Music While Working?

[GregFreeman]

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JW-L3CE wrote: 

Plus, I think doing and thinking one thing for long periods of time kills creative thinking (same reason I have my Eureka moments at home).

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Customers often ask me if it decreases my productivity "thread switching" between projects. I, in fact, think it increases it because when I get bored from working on the same thing repeatedly one day, I can find a good stopping point I can switch for a few hours then come back to it later. Decreasing my boredom increases my productivity more than switching between a few projects and having to take a bit of time to get back up to speed hinders my productivity. Now thread switching to write on the forums may be something entirely different....

[Henrik_Volkers]

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@JW-L3CE wrote:

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@Henrik Volkers wrote:

Why?  We have a public day next month and I want to demonstrate how to pick up one source over some meters distance via a scanning vibrometer 🙂

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That is incredibly cool. Just for my engineering curiosity, is it something like a phase array?

On topic: Music may be distracting, but I find it essential. For one, people near my cube are LOUD and random noise is more distracting. Plus, I think doing and thinking one thing for long periods of time kills creative thinking (same reason I have my Eureka moments at home).

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OT: No Phase array, it's more a demonstration of hoe to measure vibration at specific locations. SpyTec:  Using a IR insteat of a visible HeNe laser you can  listen to a vibrating surface (window, or a leaf near a speaker in a public park)  Main usecase is to do primary calibration on accelerometers with a heterodyne laser interferometer (resolving distance changes in sub atom diameter resolution! 🙂 ).

On Topic: Yes, when it is possible I hear musik while working, However rarely at my job, but in my home office, while working in the kitchen, in my work shop (good old tube radio) ... 

[crossrulz]

Back on topic:  I too have to wear my headphones in order to concentrate.  My listening tastes range from accoustic rock, some rap, rock, 80's hairband metal, punk, hard core, techno.  The range of genres in my iPod are pretty vast.  I usually just have it on random and I listen to whatever I get.

[JackDunaway]

Not gonna lie, I've been cheating on Radio Paradise lately. My new go-to is Songza, introduced to me by a colleague a couple months ago. It's like Pandora, but WAY better - the Songza Concierge suggests human-created playlists that are context-sensitve to the time of day and day of week. I have a tendency to lean toward their Indie and Electronica playlists. iPhone app rocks.

[P@Anand]

Whenever I do coding by default Headphones will be there in my ears whether the music is playing or not. I use to listen to music to avoid distraction. But while doing documentation work I find difficult to hear music. Normally I use to hear Tamil songs and also I have a collection of Pop albums that I use to listen occasionally (Since its a small collection I had to reapeat the same). Some time I use to listen comedy tracks for which I can't control my Laugh and I have laughed silently many times. 😄

[Henrik_Volkers]

While working as a R&D engineer together with 5 more in a small room, wearing headphones with or without music ( I bought myself a Sennheiser Active NoiseGuard 🙂  )  was the ultimate sign to everyone : DO NOT DISTURB ME NOW, I HAVE TO CONCENTRATE

Music was accepted for the headphone unless others couldn't hear it ( You know this DUMP DUMP  from the Kids ruining their ears) and you don't start to sing out loud ! 😉

Fav: Arne Domnerus,Antiphone Blues (Sax & Organ) , here the best for code review 😄

[tst]

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@Darin.K wrote:

Nothing wrong with a little Allman Brothers Band, not hard to guess which song in particular. 

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Are you sure about that? I would guess that the subset of TG/ABB-aware people is not that big.

For those wondering, the song is Jessica.

[aeastet]

I like to listen to music while I work. Funny I went to college as a music major and came out an engineer. I guess that I still love the music so I can work and listen at the same time. I actually find that if I am really tired I can really focus on programming. It seems counter intuitive but I think it is because I have to focus so hard that is all I think about.

[DianeS]

Sometimes yes, sometimes no.  Earbuds never stay in my ears and I find headphones uncomfortable after awhile.

As with so many of the folks who responded, I have a fairly wide-ranging music selection:  Mozart, Bach, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, B.B. King, Manhattan Transfer, Kingston Trio, Rush, REM, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Billy Joel, Elton John, Prince, Erasure, Eurythmics, Duran Duran, Enya, Dead Can Dance, Beatles...to name a few.

I sit on an exercise ball instead of a desk chair and tend to bounce along with the beat of the music, which undoubtedly looks ridiculous, but a) it's fun; and b) I work mostly from home, so who cares if I look ridiculous?  🙂

[GregFreeman]

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@DianeS wrote:

I sit on an exercise ball instead of a desk chair and tend to bounce along with the beat of the music, which undoubtedly looks ridiculous, but a) it's fun; and b) I work mostly from home, so who cares if I look ridiculous?  🙂

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This mental image of you bouncing around to "Purple Rain" amuses me. I should have added any fingerstyle guitar is greatttt. I even had someone come into my office the other day and ask what I was listening to! Andy McKee. You can find him on youtube, among other music listening sites. Great inspiration