For the past year, studying from home has become a norm, especially for the many students who usually attended class on campuses. Now, through the global pandemic, finding and maintaining a new study routine to stay on top of academic requirements has become more crucial than ever.
Fortunately, maintaining a productive daily schedule does not have to be difficult and you can use an everyday resource that is readily available to help you. Whether it is to relax and recharge, concentrate on your assignments, or study for exams, music can be used as a tool to successfully aid in completing a task. Over the years, research has shown that listening to music while completing daily tasks can help improve brain activity and the retention of information.
While exploring the benefits of music in completing tasks, it is key to note that music does not affect everyone the same way. So, instead of focusing on whether music is beneficial to you, rather focus on finding which music is beneficial to you.
“Music is the key to keeping your brain healthy and full of vitality. Listening to music provides a total brain workout and just like our muscles need to be stretched and strengthened, so do our brains,” says renowned sound therapist, DJ and producer: Vanessa Holliday.
“When you are completely immersed and engaged in an activity, feel energised by it and enjoy it, like listening to music while studying, this is what is referred to as being the Alpha state, also referred to as the Flow state,” says Vanessa.
Light background music such as the Spotify-curated Music for Concentration and Vanessa Holliday’s sound therapy track that features minimalism, electronica, and modern classical opera that can help with deep concentration.
For those that still want to listen to their regular playlists that feature house, electronic, trap, and hip-hop, there are variations of these genres that have been adapted for studying. Focus Flow and Gold Instrumental Beats offer uptempo instrumental hip-hop beats and beats inspired by the golden era of hip hop, respectively. The Beats to think to and Coffee Beats playlists offer a collection of deep techno & tech-house and electronic tracks to study.
In addition to improved brain function, music can also reduce stress and anxiety which are the two most common emotions amongst students during exam periods. Listening to soothing music helps decrease blood pressure and heart rate, helping the body move into the Theta frequency – a meditative, deeply relaxed, and inward focus state. This then leads to the Delta frequency, the brain state for sleep.
Good quality sleep is a powerful stress reducer and key to increased productivity. A playlist such as Spotify’s Brown Noise can offer soothing, low-frequency soundtracks for relaxation and sleep.
“For a healthy functioning mind, it is necessary to visit these various brain frequencies on a daily basis,” concludes Vanessa.
If you prefer to curate your own playlists to motivate you, do it for free on Spotify, and if you’re a Premium user, you can also download them to listen offline.