• Question: do you think that listening to music will help you concentrate on you work or not?

    Asked by to Edward, Ian, Mathew, Naomi, sakshisharda on 19 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ian Stephenson

      Ian Stephenson answered on 19 Jun 2014:

      yes and no…

      The music will be a distraction, but if you pick the right music it might be less of a distraction than other things it covers up.

      For example a dog barking in the garden, or the tv in the next room would definitely distract you, but you might not hear them if you’ve got music playing (hence people often wear headphones when working in busy places)

      It might also stop you getting totally distracted. If your mind wanders to some music, at least it might still be thinking about what you’re working on on some level, but if your mind wanders to something else that is worrying you it could completely break your concentration.

      I think it totally depends on the person, the music, what they’re supposed to be doing, and where they’re doing it.

      You could do an experiment… try doing different tasks with and without music, and see how you get on.

    • Photo: Naomi Osborne

      Naomi Osborne answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      Like Ian said, I think it depends on the person and the task that you’re doing. When I’m doing certain repetitive tasks in the lab, I feel music would help me get on with it. But when I’m writing up my results, I need to concentrate, which would be hard with music on as I have a tendency to sing!

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