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Yes, music is more distracting than people think. Its effects can be subtle: it engages your creative brain, so you end up working like crazy, only to notice af
by jwr 8y ago
Yes, music is more distracting than people think. Its effects can be subtle: it engages your creative brain, so you end up working like crazy, only to notice afterwards that the work was not needed at all (there was a better solution, but your creative abilities were busy processing music).
Don't listen to music while doing creative work. Use noise, like sounds of the sea (I use an app called "Naturespace" for high-quality audio).
- beat 8y agoI'm a musician, so I find most music to be almost ridiculously interesting. Leads me to thinking about the music rather than the work I should be doing. And I find headphones to be physically uncomfortable very quickly.
- abledon 8y agoHaha same! Any melody at all totally refocuses me into the song, how the fingering and chords would be played on a guitar , what riffs they are reusing and Which audio effect pedals are being used for the music (mostly rock / indie / pop )
- vibrolax 8y agoDouble same! Doesn't matter whether I like the music or not: it must be dissected layer by layer. Some of my non-musician friends wonder why I never have "background" music on at home.
- beat 8y agoI'm more likely to pick up a guitar and play something myself than to put someone else's recordings on at home.
- wildrhythms 8y agoI also cannot simply "listen to music in the background" while I'm doing something else. I almost immediately start focusing on the rhythms and chords instead of whatever I'm supposed to be working on! I studied music all through K-12 so maybe that has something to do with it going by some of the other comments here.
- nikofeyn 8y agothat's an overly hard and fast rule. i find that instrumental electronic music is amazing for work. it focuses rather than distracts, providing nice mental bumpers. i actually can't stand unnatural or played back sounds of the sea or nature and other such sounds, as i find it too distracting. it doesn't provide any focusing structure and allows my mind to wonder and relax. and people complaining about headphones don't buy the right ones. i use beyerdynamic headphones and could wear them all day.
- xur17 8y agoI find music to work best when I'm doing a semi-repetitive task, or if I've already designed the system, and I'm just writing it down. I've definitely noticed that it results in sub-optimal code if this is not the case.
- jwr 8y agoYes! That was exactly my point. It works great for non-creative tasks, but can impact creativity and problem solving skills significantly, without you noticing.
- Broken_Hippo 8y ago"Don't listen to music while doing creative work. Use noise, like sounds of the sea (I use an app called "Naturespace" for high-quality audio)." This simply doesn't work for me. I understand it probably works for you: We are all a bit different. I find much of the "noise" (rain, seascapes, and so on) grating and annoying to the point that I don't want to finish anything creative. (I don't mind the real thing: I enjoy falling asleep when it is raining outside, for example, or hearing birds singing). I'm also easily distracted by small sounds. A "quiet" library is full of shuffling, people dropping things, whispers, and so on. However, drawing and painting to music of my choosing? Absolutely fantastic. I tend to choose things that are either instrumental or that actually use lyrics as part of the music instead of the music highlighting the lyrics. I'll even pick music depending on how I want to move when I draw or paint. If I want to create ideas or think? Stick on headphones and tune the world out. Perhaps go for a walk while doing so. I tune in and out of the music, and that's fine. It tunes out basic noises: car and apartment doors and so on.