It is a common misconception that music can only negativelyinterfere with people’ s functioning processes. Althoughmusic is commonly seen as distracting or useless in increasingwork productivity, music can actually help boost efficiency byproviding a stimulus or a temporary escape for the worker.

Repetitive tasks that require minimal creativity, such asreading e-mails, become very tedious and tiresome veryquickly for most people. With an increasing amount of workbeing done at computers, it has become important to findways of making mundane tasks such as these more interesting.

It has been found that playing background music whileperforming these unexciting jobs significantly and positivelyaffects workers’ productivity. The most widely agreed uponexplanation for this increased work output is improvementin mood as a result of the playing music. Music increasesthe production and release of dopamine, which is a rewardchemical in people’ s brains, resulting in an improved moodand attitude. Happy workers are more motivated to work andcomplete their job more quickly than stressed workers.

Music can act as both a catalyst and hindrance. Althoughit may be exceptionally useful for repetitive work,creative and more complicated work requires a moreintense focus that can be impeded by loud music. Amoderate noise level, or ambient noise, is the mostuseful for increasing creativity. This noise level causesa slight difficulty in processing information, whichresults in the use of more creative approaches to thetask at hand. Songs with distracting lyrics should beavoided when performing this type of work. Thewords and meanings presented in a song compete forour mind’ s attention with the need to do the actualwork. Music with especially high or low tones can alsobe destructive to creative and more intense focus. Asofter sound is most likely to give optimal results.

Although the effects of music on productivity while performingdifferent types of tasks is apparent, scientists arenow aiming to take a closer look at the science of this phenomenon,primarily by studying the chemicals involved inthe process of listening to music and working. By doing so,they may uncover information that can help workers be moresatisfied and industrious in the workplace, leading to a moreproductive economy and more positive attitudes.