02/05/2024

The 15 Best Songs for Boosting Productivity

A new research project determined productivity's most popular tunes

What music should you play for maximum productivity? You might think this question is only a matter of taste. My husband, for instance, prefers to do creative work while blasting rock music. If I tried to do that, the only thing I would have by the end of the day is a nervous breakdown.

But even while taste clearly plays a role in the ideal music for getting work done, research suggests it's not the only factor. A parade of studies indicate that different types of music -- or no music at all -- can help us get in the right mental zone for different types of work:

• For focused, mentally taxing work, listening to something instrumental, such as classical music, beats music with lyrics, according to research.

• Lo-fi music is derided as boring by music critics, but both its online popularity and academic research suggest its blend-into-the-background quality can help you power through boring or stress-inducing busy work. 

• If your aim is to boost creativity, psychologists suggest that songs with a tempo in the range of 50-80 beats per minute can help induce something called the "alpha state" in your brain, which helps the ideas flow. 

• Researchers at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management actually came up with a specific playlist they claim can make you feel more powerful to pump you up before high-stakes meetings and negotiations.

• Another analysis by a musicologist showed the songs most likely to make us happy are slightly faster than average (between 140 and 150 beats per minute), written in a major key and have lyrics that either talk about happy events or are complete nonsense.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Inc.