“I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” – Albert Einstein

While I was in school listening to tunes was a necessity while studying or doing homework. But I have noticed over the last 7 or 8 years that I listen to music less and less while I work. Maybe it’s a product of the type of work I am currently doing, but often times music seems distracting while I am coding. 

Research on music

I was curious to see if their were any scholarly research on this subject. After doing a quick Google search I was happy to find that there were plenty of academic papers dedicated to answering this question. However, the results seem mixed at best. Some studies indicate that listening to music while working was detrimental to productivity while others found that it can improve workplace performance.

What works?

Despite the conflicting results, there does seem to be a consensus that what you listen to might make a difference. Classical, electronic, and movie/game soundtracks work might work the best at increasing focus and productivity. I didn’t find a lot of  concrete information about why these genres where effective, but if I were to take a wild guess it would be because they typically don’t have lyrics(?) This might allow for people to better focus on what they are doing without having to “waste” brain power on comprehending the meaning of the lyrics. Like I said, wild guess.

So I put the question to you, do you listen to music while working?