Listening to music at work increases accuracy and speed

Fretwired · October 2014

Interesting ...

Here's what you should listen to at work.

Classical music: if your work involves numbers or attention to detail

Workers were better at solving mathematical problems when listening to classical music, which improved accuracy by 12pc compared to listening to no music at all. Classical music was also the second best genre for general accuracy and spell-checking, the study found.

Pop music: if your work involves data entry or working to deadlines

Participants listening to pop music completed data entry tasks 58pc faster than when listening to no music at all. Pop was also found to be the best music genre for spell-checking quickly, and, alongside dance music, produced the fastest overall performance for getting work done. It cut mistakes by 14pc, compared to not listening to music.

Ambient music: if your work involves solving equations

Famously described by the musician Brian Eno as needing to be “as ignorable as it is interesting”, ambient music led to the highest level of accuracy for respondents completing tasks involving equations.

Dance music: if your work involves proof-reading and problem solving

This genre resulted in the highest overall accuracy and fastest performance across a range of work tasks. Participants listening to dance music produced more accurate results in spell-checking, solving equations and tackling tricky mathematical word problems, increased proof-reading speed by 20pc and and were able to complete abstract reasoning tasks more quickly.

VimFuego · October 2014

interestingly though, if you listen to work while trying to make music, your output declines. Proof, should proof be needed, that making music is better than work.

Fretwired · October 2014

VimFuego said:

interestingly though, if you listen to work while trying to make music, your output declines. Proof, should proof be needed, that making music is better than work.

That's probably where I go wrong ... or I listen to the wrong type of work ...

mike_l · October 2014

What about thrash metal? What work ges done better with that?

Prog, where does prog fall into this list?

Classic rock.

The list is pitiful

breakstuff · October 2014

This morning at work I've been listening to Slash,Alter Bridge and The Sex Pistols since six o'clock this morning.

The morning has flown by,however it does make me drive my fork truck a little faster than I should.

underdog · October 2014

We always have Team Rock on the radio at work, apart from a Saturday where we allow our cute pop loving receptionist to pick a station, Saturday's drag

mike_l · October 2014

When Phil (on of our master techs is in) the workshop listening is The Who, Pink Floyd, Etc, a lot of 70's-80's rock.

When it's Ady's radio it's radio2 (or Punjab FM when we retune his radio presets to that - do I look innocent?)

On a Saturday I'll have my Ipod on, could be anything thats on there (Floyd, Maiden, Queensryche etc) being played.

In the showroom it's some happy-clappy pop shite.

I don't go into the showroom much if I can help it.

VimFuego · October 2014

mike_l said:

I don't go into the showroom much if I can help it.

the ban still in place then? And did they ever get the drool off of the cars?

Panama_Jack666 · October 2014

I do loads of proof reading and problem solving but I really dislike dance music.

I tend to sit at my desk listening to The Allman Brothers and not actually doing any work most of the time.

stickyfiddle · October 2014

Yesterday I was working on a powerpoint proposal for 6 hours. Green Day's American Idiot pretty much non-stop made it easy

If I'm coding I prefer something a little calmer, but that'll be anywhere between Sigur Ros and The Who

Phil_aka_Pip · October 2014

I once had a job in a kitchen furniture place where they had Vibe FM playing what sounded like the same shit single all day. It was "music" that made you want to kill people. I could turn up for work in a happy state of mind and within 20 minutes be reduced to a growling psychopath. Mind you, given the type of work and the customers, without the "music", the process would have taken only another 20 minutes.

One day the radio broke and they asked me to fix it. So once I'd got it working I tuned it to Radio 3. It took the workshop wallahs less than a morning to go up a step ladder to re-tune it to Vibe FM.

mike_l · October 2014

VimFuego said:

mike_l said:

I don't go into the showroom much if I can help it.

the ban still in place then? And did they ever get the drool off of the cars?

The ban's lifted, and the drool was on the receptionist. The stuff on the cars wasn't drool. It was kerosene.

Bucket · October 2014

Whenever I'm trying to do college work at home (or when I was revising for A levels) I found it very difficult to work with music on, no matter what it was, because the music just distracted me from whatever I was doing.

I sometimes wish we had music playing in the shop where I work, although I suspect it'd get very tiring very quickly, because it'd be the same shit on repeat. Unless I commandeered the sound system and put on "Spilt Milk" by Jellyfish, which would be great.

mike_l · October 2014

@Bucket be careful what you wish for, having music at work isn't always good.

When I worked at a different dealership, there was a system which allowed CD's to be played. However when this was done, almost invariably it'd be one of Karl's rap CD's which had about as much musicality as a turd. PLenty of swearing and aggression towards everyone who wasn't a rapper/black/male/aguntotingmurderer though.

He really hated it when someone (who may or may not be me) put on one of the Top Gear albums full of classic rock. He really hated it when someone (me) put on Obituary.....

Phil_aka_Pip · October 2014

At ImageCom, we were encouraged to bring in CDs for the music-on-hold feature of the switchboard. The edict was withdrawn after a Director called in after hours one evening to talk to someone he knew would be around in the building somewhere, and while he was waiting for this chap to get to a phone, he heard The Prodigy's Smack My Bitch Up. I think his words were "I don't know what that stuff is but GET IT OFF NOW!". IIRC the CD belonged to my mate Simon.

EricTheWeary · October 2014

I always feel sorry for whoever is working a supermarket till next to the Thomas the Tank Engine ride on thing. Same 30 second tune over and over. Anyway, got to do some work now. Let's see what an afternoon of two tone and Peter Tosh does.

Bucket · October 2014

mike_l said:

@Bucket be careful what you wish for, having music at work isn't always good.

When I worked at a different dealership, there was a system which allowed CD's to be played. However when this was done, almost invariably it'd be one of Karl's rap CD's which had about as much musicality as a turd. PLenty of swearing and aggression towards everyone who wasn't a rapper/black/male/aguntotingmurderer though.

He really hated it when someone (who may or may not be me) put on one of the Top Gear albums full of classic rock. He really hated it when someone (me) put on Obituary.....

I'd make sure it's a CD multichanger and that all the CDs were by Jellyfish, 10cc, the Wildhearts or the Beach Boys. Then I'd glue the fucker shut

I don't know that every customer would go for it (the old folks especially) but hey. It'd brighten my day up at least.

FX_Munkee · October 2014

Tend not to listen to music at work but there was a while when I used to get in early and I'd put on Aisha by Death in Vegas, really, really loud.
Seemed to set me up for the day

Roland · October 2014

Bucket said:

Whenever I'm trying to do college work at home (or when I was revising for A levels) I found it very difficult to work with music on, no matter what it was, because the music just distracted me from whatever I was doing.

I could never study with music playing. This morning I've happily listened to 6 Music whilst fixing something in the workshop, but then I had the luxury of pausing whenever there was something I wanted to hear clearly. The worst time was when I visited a US client, and they had background music playing in the office. I was trying to concentrate on what they were saying, and more importantly what they weren't saying (those of you who interview people will know what I mean). Meanwhile my mind was going, "this is the third chorus, get ready for the solo, is your foot ready for the patch change, are you on the right pickup ..."

chillidoggy · October 2014

I can happily listen to Planet Rock all day whilst tinkering around in the garage with the car, or some other DIY job, but when I'm in the office, I have to turn the radio off as I find it distracts me too much. I'm weird.

VimFuego · October 2014

all my bosses have insisted I listen to music at work, apparently I did a lot less damage when I was distracted.

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Listening to music at work increases accuracy and speed

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