I wrote an article last week that took me about an hour and a half to write from start to finish. The truth, however, is that I had the topic for that article in mind for a couple months, but all I did was write the title. I would write a few sentences and then end up deleting everything and starting all over. Day after day went by, with me repeating this process over and over again, until I realized that a couple months had passed and all I had written was the title.
Then, last week as I was staring at my computer, procrastinating writing an article, I came across this video where a lady claimed that she got a bunch of work done by listening to classical music — specifically “Experience” by Ludovico Einaudi (an Italian composer). After this claim, many people started doing their school work while listening to “Experience,” and soon they were all saying that listening to Einaudi’s music helped them beat procrastination and be motivated. My curiosity (and the fact that I was willing to try anything to finish that article) pushed me to try this out last week. I put “Experience” as my background music while I studied and sure enough, the article I took months to write was finished in less than 2 hours.
Growing up, I was always taught that listening to music is not an effective study method, so I grew up thinking that focusing on anything other than the material that is right in front of you is not good (which makes sense, I guess). This all changed after my experience with “Experience” (pun intended), which ignited my curiosity to see if there was any truth behind the whole study music craze.
What do studies show?
After reading many, many articles, I found that basically all of them say the same thing: using music for studying does not make you smart (there is no direct relation between music and your IQ). However, music does have an indirect effect on your smarts: it elevates your mood by triggering the release of dopamine (a neurotransmitter that makes you feel happy), which helps you study and retain information much better. This happy feeling will then help increase your endurance, allowing you to focus on something for a longer period of time.
Keep in mind that the type of music is a key factor! Listening to music with words or songs that put you in an agitated mood is not recommended, since such music will divert your focus from the material you should be focusing on and can have a negative impact on your mood. Listening to slow classical music on low volume (like “Experience” by Einaudi) is a much better choice, because the lack of lyrics will help you focus and elevate your mood!
It’s that “wonderful” time of the year (no, not Christmas) when final assignment deadlines and exams are quickly approaching, so much so that it can be hard to keep up with everything; this overwhelm can even lead to procrastinate to avoid all the stress. If this sounds like you and you’re trying to break the habit of procrastination, try listening to some music! There are many different types of study music that are available, so find one that suits you. Hopefully music will finally motivate you to finish (or start) preparing for assignments and exams you have coming up so that the so-called “wonderful time of the year” will truly be the most wonderful (and least stressful) time of the year!
P.S. can you guess what I have been listening to while writing this article? ;)