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Honestly, I used to blast music all day until a fellow freelancer called me out on it
Tbh I thought loud music kept me pumped and focused during my quiet hours at home. But last month a buddy who also works remote heard my setup through a Zoom call and said 'dude, that beat is messing with your flow.' He explained that constant high energy tracks actually drain your focus over time because your brain never gets a break. Switched to low-fi or even silence for the first 2 hours of my morning shift and man, my output jumped by like 30% in a week. Now I save the upbeat stuff for after lunch when I need a pick me up. Anyone else get feedback that changed their whole work routine? What did they say?
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danielowens2mo ago
Ngl @fionanguyen the lyric thing makes sense but upbeat tracks keep my ADHD brain from wandering into useless tangents.
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the_elizabeth2mo ago
Totally feel you on this one. I had a similar wakeup call when my roommate pointed out that I was always humming along to my playlist during deep work, and he said "you're not even listening to it, it's just noise at this point." That hit hard because he was right - I was just using music as a crutch to fill the silence, not actually helping my brain. Now I do the same thing with a 45 minute quiet block first thing, and then I let myself put on some instrumental stuff around 10am when my energy dips. It's wild how a simple comment can totally flip your perspective on something you thought was working fine.
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fionanguyen2mo ago
Read this thing from a neuroscientist once who said our brains basically treat music with lyrics like someone talking to us. So when you're trying to work and there's a song with words your brain is subconsciously processing that alongside whatever you're reading or writing. I tried it for a week with no music or just ambient sounds and my focus was way sharper even if it felt weirdly quiet at first. Now I stick to coffee shop background noise playlists when I need to get stuff done. Feels less like I'm fighting my own brain for attention.
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