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Ask HN: What do you listen to focus when you're working

11 pointsshovel13 comments

What do you listen to when you're working that keeps you super-focused?

For me, I have a few different goto sources - white noise tracks (noisli), video game soundtracks, and movie scores (esp Hans Zimmer) that I listen to on repeat. Sometimes I listen to a single deep house track over and over, and I can't stop writing.

I'd love your perspective.

I'm researching for an article I'm writing on flow state and productivity.

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Been on this search lately. I found Thievery Corporation, Sounds From The Ground, Nightmares on Wax and Tycho fits the bill nicely.

Brian Eno's Music for Airports to get me into the mood for code. If this doesn't then http://rainymood.com. :)

For physical prep, loosening my body helps a lot before a long session and in between sessions.

I wrote a couple line bash script wrapper around a brown noise generator using sox + coreaudio. It works well for me, especially with overhear headphones.

https://github.com/tedmiston/zero-noise

Before that I used SimplyNoise (https://simplynoise.com) which is good, but still uses Flash and so is resource hungry if you're running on battery.

I also work from my home office as much as possible which has a very consistent AC fan that blocks most outside noise.

Wow, that is awesome! Using it now. Thanks a lot.

For me, as was already mentioned, silence is the best one. This is why i prefer home-office. All other "solutions" induce headache to me.

In noisy environment can be helpful brown noise. I also tried focus@will (sample is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OGJRx76zLY). From my experience 45-60 minutes is maximum.

If I need high focus and think about solution music is just another source of distraction for me. As background for tedious tasks it depends on my mood.

I've found that music distracts me. When I need to be super-focused, I can't have any music on in the background.

I can listen to some songs when I need focus, but not super-focus. For those, I tend to listen to the same thing on repeat for several days or a week in a row, similar to you.

Some examples are: Koyaanisqatsi, Ian Anderson's "The Secret Language Of Birds" album, and Tool's Ænima.

For this purpose, I too listen to music mostly without vocals, or if vocals are present, they are the simplistic, melodic sort found in the likes of vocal trance.

Genres like trance help me focus because of a typical track's long duration, repetitive structure, and grandiose buildups.

When I need a little bit more stimulation, I switch to a less regular, more punchy EDM genres like electro house, or something with dubstep-inspired drops.

For me, absolute silence is always my most productive environment. You might find throwing in some earplugs or noise cancelling earbuds (Bose makes some great ones) to be a productivity boost.

Edit: More to the actual question, my favorite album to work to is "Immunity" by Jon Hopkins.

Depends on the nature of the work. In my data entry job, high BPM genres like schranz and hardstyle were a lifesaver - kept me working at a good pace and not falling asleep on the keyboard, but are very distracting for thoughtful work like programming. Got recommended some great ambient recently and it works best for that kind of work.

On another note, I've found I have much better focus and mental clarity when my physical desk is empty. I find piles of papers, mail to process etc, to be discomforting.

The only things on my desk every day are a minimal coffee mug and a wind-up timer for timeboxing.

White Noise.

I've found that it lulls me into being present in the moment. With any intake of caffeine, there is a tendency to start thinking about new projects, past mistakes, daydreaming, etc. White Noise has been a really good solution to that tendency for me.

I strongly prefer silence but when the office environment gets too noisy I just put on some familiar black metal classics from my teens that I know well enough to not get distracted by.

I mostly listen to music while I work if I need to drown out someone else's noise, otherwise it seems like silence is the most effective way for me to stay focused!

I had nice results with Tekken 3 soundtrack.

Tomba/Tombi sountrack is nice too.

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