Many people with jobs that require creativity or focus, especially on computer tasks, find that they can easily get distracted while they work. However, listening to music can help to occupy the part of your brain with a tendency to wander in search of entertainment. Take a look at these tips on how music can help your productivity.

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The Right Music To Listen To While Working

When you work in an office with lots of co-workers, you find your day filled with noises and distractions. You hear other people’s conversations, and you are bombarded by phones ringing and printers buzzing. Sometimes you need to drown out all those distractions.

And music is the perfect solution. Unlike annoying office sounds or conversations, listening to music can actually help you to enter a state of flow with your work. Even better, drowning out distractions is not the only advantage to listening to music while you work.

Music can also be used to initiate the right kind of mood for particular types of work. For example, if you are facing a boring, tedious task, listening to fast-paced, upbeat music can give you the energy to get through your to-do list quickly. Or instrumental music may help you to maintain focus on tasks that require intense focus. And these benefits also work for people who work from home or in quiet offices.

The primary benefit of listening to music while you work seems to be that it boosts your mood. Work can make us stressed, tired, bored, or even unhappy at times. But listening to music (through headphones or earbuds if you share an office) can make you feel happier, less stressed, and more motivated. When you feel better at work, you perform better and accomplish more tasks.

Is there a best genre of music to reach a peak level of productivity? Studies seem to indicate that the best music for your workday is personal to you. Many people find that when they are working on tasks that require writing or creativity, they focus better when listening to instrumental music, so the lyrics are not distracting. However, other people work just fine with lyrics playing. In the end, the most important thing is that you listen to music that you enjoy. When people are subjected to music they dislike, productivity levels are noticeably reduced.

Music Apps To Help Your Productivity

So where do you find the right music for keeping you focused while you work? You have plenty of music streaming apps to choose from. Most of them work about the same, but you will likely have a favorite.

Spotify offers both a free and premium service where you can search for songs in any genre you can think of. It’s great because it offers both popular music and indie, both new and older. You can find almost anything you want to listen to on Spotify. The only caveat is that some artists don’t make their music available on the platform. However, the majority of music artists can be found there. Spotify also offers mobile versions.

iTunes is Apple’s platform for music streaming. iTunes has been around for years, and it is still the primary way for iPhone users to download and play their music. Keep in mind, however, that iTunes and its music downloads are not free.



You may not think of YouTube as the place to go for music during your workday, but the truth is that it offers as many options as the other music streaming services. The music found on YouTube does typically come with video, but you don’t have to watch the video. You can just let it play in the background so you’re not distracted while you work. You don’t have to pay for music on YouTube, but you will have to listen to ads.

Amazon Prime Music is a newer platform among music streaming apps. It is free to use if you already have an Amazon Prime account. If you have an account, you can access all your music on any device, iOS or Android. The upside to Prime Music is that you don’t have to pay extra for ad-free music streaming, like you do for the other music apps.

All of the apps allow you to choose playlists based on your current mood, so you can find the right music to keep you motivated throughout your work day. The next time you need a bit of a boost to get productive, try putting on some tunes to help you out.

Visit UnBusy Entrepreneur to find out more about Olivia's work.

_{This post was first published on UnBusy Entrepreneur blog and has been reposted on Executive Lifestyle with the permission of the author.
Edited by Nedda Chaplin} 

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