The verdict of whether or not listening to music increases your ability to study isn’t concrete. Music releases dopamine, the pleasure chemical. Releasing dopamine is not a guarantee to enhance a productive session along the path.
If music improves your mood, it may improve your focus; but that improved focus could be on the music, not the work itself.
Music is relaxing; being relaxed may be the optimal state for work, but it may not be.
If music has words, that is what you will focus on.
It’s difficult to listen to your own thoughts while taking in the words of someone else. So listening to music while engaging with a mental path may be ineffective. However, if you’re on a body path, like in the gym, music with lyrics can be a great enhancement because you do not have two stimuli competing on the same path at the same time.
This doesn’t mean you can only pursue the mental paths while in complete silence, nor is that always available, as it depends on the environment and access to tools, like great noise-cancelling headphones.
When you’re on the mental path, consider listening to audio without frequent changes or lyrics. Mixes, loops, or ambient noise can allow you to have an audio experience that does not fight for dominance while pursuing a mental path.
If you’re listening to songs while pursuing the mental path, you may pay attention to the song more than your work. Remember, music is entertainment. It’s engineered to grab your attention; to be focused on.
If a song comes on that you don’t like, you’re distracted. If a song comes on that you like, you’re now emotionally charged. Whenever a song changes, your brain pays attention to the pattern break.
It’s difficult to think louder than a song.
Music is meant for entertainment and emotional priming via filling the mind. So if you’re on a body path like the gym, a martial art, a home-repair, music will not be in contention with the path.
For mental pursuits, you want audio that does not frequently change or interupt itself with silence or ads. You want to listen to audio that has the least amount of pattern breaks possible.
Classic music has worked for hundreds of years; Although The Beethoven Effect doesn’t explicitly show an increase in focus, you won’t be distracted with words.
Video Game background music is an excellent form of audio to focus on. By it’s design it is meant to enhance your experience and is positioned to not be the focus of the game. Game background music tends to not have any words, and can be played for entire working sessions without a single pattern break.
Below are recommendations of video game background music that can enhance mental work. Let us know of any you like and we may add them to the list.
22 Video Game Ambiance Background Mixes to Help You Focus LONGER
1. Zora’s Domain – The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
2. Gerudo Valley – The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
3. Astral Observatory – The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask
This is one of my favorite mixes. Peaceful. Hopeful. Safe.
4. Clock Town Day 1 –The Legend of Zelda Majora’s Mask
5. Windfall Island – The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker
6. Hyrule Field –The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
7. Lon Lon Ranch –The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
8. Jolly Roger Bay – Super Mario 64
Classic.
9. Inside Peach’s Castle – Mario 64
10. Kokiri Forest – The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
11. Costa Del Sol – Final Fantasy 7
12. Bombchu Bowling – The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
13. Animal Crossing – Relaxing Nighttime Music
More of a wind-down track.
14. Animal Crossing – Relaxing Rainy Day Music
15. Animal Crossing 8-dimensional Music
8D music–when wearing headphones–moves the sound in a circular motion. It’s unique and worth experiencing.
16. Mass Effect – Citadel
Mass Effect is a Science Fiction game with excellent ambient noise that takes you to a future world. Some of these videos are animated, which looks great on TV for background noise.
17. Mass Effect – Noveria
18. Mass Effect – Huerta Memorial Hospital
19. Mass Effect – Dr. Bryson’s Lab
20. Persona 5 – Beneath the Mask
21. Gaming High – Lofi Mix
22. Nintendo & Chill
Ads can be an a distraction, and you can opt-out of them by purchasing YouTube premium. However, instead of giving your money to a wealth-extraction machine like a mega-corporation, consider seeing if you can buy an ambient track from the creator, or listen to a track on Spotify on repeat without ads.
There are sites that convert YouTube videos into mp3 or mp4 files. After that, you can listen to sound files, or add them to a streaming service like Spotify or Apple Music. We are not telling you to do this, we are stating this method also exists.
Try listening to some of these sounds while you work. If they help you work longer, keep it up. If not, ignore this completely.
Stay on the path and continue finding new strategies to walk faster and farther.