Music:
listening tips to improve your productivity at work

Music plays an important role in our life. It affects our emotions, relieves stress and tension, and also has therapeutic value. For example, listening to music before a complex or sensitive medical procedure reduces anxiety.

One of the questions that people often ask is: “How does music affect our performance?”. To answer this question, you need to distinguish between listening to music before work or during a break and listening to music directly during work, as a background.

Music evokes different emotions that affect our cognitive performance in different ways. Studies have shown that participants who listened to a fast and joyful Mozart sonata for ten minutes before performing a cognitive task performed better than those who did not listen to music or listened to sad and slow music. This has been called the Mozart effect. Most researchers believe that music affects our emotions, which affect our cognitive performance.

So before embarking on a task that requires analytical or/and creative thinking, take a break and listen to fun music that you enjoy.

As far as background music is concerned, research results are inconsistent. Some studies have shown that it improves productivity, while others have found that background music negatively impacts various tasks related to memory, attention, and reading.

These conflicting results are not surprising. To evaluate the impact of music on our performance, many factors must be taken into account. First, it depends on the type of work we do. Some tasks are more difficult, some require focus and accuracy, some require analytical and/or creative thinking, and some are repetitive and boring. Try downloading modern music and test these findings for yourself. We also have to take into account the various characteristics of the music, such as genre (pop, classical, heavy metal, etc.), tempo, loudness, and liking.

Here are some general recommendations:

The type of music matters . For example, some studies show that listening to fast and loud music such as hip-hop while working has a negative effect on performance in understanding lyrics. In contrast, listening to classical music, which is relatively quiet and slow, did not negatively impact performance. Other studies have shown that listening to calm, pleasant music promotes the development of creative ideas.

Listening time matters . The same type of music that enhances our performance when we listen to it before work can have a negative effect on our performance if you listen to it while we work.

Research shows that listening to uplifting music, or any other music we enjoy, before starting work often has a positive effect on our performance. On the contrary, listening to the music we like while we work has a negative effect on our performance.

These conclusions make sense. When we listen to music that we like, it lifts our spirits. If this happens before the start of work, then this has a positive effect on our productivity. However, when we listen to the same music while we work, although it increases our mood and excitement, it also distracts us from focusing on work tasks, which, of course, negatively affects our efficiency. Listening to music that we don’t like (to which we are indifferent) while we work has a similar effect - it also disrupts our performance.

Therefore, if you want to turn on background music while you work, it should be soft music that you are neutral about, that you don’t particularly like, but that doesn’t annoy you.

The task type also matters . Background music, especially fast and loud music or music that we like, has a negative effect on reading and memory, but has a positive effect on athletic performance and physical performance. Studies have shown that music has a positive effect on physical activity, and people worked longer and harder when they listened to music at a fast pace.

In summary, while there is no simple answer to the question of how music influences our work, research clearly shows that listening to music before work or during breaks improves performance. As for background music, it depends on the task and the type of music.