Comment by dboreham
2 years ago
The article doesn't mention this (nor have any of the 500 videos I've watched on YouTube on this subject), but you might find that listening to instrumental music has a significant beneficial effect. Music with lyrics doesn't work for me because I start to follow them. Music from someone long dead can be better because less inclination to pull up their Wikipedia page. Music seems to wedge a wrench in the brain mechanism that initiates distraction. It keeps the default mode network busy enough to retain focus on the main thing. Also pick long pieces of music, or auto-playing AI-based playlists, otherwise you go down a rabbit hole of selecting the next piece of music.
I’m the opposite of this - I can only listen to music with lyrics as it gives me something to “listen to” even though I barely hear a word of them let alone remember or be able to sing along. (Faster music like rap or metal is great)
Brown noise is probably the only sound I can tolerate for a long periods of time without lyrics, even better than this is ANC headphones with nothing playing.
I use instrumental music or one song with a good rhythm on repeat. Since the song is on repeat, it doesn’t matter that there are lyrics - it all becomes part of the background rhythm.