How I Use My MP3 To Concentrate
Posted on March 9, 2009 by LJ
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Mondays are productivity days at SimpleProductivity blog.
I recently moved into another part of our office, and I sit outside the cube of one of the managers. He himself is not too loud, except when he is humming and drumming along to his own music. However, most days pass by with a parade of his subordinates coming to give updates, ask questions, and generally chit-chat.
In order for me concentrate effectively, I need to block out the noise. My favorite weapon of choice is my MP3 player. Here are five different items I listen to to help block out distractions and concentrate:
Radio Show: Fibber McGee and Molly
Fibber McGee, a radio show from the 1940′s, is light comedy. The everyday adventures are engaging without being engrossing. I can listen to the show with half attention and still enjoy it. I get a new episode every week via podcast (link via ITunes). This is my first level defense. It blocks noise, while allowing me to engage in routine tasks.
Audio Book: Pride and Prejudice
My all-time favorite book is Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. I have read this book so many times that it is familiar to me as the back of my hands. I can turn this on and the spoken word will cover any normal conversations in my area. My particular version comes from Audible. I use this as the second line of defense where I am working on more involved, yet still routine tasks.
Music: Mozart
I find that music will give more of a noise coverage for conversations than spoken word. I favor classical music, particularly Music For The Mozart Effect, Volume 4, Focus & Clarity
Nature Sounds: The Ocean
Nature sounds are a good way to produce background noise without the risk of being drawn into something else. I favor Ocean Dreams
Pink Noise
Pink noise is a great way to block out noise. I find that this particular recording covers even hyena-like laughter and conversations that vary greatly in volume. I use this when I have to concentrate fully on a very intricate task. My current pink noise was an Amazon download, and can be found at Pink Noise.
Things That Didn’t Make The List, And Why:
Regular podcasts. I listen to podcasts for information. This requires that I concentrate on what is being said, and consequently I cannot do anything that requires focus while listening to a podcast. I generally listen to podcasts while exercising, doing housework, or knitting.
New Audio Books. If I don’t know the book well enough to recite it, I will get drawn into the plot and the words will distract me from what I am trying to do. I listen to audio books much as I do podcasts.
Music: pop or things I have played. As a semi-pro classical musician, I cannot listen to recordings of things in my repertoire, or I will find myself following the score along in my head. This obviously does not lend itself to concentration on work. Likewise, the tempos and volume changes in pop pieces do not provide coverage of outside noise. I listen to my pop and other classical when I am at home or not trying to cover outside noises.
Nature Tracks with Music Overlays. I was once given a tape of forest sounds that was overlaid with new-agey type music. I found the experience disconcerting, like a band was following me on a hike in the woods.
By having my MP3 with me (and loaded with my noiseblockers) during all working hours, I have an effective tool to help me get my work done.
Photo by Orange_Beard
Related posts:
- Using Your MP3 Player To Make Yourself More Productive
- Top Essential Tools #3: Distraction Blockers
- Review: GeekSounds
- The Media Fast
- Two Must-Haves for the iPod
Comments (3)
I dont mean to argue, but let me tell you that im a mp3 software developer (i just point that to explain that i know something about mp3). Okay, lets go to the point:
All digital music looses must of the armonic frequencies, thats one of the ways the mp3 get encoded and smaller than the original wav file. And the brain need to re-generate all thos loosed armonic frquencies, so it does the job and the consequence is that listennign to digital music makes the brain works more and many times people feels very tired after listening to digital music. To feel relaxed the analogic recording, reproduced in some old analogic player will be uch better for relaxing.
My 2 cents
I am not arguing any of these points, which are beyond the point of the article. Since you brought this into the realm of digital frequencies and spectrum analysis, I will give you your points. It is no secret that the digital encoding of any analog sound is not going to be perfect. I can argue, though, that most of the harmonic frequencies cut off by the encoding are well beyond the range of human hearing, depending on the algorithm used. Again, though, such engineering points are beyond the scope of the article.
My point in the article was that noise-blocking, not relaxing, becomes necessary in certain environments in order to concentrate. And since I do not have the space to keep a phonograph at my desk, nor have the capacity to lug around stacks of 45 RPM records, MP3 and other digital media are the only reasonable answer to the problem. Shock training the woman who laughs like a hyena would not be considered reasonable, I fear.
Hello, thanks for the interesting post. I listen to virtually any classical music (as long as there is no chanting or singing…) to help me concentrate on work. I can’t listen to anything with words or else I can’t help but listen to what is being said, be it music, or ebooks, etc.
I like your ocean sounds idea though…
Incidently, I’m afraid to say that the first comment is complete rubbish. Actually, that’s a bit harsh, the bit on losses due to sampling and filtering is pretty much right, but the bit about the brain ‘…re-generate[ing] all thos loosed armonic frquencies…’ thereby making it work harder is wholly inaccurate. The truth is that the precise brain mechanisms involved in listening to music/speech/other sounds are not known in nearly enough detail to make such a judgement (and I would very much doubt that this would be the case). Sorry to raise it, but one of my bug-bears is the passing off of (to my knowledge) unsubstantiated theory as fact in a public domain where it could be accepted as such (I’m a cognitive science researcher btw…).