Music as a concentration aid?

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So, I've often heard other people remark that they can't do work while listening to music because it is too distracting (especially music with lyrics.)

However, I'm exactly the opposite. I find it pretty hard to concentrate on anything unless I'm listening to music. The music can be loud and fairly chaotic, but I'm still able to concentrate and think better while listening to it compared to the alternative. Anyone else like this?

nah...I have a bad habit of listening to music, even where other people don't hear it...

I prefer music without any lyrics, but yes. I sometimes find myself better able to concentrate.

Yeah, I've heard of 'those' kind of people! It's a pity having to live life like that.

I've posted here before how I study best or do my homework best...

Ballcap (to shade eyes from top and front... hoodie to shade eyes from peripheral views... headphones connected to iPod playing, usually, my playlist with STAIND, Three Days Grace, Seether, Breaking Benjamin, etc,... turned up loud enough I don't hear what's going on near me - as in other people's voices and associated noises - I could hear a fire alarm if it went off.

This occupies some portion of my brain so the rest of it can concentrate on the work at hand.
I wish I had learned this when I first tried uni.

Mac, I'm glad you agree with me. I always have my ipod rocking when I'm at work. They don't like it, but as far as I'm concerned, they can go [expletive deleted] themselves.

(They = my co workers).

the iron eagle syndrome.


I need absolute silence to concentrate.. but good music (usually classical or one with a good female vocalist like that evanescence gal ) makes good ideas pop in my mind out of nowhere without the need to concentrate.


so I mix both when I really need a solution for something.

Yes, music helps my concentration immensly. I couldn't study without listening to music.

Weird thing is, I find almost everything else to be distracting.

Someday I want to have a job where I can use my headphones to work with.



Yeah... that's weird how it works huh?
So many things distract me and annoy me that other people tune out, yet I can use loud metal music to help me concentrate.

Go figure....

Must be about getting the right brainwaves

I must agree - especially with classical music, in my case. Piano takes me into a realm all its own. I wouldn't say that I can't study without music, but it does improve my focus at times.

It's really about what one is used to though. My sister lives in an apartment in central Baltimore, and the traffic there (to me) is unbearingly loud. Yet her roomate (who is a journalist) completes her work without any difficulty.

When I have some music on, I get in the zone and everything else fades and the art insperado comes a flowin. Yeah, I'd self destruct if I had to go without listening to music. Time goes much faster with it. Such a beautiful thing.

I usually have to have music on to concentrate; otherwise I'm too distracted. I like piano music, some classical, but what I've found the best is actually the sound of a heartbeat. I used to have this environment sounds album that one whole side was a heartbeat. You could put it on 45 rpm, or 33 rpm. I had it on 33 rpm and kept repeating it. I've never studied so well nor had such photographic memory. I need to find that again on CD, but I probably couldn't change the speed, and it might be faster than I like.

Yeah, I listen to music when I study, but only without lyrics. I like classical and instrumental versions of rock songs, and the new Peter Pan soundtrack.

Music helps me focus and blocks out other distracting noises...but with lyrics, forget it. I'm a word person, so if I hear lyrics, I have to pay attention to every word of them.

I agree with this 100%, I often listen to Linkin Park, or some type of industrial rock while I am working in school, I can accomplish far more. This is probably total crap, but my theory is that my brain is overactive (this much I know, I was told by my therapist) and the music takes up some of the processing power of my brain, leaving a more reasonable amount to work with, so my mind does not wander as fiercely as normal.

That's interesting. I also find that my mind wanders less when I'm listening to varied music.

I'm one of those boring people who can't work with music either. We are allowed to use headphones now where I work so that is a good thing, but where I really can't concentrate is when people have two different radio stations on at the same time. I also don't like going into stores where the music is really loud either, I can't concentrate and it makes me all jittery.

The one exception is when I am alone driving my car. Then I like to crank the radio up. But not if I have passengers because then I find I can't focus on the road, the music and what people are trying to say at the same time. In fact, I think I drive better when I am by myself.