Does Music Help You Focus? (2022)

Of course it does distract you. It's the melody, possible with lyrics, it's that special thing that lets you like a song, or dislike. And that's the point behind it:

If one does not like a song, then ff or select/scroll through playlist until something found that reflects the current mood.

And that's what is I call the root cause of the problem. Either you concentrate on lyrics, sing along or having that melody rotating in your head.. this is all distracting.

I was a teacher in my earlier career. Each student doing that kind of learning was doing bad later on. And they were convinced that this is helping.

The problem is: out brain memorize by "room". So, for example you learn one thing in a room, then go to another room - your brain automatically switches context. You can have an experiment for that:

For sure, you already experienced the situation where you wanted to do something, then go to the room where you wanted to do it (f.e. kitchen). Arrived there, you suddenly forgot what you wanted to do. The easiest way to remember, you go back to the place where you started.

The same is for learning. Of you hear music, you build up context "room". When you need to recall it, you may have forgotten it. So you need to go back to the "room" to remember, meaning you need to listen to that music, which you hear during learning.

One also can use perfume/smells for different things.

So, when you need to concentrate or to learn, you really need the room to be calm, non distracting.

I never use music for anything that needs memorization or concentration. The few times I used it, I noticed exactly this:

It's difficult to concentrate because I was in search for music that I like constantly. Switching the playlists, selecting songs I like, etc.. so that's my direct experience and observations of others.

Don't use music. Use perfume, smells and tastes for this.