Written by: Ashley George

Listening to music can greatly affect your mood, as well as how you work. In fact, there are some genres of music that are reported to worsen your work productivity instead of improve it. According to Inc, “music can have a positive effect in your work, but its effect on productivity depends on the situation and type of music.” The author went on to explain that when people listen to pop music, it can be harder to focus because of the lyrics. Sometimes, people can get too wrapped up in the words of a song, and they end up not working as long or as well as they could be. Songs that have a complex structure can have a similar effect. The author recommends listening to simple and calming instrumental music in order to work most effectively.

While this perspective was convincing, I found another author who argued that listening to upbeat, fast-paced music helps people to become more energized, allowing them to work more quickly and efficiently. Some people can be negatively impacted by the slow, peaceful music, and instead need to have a more energetic song playing to work well. After reading about both of these opinions, I decided to try listening to both calm and bubbly music to see which would work best for me.

I worked for at least two hours on each day of the week. I would spend one hour listening to peaceful instrumental music, and then for the next hour I would work with upbeat pop music. At first, I was definitely more focused when I listened to the calm music. I found it easier to work when there weren’t any lyrics in the songs, and it was nice to have the slow music on as background noise. When I turned on the energetic music, I did start to have more energy, but I also lost some of my focus. I found myself singing along to the lyrics of the song instead of focusing on the work that I had to do. Eventually, it got to a point where I just started dancing to the song, completely forgetting about the task at hand.

As I continued listening to both the calm and upbeat music throughout the week, I was consistently more focused when I listened to the peaceful music, but I was also a lot more energized when I listened to the pop music. For me, listening to faster-paced music is a lot more helpful when I need to move quickly, such as when I’m working out. Listening to the slower music helped me focus more intently on my schoolwork, which does not require me to move so fast. These are the results from my personal attempt at this study habit, so keep in mind that people react to music differently. I would encourage you to try listening to multiple genres of music to see what works best for you.

My rating out of five stars:

★★★☆☆