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💡 The Big Idea: Selecting Soundtracks to Boost Your Focus

We all know that music influences our mood. But it can also have a pretty big impact on our productivity.

In this newsletter, I’m going to explain why and show you how to pick music to help you focus.

Why Focus Music Works

Focus music has a couple of big productivity benefits:

1. It helps you maintain a singular focus longer
2. When used consistently, it gives you a general boost to cognition and mood.

There are lots of places you can leverage these. For example, music can help you focus when you have a big project that is going down to the wire, and you need to focus intently on the task at hand. Or it can simply provide a soundtrack for when you’re navigating your notes and trying to make sense of the connections.

Personally, I play focus music almost every time I sit down to write. I find it helps me stay committed to the difficult task of writing instead of procrastinating by jumping to something else.

But the reason why is a bit surprising.

For a long time, I’ve believed that focus music helped simply by eliminating distractions and making the task a bit more fun. But it turns out that music actually activates the reward centers in your brain and actually releases a bit of dopamine (the pleasure chemical). That dopamine improves your mood, reduces stress, and decreases anxiety typically associated with difficult tasks.

The result? You don’t dread the task as much, and it’s easier to get started.

What to Look For in Focus Music

Not all focus music is created equal. If you’re looking for productivity-boosting tunes, look for music that meets the following criteria:

• No words. Songs with lyrics tend to be distracting, so avoid them if possible.
• Steady tempo. You want something that is going to keep you motivated without feeling too driven. I recommend something in the 70-100 bpm range.
• Something thematic. Think of the music you choose to listen to as a soundtrack for your work. Picking epic cinematic music can help you stay motivated.

Movie soundtracks tend to make great focus music as they usually invoke the emotions of the film and are typically non-interruptive. Video game soundtracks function pretty much the same way and are another solid option. Classical music can work well, too, but it tends to be a bit more up-and-down, which could be distracting.

Here are some of my personal focus music favorites:

• The Olympians (Self-Titled) (Apple Music | Spotify) - An instrumental retro-soul band with a good flow. This is my current favorite and my go-to album when I really need to write.
• Imagine Gold by Frameworks (Apple Music | Spotify) - A great synth-driven electronic downtempo album. A handful of lyrics here, but I love the feel of this one. Another go-to album when I need to write.
• Long Play by Utah (Apple Music | Spotify)- The full-length album from the stellar electronic duo. I love almost anything put out by Utah, and will frequently shuffle songs by this artist for longer creative sessions.
• Dreamer on the Run by U137 (Apple Music | Spotify)- This one is kinda weird. The album is named after a Soviet submarine that ran aground on Swedish shores but the music is pretty positive and airy. Another staple album in my writing rotation for years.
• Night Drive (Instrumental Edition) by Timecop1983 (Apple Music | Spotify)- Full disclosure: I’ve never listened to the real version of this. But the instrumental version is another great synth-driven electronic album that I’ve listened to hundreds of times and never gets old.
• Awake by Tycho (Apple Music | Spotify)- I love Tycho. This is my favorite non-work album and is usually the thing I go to when hanging out with friends and we just want some background music.
• Monument Valley Soundtrack (Apple Music | Spotify)- One of the best video game soundtracks I’ve ever come across.
• Friday Night Lights Soundtrack (Apple Music | Spotify)- I never really cared for the movie, but the soundtrack has been a regular part of writing rotation for years.
• The Wilderness by Explosions in the Sky (Apple Music | Spotify)- The instrumental indie rock artist that did the majority of the Friday Night Lights soundtrack above has produced a ton of other music. I love pretty much everything they make.

There are also a couple of subscription services that provide original music engineered to promote focus. The two I’ve used personally are Focusatwill and brain.fm. Both provide unique sounds to help you achieve a particular state (focus, calm, etc.). I’ve had success with both, but after a while, I realized I just liked listening to my own music better.

What Are Your Go-To Focus Tunes?

I hope you found a couple of suggestions here that can help the next time you really need to focus. And if you already have some focus music that you love, please hit reply and share with me! I'm always looking for focus music suggestions 🙂

😎 Something Cool: Obsidian Tasks 7.12 Update

​Obsidian Tasks, one of my all-time favorite plugins, received an update that added support for displaying nested tasks! Just use the show tree instruction and you’ll be able to see your tasks and nested tasks that match your search criteria. Here’s an example from the documentation website:

While this isn’t direct support for sub-tasks (one of the biggest shortcomings of using tasks in Obsidian IMHO), it’s definitely a step in the right direction. For now, I’ll continue to use my checklists.

😎 Something Else Cool: Soundscapes plugins

The Soundscapes plugin is a really cool way to build focus music right into Obsidian by providing a player to the status bar. You can select from Lofi beats, nature sounds, ambiance, relaxing music, and many other different kinds of sounds to support your focus while you are writing or working with your notes in Obsidian.

I first highlighted this plugin several months ago, but it’s been a while, and it fits so perfectly with the theme of this newsletter that I feel it deserves another mention here. If you want to add some focus music to your Obsidian, check this out.

📚 Book Notes: Soundtracks by Jon Acuff

I’ve mentioned quite a few soundtracks in this email, so it’s only natural to share my notes from Soundtracks by Jon Acuff. This is an interesting book about changing the soundtracks and anthems that contribute to overthinking and lack of progress. As an overthinker myself, I found this book helpful in reframing things, and I love the idea of choosing my own soundtrack for the life I want to live.

If you want to download my mind map notes from this book, click here.

— Mike