Listening to music provides a rhythm to work to – a soundtrack for your productivity. When you’re at home, having a soundtrack helps avoid being distracted by the soundscape of your home environment and instead provide you with some control to use to your advantage.
Curate rather than consume
While it’s really easy to simply put on Pandora or one of the many Spotify stations available – it’s far more enriching and exciting to build your own playlist of songs. Playlists provide an opportunity to pull together the songs of your choice to suit a mood, a specific task, or even just concentrating.
One of my favorite playlists brings together all my favorite pop songs with positive lyrics and powerful chord progressions. This playlist is pulled out when I’m preparing to train clients and need inspiration for keeping my training upbeat.
Another I go to often is a playlist of instrumental fusion jazz + metal tunes (yes, it’s a thing) to listen to while I’m working through a tedious set of afternoon tasks. The tempos, down-tuned guitars, and absence of lyrics help me to focus on what I’m doing and keep at it.
Digging through the archive
Albums – particularly those on Records, Cassette Tapes, and CD’s – offer another curated experience that you can’t get from your own playlist: A set of tracks that was selected by the artist to be played in a specific order. I’m guessing you might have a stash of your favorites hidden away. It can be fun to pop an old album on the turntable or in that dusty tape player over lunch and take a trip down audio memory lane.
As your days working from home start to take shape, consider creating two or three playlists to help you get through different parts of your day. Don’t forget to add new songs into your mixes and take out the ones that you can’t stand anymore. As time goes on, you might just find yourself with a set of really killer playlists worth sharing.
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