The Impact of Listening to Music for Productivity: Dos’ and Don’ts
Indeed, we often experience boredom while working. One ultimate way that people usually do to overcome boredom is by listening to music. Music can affect one’s mood and work performance. Because of its great influence on the human body, music is even used as a medium for health therapy.
Listening to music can be done in various ways, via radio, cassettes, or CDs that we have. Plus, in this digital era, with the existence of the internet and various music streaming services, you will be able to choose whatever song you want to listen to without needing to download them to your device.
Listening to music can indeed help you become more relaxed and calm amid work boredom. But can listening to music while working help you focus more? Or instead, it will ruin your focus? Keep reading to know about the do’s and don’ts to ensure listening to music can positively impact your work!
The Dos’ of Listening to Music to Achieve Focus
- Around a Noisy Environment
Do any of you have a noisy work environment? If yes, then this kind of environment is not promoting a good work environment. Your brain will try to deal with every data in the noise. This process that the brain does requires a lot of energy that you should be able to use to focus on work.
In addition, listening to music while working in a noisy environment will increase the stress hormone cortisol and lower dopamine levels. These hormonal changes will affect the prefrontal cortex in the brain negatively and can hinder its work function. This noisy atmosphere will reduce your work productivity.
If you are currently working in a noisy work environment, listening to music can help you block out other sounds that will enter your brain. Using assistive devices such as earphones will also really help to close yourself off from the noise out there, and focus on your work. Besides, listening to music in a noisy work environment will keep your heart and mind calm, especially if you don’t like crowded places.
- During Repetitive Work
Many studies indicate that people listening to music while doing repetitive tasks can improve their performance and reduce workplace mistakes. Listening to music you like while doing repetitive work will trigger the body to release hormones such as dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. These hormones will make your bodies more relaxed and happy, and make us more focused at work.
Working while listening to music is even done by surgeons. They listen to music in the operating room because it can reduce stress amid heavy work demands. Increasing the mood of music will also affect your interaction with your co-workers. This will make you more friendly, patient, and cooperative in teamwork.
The Don’ts’ of Listening to Music to Achieve Focus
- During Study Time
Many like to listen to music while studying. This is often done by students who are doing homework or studying for exams. But is it true that listening to music can help you understand what you are learning?
Learning is an activity that requires our brains to analyze, just as we do when understanding a difficult text. When learning to count or do math problems, our brains try to memorize a special command or rule that applies to the calculation. Likewise, when we try to learn to memorize English vocabulary, our brains will try to memorize facts and then store them in memory.
Music has been shown to interfere with the processes our brains perform when trying to digest something. When we listen to music, our brain will automatically process incoming data from our sense of hearing before processing the information obtained from what we learn.
The multitasking activity that the brain does when learning while listening to music allows it to misinterpret the instructions and facts being learned. Sometimes the brain will associate instructions and facts in strange ways or even prioritize which things are remembered, whether music or lessons. For that reason, it’s a good idea to turn off the music while you’re studying, especially if you’re learning something verbally or trying to memorize things for your exams.
- Listening to New Songs While Working
Sometimes we are interested in listening to new songs from singers or groups that we like. But it turns out that listening to new songs that you have never heard before will break your concentration at work. Especially if your work requires high focus.
When you listen to new music you have never heard, your brain will automatically try to recognize every element and second of the song. Every element of the new song that you listen to has an element of surprise that makes your brain more excited about the music. Instead of focusing on the work you are doing, your focus will shift to listening to music and of course, your work will be neglected.
Our working mood can indeed go up and down all the time. But listening to music will make a lot of changes in your mood. The most suitable time to listen to music, so as not to disturb your focus, is before you start your work.
Working while listening to music on certain occasions will indeed improve your work performance and focus. But sometimes music can be something that is counterproductive and interferes with our work.
Some of the above can be a general guide for listening to music while working or studying. Adjust this to your work and habits to get the maximum impact from listening to your favorite music!
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