good thing. But otherwise I play music every morning (when my roommate isn't asleep) when I'm getting ready as well as whenever I have any drafting or design work that is using the more creative side of my brain. But I usually pick one song and listen to it on repeat. I find it's more background music this way and I never have to stop to skip a song I don’t think fits.
I think that the research on this topic is rightfully varied and dependent on a multitude of factors. Personally, I like to do my work in a public space where there are ambient sounds, but no music. If I do listen to music while working, I go for a very specific kind of alternative instrumental jazz that doesn’t have a consistent rhythm of catchy tune to get distracted by. I know that one of my friends can listen to blaring rock music by her favorite bands so loud that I can hear every word of the song sitting next to her while she works. My boyfriend, a classically trained musician, never listens to music while working because no matter the song, he will automatically get sucked into the technicalities of the chord progressions and harmonic whatevers, totally taking him out of his work. I think the answer to this question is as varied as our personal relationships with music throughout our lives.
I’m almost always listening to music or something else while I’m working on any project or assignment. I think music almost always helps me when I’m working because it helps me stay motivated and keeps me going. The type of music I’ll listen to really varies on my mood and the type of work I need to do. I’ll tend to go towards more instrumental music, like soundtracks, while I’m working on tasks that require more logical thinking or processing such as writing papers, these news comments, math, etc. That way I don’t get caught up in the words of the songs. When it comes to things that are more visual or physical like drafting, drawing, sculpting, and projects of that sort, then I’ll tend to listen to tracks with lyrics. I’m not generally an easily distracted person, so whether or not there’s music doesn’t often change much about what I can get done. Music is mostly there to improve my mood or block out hearing the noisy conversations of my classmates.
I find myself reaching for music to help me to focus. As I learned in Production Audio, the Cocktail Party effect plays into this quite heavily for me. To sum it up, the Cocktail Party effect is the phenomenon that when you are in a crowded room with a lot of noise, it is easier to focus on the conversation you are having than if you are in a relatively quiet room with only a few other people are adding noise. Essentially, your brain is better at filtering out the extra when there is a lot of it to get rid of. For an example, right now I am having an impossible time writing a full sentence for these comments because there is one person in the room speaking. When I listen to music, there are so many different parts of the song (different instruments, percussive noises, voices) that it all kind of blurs and helps me focus on the voice in my head that is reading the words I am writing back to me. I usually pick instrumental music or music I don’t recognize to listen to because then I can’t get distracted by liking the song, but as long as I have chosen the right music, it really does a lot to help me. I think that it also helps that it is something that I do every time I work, so now it is kind of an essential part of my routine when I am accomplishing a task. Additionally, I find myself doing better recalling information time and time again if I continue the thread of music that I was listening to when I started the task or concept.
I’ve found that over the past few years I’ve started listening to music and podcasts while doing other work a lot more often. If I’m doing something involving writing, such as these comments, I tend to turn off whatever I’m listening to and work in a quiet environment, so I can focus on my own thoughts and the words I’m choosing without getting distracted. But I hate working on drafting or design projects without listening to something- I’ve found that I actually get distracted a lot more easily when I’m working on something either creative or repetitive and that turning on a podcast or music works to kind of “soak up” that extra attention and actually keeps me focused. I think this research study was really interesting and I like that they took into account the type of person being tested, as opposed to previous studies that made a lot of generalizations about the way in which we all work. I do think an opportunity for further research could examine the difference between instrumental and vocal music on attention, especially when it comes to tasks that involve writing or organization of thoughts in some way.
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