The Unexpected Variable That Might Be Derailing Your Focus

You’ve made the decision to sit down with a task you’ve been putting off. You’ve set your phone to Do Not Disturb and grabbed your headphones to block out the noise of landscapers outside your window. You open Spotify and start singing along to your favorite playlist — it’s go time.

What if we told you there’s one huge factor in this scenario that could either deliver you to the promised land of a flow state or end up completely derailing your ability to complete the task?

When we started implementing deep work on a regular basis, we noticed that instrumental music seemed to help us reach a flow state more easily, while music with words made it feel a little more difficult. Trying to reply to emails with a podcast playing? Fuhgettaboutit. Cleaning your kitchen with a podcast? The best combo on earth.

The connection between our ability to focus and what we had in our headphones became glaringly obvious. And as productivity experts who help people reach their flow states, we knew there had to be some kind of system that could help us choose the most appropriate level of stimulation depending on the task at hand.

We started asking: When does it make more sense to listen to something more stimulating to act as a supportive distraction? When is it better to choose a gentler playlist? Is it ever productive to have Netflix playing in the background?

As it turns out, researchers have been wondering the same thing. A 2019 study investigated if music aids or detracts from focus, and how people perform on demanding tasks while using background music. Participants were given music that varied drastically in volume and complexity, and there was also a control group working in silence. Researchers found that the participants struggled to complete tasks in proportion to the complexity of the music. However, the inverse also applied — for a simpler task, complex music helped improve performance.

Another study published in 2017 proposed that most people must divide their attention between the background music and what they are trying to learn, ultimately impairing their ability to retain information when doing focused work.

Since we’re in the business of creating productivity tools for distracted people, we knew we needed to help others make better decisions about what they were playing in their headphones. When we created our resource Do Not Disturb: A Productivity Method to Find Flow & Get Sh*t Done (download it for free on our website!), this is what we came up with:

Check out the One Thing We’re Listening To segment in issue 047 of The Portal for some of our favorite Focused an Automatic playlists!

Despite the overwhelming evidence that chaos in your ears isn’t likely to help with concentration, there’s a lot of nuance here — personal preference is worth taking into account, but more importantly, individual sensitivities to external stimulation.

Your sensitivity to stimulation (aka how much input you can handle during a given circumstance) is a bit like a volume dial. If you’re enjoying singing along to your favorite playlist, but it’s making it harder to finish writing your email, consider turning down the volume or switching to something instrumental, and save your playlist for chore day.

Similarly, if you’re doing the dishes (borrrrrringgggg) and every fiber of your being wants to pick up TikTok to feel more entertained, try reaching for a podcast instead. The goal here is to choose stimulation that actually supports the task at hand.

We can already hear some of you protesting, “But I haaaave to have my comfort show on in the background to get anything done!”

Yes, it is technically possible to watch reruns of The Office while answering emails — but at what cost? Even if you don’t think your attention is being pulled by Michael Scott’s antics, there’s a portion of your focus that’s being taken away from the task at hand.

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t indulge in your favorite TV show, we’re just recommending to wait until you’re not doing a task that requires brain power. Instead of taking 2 hours to half-watch the show and half-type the emails, fully focus on your emails for 30 minutes, and then enjoy your show with your full attention.

When you make the conscious decision to protect your attention during your focused tasks, you’ll be shocked at how much more quickly you can get things done.

As we navigate the complexities of existence in 2023, understanding this connection between our stimulation level and our productivity is more critical than ever. A constant barrage of notifications, emails, social media notifications, work pings, texts, and phone calls has become the norm, and it's essential to recognize that we're not built to withstand this level of perpetual stimulation. This means we have to be proactive and intentional in deciding how much to allow in — otherwise, we’ll be subjected to all of it, all the time.

Take a moment to consider how you manage what your ears are taking in, because it might just be the key to increased productivity (and peace of mind!) that you’ve been searching for in all the wrong places.