The author lost me there too. I think the general experiences for many of us here is: you can't listen to music that occupied the same cognitive channel of what

The author lost me there too. I think the general experiences for many of us here is: you can't listen to music that occupied the same cognitive channel of what you're doing. If you're thinking, writing, or planing(or anything with 'words' in your head or 'talk' to yourself), music with lyric is bad (though I found the effect more soften a bit if you listen to what you don't understand, e.g. foreign language music, still, zero lyric is crucial for thinking) If your activity is not about words, but more 'action' (e.g painting , making art, gardening) then you can blast your ear with lyrics or the whole audiobooks all you want. It works great.