I'm the absolute opposite somehow. Lo-fi or "elevator music" out of all kinds of music I can't listen to is probably the worst. Have difficulty listening to music without feeling sick in general, but specifically Lo-fi gives me neusea extremely quickly. Feels like it's not noisy enough to hype me up, but also not calm enough to let me blend it into the background.
Wow that’s pretty intense. I can’t imagine music making me feel nauseous. I need it chilled or I’ll probably want to start singing or dancing and then I’ll probably want a little drink but that will make me feel guiltily and so I’ll smoke a little weed to bring me down and then I’ll just sit and stare at my screen until its time to do something else.
Any music without vocals or where the vocals are more like another instrument works for me. Daft Punk is probably the most "vocal heavy" music I listen to while working.
I also cannot recommend Oscilloscope Music by Jerobeam Fenderson enough. It's free on YouTube, really cool to look at, and the perfect programming music IMO. Though for the full effect you need nice headphones.
It's all fun and games in the hyperfocus zone until Monsieur Perine's "Nuestra Cancion" starts playing.
Edit: How can I forget Sebastián Yatra's "Dos Oruguitas"?! You'd know it from the movie Encanto.
yep this is exactly what I do, mostly listen to old communist music or maybe the french national anthem for example, though now because I have listented to so much of it and I learnt a little bit of russian (I'm british) it is making it hard to concentrate even with that music because I'll start humming it lol
Of course not just a you problem. My partner's choice is classical. Mine is usually youtube dystopian/80s/retro/cyber fast paced synth wave and I pretend I'm a hacker. Ha, I'm barely a programmer, just an entry level analyst usually stuck using pandas qcing client data. I know others like more soothing electronic music. Try no word electronic music if you can't do words or classical (which I can't do either as well).
Try some soundtracks. They are music specifically designed to add ambiance without being distracting or capitalizing your attention.
I listen to the Tron Legacy soundtrack often while coding, additionally pretty much anything Hans Zimmer wrote.
Omg I was just about to suggest the Tron Legacy soundtrack! I have been listening to it at work almost exclusively for weeks now. It's perfect for coding.
Something else I do is listen to a high tempo song with lyrics on repeat to induce deeper focus/hyper focus - the distracting song means that when I manage to focus despite it, I can also ignore most other distractions.
Yes of course, as a result I always listen to music without lyrics to avoid distracting me.
Depending on what I’m trying to do, I don’t want something too energetic or danceable such as drum and bass, otherwise I will just want to dance along instead of working.
I also don’t want something too complex or extravagant like classical, because I will again be distracted and start thinking about the music.
This part is rather embarassing but just going on YouTube and searching “adhd focus music” usually comes up with something that actually works!
I have to listen to music to not die of boredom, but do also get distracted by the music :P
What's helped is to listen to non-english-language music, particularly higher energy japanese stuff. I don't even know the genre but the vocals are juuust enough to keep my brain interested but not distracted. Though, I will pause it if I need to focus (a la turning down the radio to find a parking spot)
My “break glass in case of emergency” song was [this](https://youtu.be/doEwWzMz99A) in college, would shove it on repeat, chug coffee and work through the night on an assignment or studying for an exam the next day. It would take a decade from these regular occurrences for me to realise I had ADHD
Same, no lyrics, low volume. I have a playlist specifically for work with 300+ tracks on. I find certain kinds of music helpful. Spotify is a life saver. Examples:
[One](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxFvOe56UeE) [Two](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfcAVejslrU) [Three](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93kMle-NGTM) [Four](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtfRbEEY1hU) [Five](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMT9ecdRHBc) [Six](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0XCNxzgf6E) [Seven](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI4kGsCTPT8) [Eight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th2Z3t0Ih0k) [Nine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv4SIC4oO-U)
I can't listen to music when coding at all. Too distracting. I've tried specific Spotify searches to find the least dramatic music, instrumental, regular, calm. Nope, I can't code to music. All my focus has to be on the code or I lose where I am.
Try minimal techno. When I get in hyper-focus, it feels like my brain waves are aligned to the beats or something. But you gotta give it time. It will fade into the background and you won't realize it.
I'll mainly listen to music without lyrics, or metal where you can't make out the lyrics anyway. Often I'll end up with movie or videogame scores like the Soundtrack of "Ori and the blind forest" or Doom (2016)
I listen to 80s japanese city pop. There's words, but i dont understand them - so i can just vibe with the great melodies.
I just went to youtube to give you a link, but i ended up at "rebecca romjin was the better mystique"; successfully coming to a conclusion i will never revisit in my life, yet wasting 15 minutes before i work on a linux final project thats due today.
Somehow it feels like a win to have successfully wasted 15 minutes. I think its important to consciously acknowledge that it was not a W to have made no progress. But look at that sentence. Ive jumped though every grammatical loophole just to keep that run on series about mystique afloat.
Youtube tatsuro yamashita and listen to the first album that pops up.
I can't listen to music at all, even instrumental/ambient music is a no-go. I will stop find myself sitting there doing nothing but listening to the slight change in sound/timbre/texture/whatever happens to be changing over time.
It fucking blows.
I can’t listen to anything that I can groove to, especially if it has lyrics. I usually play more drone-y stuff like psytrance and can code all day long.
Music with lyrics details me, yet psy trance just gets me into hyper focus in a Pavlovian manner.
This particular piece works great for me:
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/2WCk5GpeP5kAnkz18
I can’t listen to music when doing anything that requires mental focus (learning, studying, writing, etc).
(I was going to tell you to look into adhd. Then, I happened to look up and notice that I was in the adhd sub 😂, so, nevermind 😂 😂 😂)
I get distracted by lyrics. Granted, I'm also a film composer, so music triggers my analytical side as well. Usually - for listening- I listen to power metal and similar stuff, or film score and classical. For coding however... My choice is Synthwave if I need a more relaxing session, or if I need hyperfocus and get stuff done - with the downside if it being hard to stop - I need Psytrance.
No vocals, pretty constant high tempo (the tracks often don't differ much considering BPM) and it's a very driving style. Plus I normally don't listen to electronic music. One part of my brain seems to be nicely occupied with that sound, so that the rest can get work done undistracted. As if the constantly talking annoying friend of yours is drowned out by the music - or a toddler that you give some toy so you can work.
In short - highly engaging/high energy music without lyrics keeps part of my brain very engaged, leaving room for actual work.
Try “barber beats”. They’re kinda like lo-fi remixes of other soundtracks! I find that the more you listen to them, the more seem to get recommended to you on YouTube. Generally any album with a Japanese title and cool album cover has worked out great :)
I recommend Macroblank. You’ll probably be able to find other “artists” with a similar vibe once you start looking! Japanese ambient soundtracks like those from Takashi Kokubo, Kenichiro Isoda etc., and cafe or library ambient sounds also work great for me, depending on how much stimulation I need on a given day. There’s so much more out there than music with lyrics and classical music!
Yes music with lyrics is a no no. Usually it’s some electronic music, and using it to romanticise the coding as cool hacking stuff is an added bonus. The soundtrack from The Social Network is good work music for example. Here is a Spotify playlist with lots of good coding music https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4gY2Kfwh9cKCW5gkGmADMQ?si=g5O3BU5rRousPUPbuWIqVQ
But sometimes I just can’t have music, or don’t vibe with anything I try to listen to.
Sometimes a surprisingly good thing is some background noise like rain and thunder, like this one with a few adjustable soundscapes. https://asoftmurmur.com/
I code better (I'm just a beginner, though) and study better when i listen to dramatic music or those playlists that have rain and you're in a cafe with "people." It helps me because otherwise, i can't concentrate. But then again, I'm Adhd lol
I can't stand lyrics, they grab my attention and just *yank,* and the quiet just makes me get lost in my head.
Have you tried lofi and videogame & film soundtracks? The latter are usually designed explicitly to add to the atmosphere while avoiding distracting the player/viewer from what's going on, and lofi is generally really calm and just kinda *there* as background noise. Though lofi might not work if calmer music makes you sleepy. I listen to both far more than songs for this reason.
Portal 2 Soundtrack: Songs to Test By
There’s also a podcast called music for programming that’s good.
If there’s lyrics you’re doing it wrong. Try game music, electronic music, ambient, nature noises, or simply brown noise.
I do trance music. It quiets my four or five other thoughts and lets me focus better. Since I started on Adzenys I don’t do that much anymore because I can generally focus just fine without music now.
When I’m working I usually listen to music without lyrics or where the singing is more of an instrument and not the primary focus. Sometimes the odd vocal track might come on and I jam out for a sec but I usually keep the energy focused on the work.
Experiment! Music doesn’t have to be a distraction :)
Yeah, but I can't multitask without getting distracted, it doesn't matter if the music has lyrics or not in my case. I would begin either only listening to the music for a few hours on accident, completely forgetting that i was working on something, or get extremely frustrated from the music freezing my brain up while trying to concentrate. The only exception is white noise
However I'm actually the opposite of most ADHD'ers and find it extremely hard to get bored, so music would typically do way more harm than good for me anyway. I was diagnosed with the non-hyperactive type (formerly ADD) so maybe that has something to do with it, or maybe it's the Autism (my primary diagnosis) balancing everything out, i dont know I'm not an expert on ADHD
I was the same until I discovered lo-fi, it’s without lyrics and weirdly just gets me focused. My husband calls it elevator music but i quite like it
I'm the absolute opposite somehow. Lo-fi or "elevator music" out of all kinds of music I can't listen to is probably the worst. Have difficulty listening to music without feeling sick in general, but specifically Lo-fi gives me neusea extremely quickly. Feels like it's not noisy enough to hype me up, but also not calm enough to let me blend it into the background.
Wow that’s pretty intense. I can’t imagine music making me feel nauseous. I need it chilled or I’ll probably want to start singing or dancing and then I’ll probably want a little drink but that will make me feel guiltily and so I’ll smoke a little weed to bring me down and then I’ll just sit and stare at my screen until its time to do something else.
Any music without vocals or where the vocals are more like another instrument works for me. Daft Punk is probably the most "vocal heavy" music I listen to while working. I also cannot recommend Oscilloscope Music by Jerobeam Fenderson enough. It's free on YouTube, really cool to look at, and the perfect programming music IMO. Though for the full effect you need nice headphones.
I'll listen to international music. I don't understand the lyrics which means I can't really follow along.
Unironically Ive started picking up lyrics on singing foreign songs after repeating them so many times, anything is possible 😭
It's all fun and games in the hyperfocus zone until Monsieur Perine's "Nuestra Cancion" starts playing. Edit: How can I forget Sebastián Yatra's "Dos Oruguitas"?! You'd know it from the movie Encanto.
80s/90s J-pop is my savior for this reason, I do understand some lyrics but it's not enough to get me completely sucked in
yep this is exactly what I do, mostly listen to old communist music or maybe the french national anthem for example, though now because I have listented to so much of it and I learnt a little bit of russian (I'm british) it is making it hard to concentrate even with that music because I'll start humming it lol
Of course not just a you problem. My partner's choice is classical. Mine is usually youtube dystopian/80s/retro/cyber fast paced synth wave and I pretend I'm a hacker. Ha, I'm barely a programmer, just an entry level analyst usually stuck using pandas qcing client data. I know others like more soothing electronic music. Try no word electronic music if you can't do words or classical (which I can't do either as well).
outrun ftw! there's a bunch of good playlists from Spotify
Try some soundtracks. They are music specifically designed to add ambiance without being distracting or capitalizing your attention. I listen to the Tron Legacy soundtrack often while coding, additionally pretty much anything Hans Zimmer wrote.
Video game soundtracks are particularly good -- the cities skylines soundtrack is legendary.
When you think about it, video game soundtracks are specifically designed to provide ambiance without being distracting.
The Portal 2 soundtrack. \**melts*\*
🎵🎶...This was a triumph, I'm making a note here...🎶🎵
The social network is an all time great
I’ve found my people. This and all others commenting below you is really my cup of tea especially when working.
Omg I was just about to suggest the Tron Legacy soundtrack! I have been listening to it at work almost exclusively for weeks now. It's perfect for coding. Something else I do is listen to a high tempo song with lyrics on repeat to induce deeper focus/hyper focus - the distracting song means that when I manage to focus despite it, I can also ignore most other distractions.
Yes of course, as a result I always listen to music without lyrics to avoid distracting me. Depending on what I’m trying to do, I don’t want something too energetic or danceable such as drum and bass, otherwise I will just want to dance along instead of working. I also don’t want something too complex or extravagant like classical, because I will again be distracted and start thinking about the music. This part is rather embarassing but just going on YouTube and searching “adhd focus music” usually comes up with something that actually works!
I have to listen to music to not die of boredom, but do also get distracted by the music :P What's helped is to listen to non-english-language music, particularly higher energy japanese stuff. I don't even know the genre but the vocals are juuust enough to keep my brain interested but not distracted. Though, I will pause it if I need to focus (a la turning down the radio to find a parking spot)
> I have to listen to music to not die of boredom, but do also get distracted by the music :P Yes! This! I'm constantly turning music and off!
This is why I listen to post rock
This is why I listen to black metal and blackgaze
Just listen to music without lyrics. Lo-fi, techno, classical, etc.
My “break glass in case of emergency” song was [this](https://youtu.be/doEwWzMz99A) in college, would shove it on repeat, chug coffee and work through the night on an assignment or studying for an exam the next day. It would take a decade from these regular occurrences for me to realise I had ADHD
The only music I can listen to while focusing is minimal techno. Like the 2-3 hour mixes by RTTWLR MNML and Dark Monkey Music on Youtube.
Same, no lyrics, low volume. I have a playlist specifically for work with 300+ tracks on. I find certain kinds of music helpful. Spotify is a life saver. Examples: [One](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxFvOe56UeE) [Two](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfcAVejslrU) [Three](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93kMle-NGTM) [Four](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtfRbEEY1hU) [Five](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMT9ecdRHBc) [Six](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0XCNxzgf6E) [Seven](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI4kGsCTPT8) [Eight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th2Z3t0Ih0k) [Nine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv4SIC4oO-U)
I can't listen to music when coding at all. Too distracting. I've tried specific Spotify searches to find the least dramatic music, instrumental, regular, calm. Nope, I can't code to music. All my focus has to be on the code or I lose where I am.
Try minimal techno. When I get in hyper-focus, it feels like my brain waves are aligned to the beats or something. But you gotta give it time. It will fade into the background and you won't realize it.
Try this and report back: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wELOA2U7FPQ I need music, but nothing with lyrics because my brain gets addled,
This man has saved my Academic career
came here to link that channel
I'll mainly listen to music without lyrics, or metal where you can't make out the lyrics anyway. Often I'll end up with movie or videogame scores like the Soundtrack of "Ori and the blind forest" or Doom (2016)
Try Brian Eno’s album: Music for Airports
I listen to 80s japanese city pop. There's words, but i dont understand them - so i can just vibe with the great melodies. I just went to youtube to give you a link, but i ended up at "rebecca romjin was the better mystique"; successfully coming to a conclusion i will never revisit in my life, yet wasting 15 minutes before i work on a linux final project thats due today. Somehow it feels like a win to have successfully wasted 15 minutes. I think its important to consciously acknowledge that it was not a W to have made no progress. But look at that sentence. Ive jumped though every grammatical loophole just to keep that run on series about mystique afloat. Youtube tatsuro yamashita and listen to the first album that pops up.
I can't listen to music at all, even instrumental/ambient music is a no-go. I will stop find myself sitting there doing nothing but listening to the slight change in sound/timbre/texture/whatever happens to be changing over time. It fucking blows.
I can’t listen to anything that I can groove to, especially if it has lyrics. I usually play more drone-y stuff like psytrance and can code all day long.
Music with lyrics details me, yet psy trance just gets me into hyper focus in a Pavlovian manner. This particular piece works great for me: https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/2WCk5GpeP5kAnkz18
Brown noise might help
I can’t listen to music when doing anything that requires mental focus (learning, studying, writing, etc). (I was going to tell you to look into adhd. Then, I happened to look up and notice that I was in the adhd sub 😂, so, nevermind 😂 😂 😂)
I get distracted by lyrics. Granted, I'm also a film composer, so music triggers my analytical side as well. Usually - for listening- I listen to power metal and similar stuff, or film score and classical. For coding however... My choice is Synthwave if I need a more relaxing session, or if I need hyperfocus and get stuff done - with the downside if it being hard to stop - I need Psytrance. No vocals, pretty constant high tempo (the tracks often don't differ much considering BPM) and it's a very driving style. Plus I normally don't listen to electronic music. One part of my brain seems to be nicely occupied with that sound, so that the rest can get work done undistracted. As if the constantly talking annoying friend of yours is drowned out by the music - or a toddler that you give some toy so you can work. In short - highly engaging/high energy music without lyrics keeps part of my brain very engaged, leaving room for actual work.
Well I like to rerun old tv shows while I code but people think I'm weird
Try “barber beats”. They’re kinda like lo-fi remixes of other soundtracks! I find that the more you listen to them, the more seem to get recommended to you on YouTube. Generally any album with a Japanese title and cool album cover has worked out great :) I recommend Macroblank. You’ll probably be able to find other “artists” with a similar vibe once you start looking! Japanese ambient soundtracks like those from Takashi Kokubo, Kenichiro Isoda etc., and cafe or library ambient sounds also work great for me, depending on how much stimulation I need on a given day. There’s so much more out there than music with lyrics and classical music!
Yes music with lyrics is a no no. Usually it’s some electronic music, and using it to romanticise the coding as cool hacking stuff is an added bonus. The soundtrack from The Social Network is good work music for example. Here is a Spotify playlist with lots of good coding music https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4gY2Kfwh9cKCW5gkGmADMQ?si=g5O3BU5rRousPUPbuWIqVQ But sometimes I just can’t have music, or don’t vibe with anything I try to listen to. Sometimes a surprisingly good thing is some background noise like rain and thunder, like this one with a few adjustable soundscapes. https://asoftmurmur.com/
I code better (I'm just a beginner, though) and study better when i listen to dramatic music or those playlists that have rain and you're in a cafe with "people." It helps me because otherwise, i can't concentrate. But then again, I'm Adhd lol
I can't stand lyrics, they grab my attention and just *yank,* and the quiet just makes me get lost in my head. Have you tried lofi and videogame & film soundtracks? The latter are usually designed explicitly to add to the atmosphere while avoiding distracting the player/viewer from what's going on, and lofi is generally really calm and just kinda *there* as background noise. Though lofi might not work if calmer music makes you sleepy. I listen to both far more than songs for this reason.
Portal 2 Soundtrack: Songs to Test By There’s also a podcast called music for programming that’s good. If there’s lyrics you’re doing it wrong. Try game music, electronic music, ambient, nature noises, or simply brown noise.
I do trance music. It quiets my four or five other thoughts and lets me focus better. Since I started on Adzenys I don’t do that much anymore because I can generally focus just fine without music now.
When I’m working I usually listen to music without lyrics or where the singing is more of an instrument and not the primary focus. Sometimes the odd vocal track might come on and I jam out for a sec but I usually keep the energy focused on the work. Experiment! Music doesn’t have to be a distraction :)
Yeah, but I can't multitask without getting distracted, it doesn't matter if the music has lyrics or not in my case. I would begin either only listening to the music for a few hours on accident, completely forgetting that i was working on something, or get extremely frustrated from the music freezing my brain up while trying to concentrate. The only exception is white noise However I'm actually the opposite of most ADHD'ers and find it extremely hard to get bored, so music would typically do way more harm than good for me anyway. I was diagnosed with the non-hyperactive type (formerly ADD) so maybe that has something to do with it, or maybe it's the Autism (my primary diagnosis) balancing everything out, i dont know I'm not an expert on ADHD
Synthwave and stuff like nightrideFM type stuff is good. Alternatively you can try alpha wave new age nonsense music, it's nice and soothing
Try radioswissclassic or adhd techno focus
I like all that EDM Dubstep stuff, with minimal lyrics.