Question: Does listening to music help you work faster?

Anna Bramwell-Dicks answered on 24 Jun 2014:

Oh, this is an exciting question for me because it’s actually the topic of my PhD and so is something I think about A LOT 🙂 🙂

The short answer, I’m afraid, is that it is quite complicated and we don’t quite know.

The longer explanation for why we don’t know is that music is a REALLY varied “thing”. I mean, there is classical music played by an orchestra, there is pop music that is sung by One Direction and played on various electronic instruments and synthesisers, there is music from Africa played on drums… so, the first problem is how do you define music in this question? What is music? And, do you think that the effect of all these different types of music will be the same?

I’m afraid it then gets even more complicated if we think about the relationship between people and the music that they hear. What I mean by this, is that I may love a song that you may hate. Now, this may make me work faster than you because I am listening to a song that I love, which makes me feel more energised and awake. But, also… it might actually make me work slower because perhaps I am more distracted by listening to the song than focusing on my work.

Personally, I find it very hard to work if I am listening to a song that contains vocals and I know the song well. This is because I like to sing. And, what happens is, I end up singing along to the song in my head (or out loud) which distracts me and I work slower.

However, I know some other people who find it really hard to work when listening to music that they DON’T know well. This is because, they find they are actively listening to the music if they don’t know it, but when they do know it they can ignore it more easily. The impact on our cognitive ability seems really varied and is hard to pin down I’m afraid.

So, although we don’t know if music helps you work faster I suspect that actually, music helps you work for longer as long as it is something you enjoy listening to and does not distract you.

For me, that means that I am able to work better for longer if I am listening to music that I don’t really know well. For other people, that may mean that they have to listen to music that they do know well.

I haven’t proved this yet… but it will be the focus of the next part of my PhD. Hopefully in about a year I will have a more definitive answer and explanation for you!