Everyone has their favorite genre of music to listen to, but for most of us that doesn’t directly correlate with the sort of music that helps us to focus the best. Someone might absolutely adore heavy metal but find it impossible to concentrate with growling vocals and crashing drums playing in the background. Despite their loathing of anything electronic as a genre, they might in fact be at their most productive with a deep house playlist on. The things that help us to concentrate are well documented, so if you’re serious about increasing your productivity, learning about the best music for your focus could help you to get there.
Lyrics Are Out
One of the qualities of ‘focus music’ that is widely agreed on is that lyrics are out. We humans naturally tune in to other human voices, so we start to listen to the words and quickly lose focus on the task at hand, or rather the task at hand changes from whatever we were supposed to be doing into listening. We’re social creatures so listening to each other comes naturally to us. Unfortunately, this means that even if you think you can sing along to your favorite tune and carry on working at maximum productivity, you’re mistaken. There have been plenty of peer-reviewed studies on the effects of lyrics on focus and the results are unanimous. Thankfully there is absolutely loads of music that is completely lyric-free, whatever your genre of choice. For any lyrics or general promotion, it’s always an option to get an album cover printed on canvas from American Sign Letters.
The World of Electronic Music
One world where deep focus is incredibly important is in the sphere of online poker players. Being able to totally immerse yourself in the game without distraction is the specialty of Lex Veldhuis who shares deep house playlists with his fans. Like many of us, playing online poker is a desk-based job that requires us to focus intently on a computer screen. Whilst you might think playing a few rounds of poker is a great deal easier and a great deal more fun than firing off emails left, right, and center, it is easy to forget that this game requires a lot of skill and focus. Deep house is a really popular genre amongst those who listen in order to focus. It ticks the lyrics-free box, and it tends to be of a more relaxed tempo with a soulful feel. In fact, as well as being music to focus to, it’s also good music for stress relief. High beats per minute can create a sense of panic, so the low BPM of deep house can also be helpful to those with high-stress jobs. Songs that have a tempo that is just slightly higher, or slightly lower, than a heartbeat can actually encourage our hearts to beat in time to the music. In a rave setting, this is great; a slightly higher BPM will get everybody feeling pumped and ready to dance, but in an office, not so much. A low BPM in the office might help to calm your resting heart rate, reducing stress and allowing you to properly focus on work.
The Oldies are the Goodies
There’s certainly enough modern-day classical music, but people still love to study the likes of Beethoven and, as such, there’s a lot more information about traditional classical music than there is about the new kind. Also, cynical as it may sound, if the composer has been dead for a long time, then you often don’t have to pay any royalties to use their music in your studies. Whether scientists choose Beethoven and Mozart for personal or fiscal reasons, we may never know, but they do overwhelmingly seem to. Studies have found that classical music seems to help to improve memory. For those who are perhaps looking to improve their focus to improve their studies, listening to classical music could have multiple benefits. One study found that students who listened to Beethoven whilst studying outperformed their classmates who didn’t by 12 percent when it came to exam time. Although this difference seems relatively small, it’s certainly enough to be significant. A similar study conducted in 2014 found that listening to Mozart whilst undertaking memory tests helped adults to perform better. So, if you’re looking for music that’s lyric-free, with a low BPM, that improves memory and might even help you score higher on an exam, then classical music should be the genre that you choose.
