Penny Anne O’Donnell of Relaxation Direct came to one of my The Blank Screen workshops and in the Twitter nattering that’s followed since, we were in a conversation about the use of music while working. Her advice:
It depends on the music, learning style and ability to focus. Baroque and Mozart are conducive to focused attention
Right now I’m listening to Hallelujah by kd lang from Hymns of the 49th Parallel and – no, wait, now it’s Useless Desires by Patty Driffin. I have an iTunes playlist of music that I especially love. Just single tracks that have got in my head and stayed there, that I have played so often and so much on repeat that I can hear every instrument in my head. I call it Discoveries and there are current 146 songs in it, apparently the lot lasts me 9 hours 34 minutes. Very often now I will start that playlist on shuffle and get to work.
Sometimes it makes me concentrate tremendously, sometimes it doesn’t. (Like now when I’m very conscious of it all because I’ve said to you what’s on. Currently Four Leaf Clover by Abra Moore. Some years ago I discovered Lilith Fair and there is a lot, I mean a lot, of music from that in this playlist.)
When it stops me concentrating, I’ve recently turned to iTunes Radio. You can currently only get this in America but I have both a US and a UK iTunes account so I can swap to it and listen away. At first it was tremendous but lately there’s ever more ads in it and I could get those from commercial radio here. For some reason I can take spoken word, I just can’t work through an ad. I used to listen to BBC Radio 4 all day but it got strange. I’d not consciously realise I’d heard a minute of it but I’d go switch on the TV news and know every detail of every story.
I’d like to now take you through my every musical thought – I’ve started skipping just so I can tell you that next up is You, Me and the Bourgeoisie by The Submarines and then Monday Morning by Liz Lawrence and I Know I Know I Know by Tegan and Sara – but there has to be a better way. A more statistically useful way. And by chance, Lifehacker this week decided to look back into its archive for exactly this purpose:
This week, we’re reviving a particularly old post listing some of the best music and sounds for productivity, as crowdsourced by the Lifehacker commentariat of 2009.P
Does Music Really Make You More Productive? The answer falls somewhere between “Listening to Mozart makes you a genius” and “Just be quiet and work.”P
The most often cited study into the question of music’s effect on the mind involves the so-called Mozart effect, which suggests that listening to certain kinds of music—Amadeus Wolfgang’s classical works, in particular—impacts and boosts one’s spatial-temporal reasoning, or the ability to think out long-term, more abstract solutions to logical problems that arise. The Mozart effect has been overblown and over-promised, and even outright refuted as having “bupkiss” effect, but that doesn’t mean a great mind-juicing playlist can’t be created.
Check out the full article because it might be a bit inconclusive about the answer to whether you can work better with music, but it does have a lot of links out to different types you can try.
I’m now on Mississippi by Sheryl Crow, incidentally. Want my complete Discoveries playlist? You’re mad. But here it is:
Across the Universe (Fiona Apple)
Afortunada (Francisca Valenzuela)
After All (Dar Williams)
Ageing Superhero (Newton Faulkner)
Another Green World (Brian Eno)
Answer Me (Barbara Dickson)
Backstreets (Bruce Springsteen)
Because the Night (Patti Smith)
Been It (Cardigans)
The Bell & the Anchor (Catherine Feeny)
Better Love Next Time (Caryl Mack Parker)
The Big Bang Theory theme (full)
Bitch (Meredith Brooks)
Boom Boom Boom (The Iguanas)
Born to Hum (Erin McKeown)
Brand New Day (Ryan Star)
Breathe (Alex Murdoch)
Brilliant Disguise (Bruce Springsteen)
Brimful of Asha (Cornershop)
Broadcast News
Building The Barn (Maurice Jarre)
By Way Of Sorrow (Cry Cry Cry)
Change of Time (Josh Ritter)
Dance Me To the End of Love (Live) (Leonard Cohen)
Dance The Night Away (The Mavericks)
Devils & Dust (Bruce Springsteen)
Don’t Come Around Here No More (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers)
Don’t Let Your Feet Touch Ground (Ash Koley)
Don’t Look Back (She & Him)
Dry the Rain (from High Fidelity) (Beta Band)
Dulce (Francisca Valenzuela)
The Enterprise (Star Trek) (Jerry Goldsmith)
Everywhere I Go (Lissie)
Fall At Your Feet (Crowded House)
Fall to Pieces (Avril Lavigne)
Find The River (R.E.M.)
Fine (Julia Fordham & Paul Reiser)
Fools Rush In (She & HIm)
Four Leaf Clover (Abra Moore)
Hallelujah (k.d. lang)
Handle With Care (Traveling Wilburys)
Handy Man (James Taylor)
He Thinks He’ll Keep Her (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
Hero (Regina Spektor)
Ho Hey (The Lumineers)
Hounds of Love (Kate Bush)
How Deep is Your Love (Sharleen Spiteri)
I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever) (Stevie Wonder)
I Don’t Wanna Be The One (Patricia Conroy)
I Don’t Want A Lover (Texas)
I Know I Know I Know (Tegan And Sara)
I Turn My Camera On (Spoon)
If Anyone Falls (Stevie Nicks)
If I Can’t Have You (Sharleen Spiteri)
If You Could See (Lucy Kaplansky)
In Demand (Texas)
An Innocent Man (Billy Joel)
It’s Sonata Mozart (The Kids from Fame)
It’s Too Late (Carole King)
Jack and Diane (John Cougar Mellencamp)
Jive Talkin’ (Ronan Keating and Stephen Gately)
King Of The Mountain (Kate Bush)
Kiss Me (Sixpence None the Richer)
Let Loose the Horses (The Rescues)
Life Boat (Miranda Lee Richards)
Linger (The Cranberries)
Linus and Lucy (Vince Guaradli Trio)
Living Next Door to Alice (Smokie)
Love Is Everything (k.d. lang)
Mary’s Prayer (Danny Wilson)
Memories Of East Texas (Michelle Shocked)
The Men Below (Latin Quarter)
Michael And Hope’s New Baby (W.G. Snuffy Walden)
Mississippi (Sheryl Crow)
Monday Morning (Liz Lawrence)
Moonlighting Theme – Al Jarre (Al Jarreau)
Muredete la Lengua (Francisca Valenzuela)
My Freeze Ray (Neil Patrick Harris)
Never Coming Back (Lynn Miles)
New Soul (Yael Naim)
New Year’s Prayer (Jeff Buckley)
Ocean and a Rock (Lisa Hannigan)
One and Only (Mary Black)
One Small Day (Midge Ure)
Ordinary People (Chantal Kreviazuk)
People Have the Power (Patti Smith)
Queen of Hearts (Dave Edmunds)
Radio Radio (Elvis Costello and the Attractions)
Railroad Man (Eels)
Real Gone Kid (Deacon Blue)
Rise Again (The Rankin Family)
Runaway (The Corrs)
Runaway Train (Soul Asylum)
Rush Hour (Jane Wiedlin)
Sad Eyes (Bruce Springsteen)
Sanctuary (Donna De Lory)
Self Control (Laura Branigan)
She Will Have Her Way (Neil Finn)
Shine Silently (Nils Lofgren )
Simon & Simon (extended)
Simple Song (The Shins)
Sleep (Texas)
Soak Up The Sun (Sheryl Crow)
Soda Jerk (Buffalo Tom)
Somebody That I Used to Know (Gotye)
Somebody That I Used to Know (Parody) (Key of Awesome)
Someday We’ll Be Together (Vonda Shepard)
Something New (Tanita Tikaram)
Space 1999 Year Two extended
Speaking With The Angel (Cry Cry Cry)
St Elsewhere (full theme) (Dave Grusin)
Stargate Universe
Stay (Cyndi Lauper)
Stay (Lisa Loeb)
Steppin’ Out (Joe Jackson)
Stop! (Erasure)
Summer in the City (Aztec Camera)
Sweetest Decline (Beth Orton)
Theme from Mission: Impossible (Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen)
The Thief (Lucy Kaplansky)
Thieves (She & Him)
(This Song’s Just) Six Words Long (Weird Al Yankovic)
This Woman’s Work (Kate Bush)
Trouble in the Fields (Nanci Griffith)
Truly Madly Deeply (Savage Garden)
Underneath It All (No Doubt)
Undertow (Lynn Miles)
Unravel (Lynn Miles)
Useless Desires (Patty Griffin)
The Valley Road (Bruce Hornsby)
Voodoo Child (Rogue Traders)
Walk On By (Cyndi Lauper)
“Walk on By (Live (Revamped)” (Cyndi Lauper)
Walk on By (Tony Moran mix) (Cyndi Lauper)
Wander My Friends AAC (Bear McCreary)
We Didn’t Start The Fire (Billy Joel)
What About Us (Texas)
What I Am (Edie Brickell)
What’s Up (4 Non Blondes)
Who Let In The Rain (Cyndi Lauper)
Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? (She & Him)
The Worst Day Since Yesterday (Flogging Molly)
You Just May Be The One (The Monkees)
You, Me and the Bourgeoisie (The Submarines)
Zoo Gang (Paul McCartney & Wings)
Tell me you didn’t really read this far. Go make your own list. And stop looking at me like that for mine.