The Sounds of Intense Work

One of the things that I've come to understand of myself lately, is when I'm in an intense situation, such as at work, I tend to prefer a particular style of music more than anything. Music is definitely one of my favorite things to do in a day, jamming out to some tunes while I'm working but I wanted to take a notice a little deeper on that regard while I'm working.

With the recent stresses and complications that have gone on at work lately, what I've been doing is trying to find different ways to concentrate and focus more intensely on the things that I'm doing since it requires quite a bit of mental capacity. I like the work for sure in many regards, but damn is it stressful lol.

One of the things that I've enjoyed doing in the past few years while I'm working, since I've been working from home, is listen to podcasts and radio talk shows in the morning and throughout the day while I'm working. It provides me some background and alternative things to think and interact with while I'm trying to get my work done and provides a little bit of mental clarity in some form I suppose. That works pretty well as long as I'm doing normal work but when I have to really get my nose to the ground and concentrate on what I'm doing, this isn't something that's possible at all lol.

I've also noticed that when I'm in these moods or needs of intense work, the type of music that I listen to gets adjusted. In an intense bout of work where I need to really pay attention to what I'm doing, I have been leaning more towards electronic music like chill-step, EDM or the more intense songs because of the various beats that they have in the songs. That was an interesting thought I recently realized, because I had on some alternative rock music and it wasn't working well for my mental needs because the lyrics were distracting me from what I was trying to pay attention and focus on which I found quite interesting lol. I enjoy some alt-rock songs when I'm not stressed out but when I'm in a mood and need to grind away, that type of stuff goes right out the window!

I find it interesting but not surprising that this was the case, from reading and listening to various stories of the way that highly focused work of people like brain surgeons, which I want to clarify that I am most definitely not lol, tend to listen to things with more musical notes to it like classical music as a way to keep their mind focused on the work they are doing but also allowing them to have something else to let their mind pay attention to. I'm not exactly sure why this is the case but plan on looking it up online, as to why the human mind, at least in some cases, enjoys listening to music when we are doing intense tasks. The electronic music I am enjoying while working is certainly focused on the notes, beats and other parts that are purely musical rather than singing which could perhaps be new-age surgeon intense music.

I have also certainly found myself doing some deep work but have entirely forgot to turn on music and it will be an hour or two into it that I realize it would be easier to do the work with some tunes on, which I then turn on something but I certainly prefer to have the music going while I'm doing the work. It makes the time go by more enjoyable I think, even though the situation is quite a bit stressful.

Some of the artists that I've really enjoyed to listen to while in these situations are Skrillex, Flux Pavillion, Tiesto, Blackmill, Gramatik and a few others who's names don't come to the top of my head immediately but do fall into that same genre. I've been going between mellow electronic music to intense and harder music and don't know which I have a preference for yet while doing this type of work but it's definitely the music that doesn't have lyrics, or many lyrics to them, which makes it easier for me to concentrate.

Do you enjoy listening to music while you're working, either casually or intensely? What types of music do you prefer to listen to while you're doing it? That would be interesting to hear what others preferences are in these situations!