What do you listen to while you work?
Mainly, I listen to my African Grey Parrot: She provides the soundtrack to most of my days. She has her own ‘office’ in my home office so she can accompany me to work every day. I do not listen to music or radio talk shows, podcasts, and the like because I find them distracting–and the research supports me on that.
If the work is physical, the right music can energize, and so I will listen to jazz on my personal time. But if you are reading and writing and grading, as I do, what researchers have learned is that your brain, because it’s not evolved to handle many things at once, is constantly switching back and forth, putting one activity on autopilot to attend to the other.
It happens so fast that we’re not consciously aware of it. We can’t readily perceive how horribly inefficient it is, but it does in fact slow us down and increase the risk of error. So FWIW, when a potential employer asks how good you are at multi-tasking, what they really want to know is how good you are at juggling.
So my advice as a psychology professor would be that if you are reading for classes, studying for an exam, or writing a paper, turn off the music. Ditto if you are creating lessons, compiling lecture notes, or grading as a teacher or professor. If you need sound, or to block out sound, get a white noise machine, play nature sounds in the background, or–and this is my personal fave–stream that YouTube video of the sound of the Earth rotating in space. It’s awesome.
If you doubt me, you can do your own research–no, really! Everybody’s a scientist! You can set up a study with a single-subject (ABAB) design.
Establish some objective measure of your productivity, then alternate periods of time with (A) and without (A) your favorite music, podcasts, or whatever. If your work involves learning something, be sure to test yourself to see effects on retention as a stand-in for attention and concentration. Document/track everything carefully. Give it a couple of weeks and you should be able to see if it makes a difference!
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