Music & Work: a good or bad combo?
Q: I love to listen to music while I’m working at home, but my wife says I’m distracting myself and I shouldn’t do it. Is she right? -- Henry G., Bronx, New York
A: That’s a question we can answer, but there are a lot of “it depends” attached. A recent study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied found that music generally interferes with doing complex tasks, but complex music makes simple tasks easier, and if you are a person who is easily bored, then external stimulation such as music can help you stay involved. In short, music’s benefits and debits while working depend on the music, the person and the task.
Why does listening to music make complex tasks harder? It takes more brain power to do analysis, problem solving and writing, and music can stimulate brain areas needed for thinking about such specifics. The result is your brain is overtaxed and underfocused.
On the other hand, if you are doing routine activities like data entry, then you aren’t using your brain’s full bandwidth, and it’s very common to drift off or daydream -- making it easier to make mistakes. Adding a soundtrack to the background can help keep you paying attention to the lessthan-interesting job at hand.
Some other interesting discoveries about what music does to the brain: A study in Plosone says classical music that a listener finds arousing and “happy” spurs spontaneous, free-flowing, “nonlinear” thought processes that trigger exploration of potential solutions. Another study in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience says music that’s chaotic and loud, often with lyrics about anxiety, depression, social isolation and loneliness, may actually calm anger by venting emotions that need expression. So, Henry, see what applies to the kind of work you are doing and your personality and then put on some tunes and work on!
Bonus: Listening to music when you’re not working also has big benefits: Attending a series of classical music concerts for a month can make your Realage about two years younger!