Improving work productivity with music
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It’s Monday morning again, you’ve read through your emails and just finished your first coffee of the day and then you struggle to get going. Your work productivity is hanging in the balance. The tapping of keyboards is reverberating around the office and the distant conversation of what people got up to over the weekend. You’re struggling to get started so you decide to get your headphones and head over to Spotify to stick your favourite playlist on.
You’re nodding your head to the music but does listening to music actually improve your work productivity?
The science behind music is pretty straight forward
There have been countless studies into the effect of music on our moods and well being over the last century which all come to the common consensus that listening to happy music generally makes us happier and likewise for sad music. So we know how music can have an impact on our mood but does that help us finish that bit of work that we’ve been putting off since last week?
As we know, music can help to create a certain mood which can be relaxing and can help reduce stress and anxiety as well as improving focus. This should all help improve productivity, right?
Well maybe, but could music just be a distraction that is making us feel a bit better but without actually improving our productivity? Well, maybe. Ultimately it’s down to personal preference and how you feel that you best work.
To try and give you an idea of what Team Signable listen to while they’re in the office, here is an eclectic mix of what we’re listening to through the day.
It’s all about the Albums!
Sophie has another approach to what she likes to listen to ‘Albums – whole albums, usually ones that think about the experience of listening to the whole thing in order, Jimi Hendrix, Arctic Monkeys and Alt-J have some lush album mixes, to name a few.’
Beats per minute equal code per minute
One of our developers, Liam loves to listen to fast and loud music as he codes! ‘Liquid DnB or House Music/Dance is great for my productivity because it allows me to code at a fast BPM, all you can hear is me typing away at 170 + BPM. I code fast.’
The wrong music could lead to frustration
Sue has a slightly different approach to music in the office. “Music is great unless it’s UB40, U2 or Phil Collins as they cause me to throw the speaker out of the nearest window!’” We can’t yet confirm if throwing a speaker out of the window has been proven to improve productivity.
Kanye’s the word
Chris’ love is real for one particular artist: ‘There’s not really any other musician who divides opinion quite like Kanye West. His rants on Twitter and his strange relationship with Donald Trump put many off him but I can’t help but love his music. He’s a genius. I have a playlist titled ‘The Kanye Collection’ and I listen to it most days. The music is so familiar to me and almost acts as a backing track to my day. Late Registration is his best album. Don’t @ me.’
So to summarise, there isn’t an exact science to what will unlock your optimum work productivity. Try new things, experiment and find out what works best for you the next Monday morning you’re struggling to get started with your week.