Music: Your Productivity-Enhancing Friend

(Written by guest contributor Chris Harper)

Last week, when faced with a pretty tight deadline and a creative block the size of Rhode Island, I was in serious need of some inspiration. The normal tricks of getting out of my office or getting hopped up on caffeine and sugar were useless. So when it looked like all was lost, I popped open my iTunes library and started looking for the perfect song that would carry me to victory. As I scrolled through my myriad of songs and tried a few options to no avail, I finally settled on something from G. Love & Special Sauce. It’s not something that gets a lot of play in my collection, but it did the trick this time. Since I had trouble narrowing in on just the right song, I set out to learn what kinds of music my coworkers at InfoMedia use as their silver bullets against bloodsucking creative blocks.

Since I’m no scientist, I bypassed the hypothesis and theories and went with a pretty standard e-mail posing the question:

What kind of music gets you focused and productive?

I thought that most of the responses would mention something up-tempo and indeed, a common theme was the need for something upbeat. But in contrast, others claimed silence and classical music as their music of choice. To be sure, the answers that came back to me were as varied as the staff itself and very unpredictable. Here are a few:

“I find that I am most productive and creative when I listen to upbeat folk music. Recently I have been enjoying a local band called “Churchhill” from Denver while cranking out some awesome designs from my bat cave.” – Andrew K.

“I have to have anything upbeat playing… It doesn’t really matter what the genre, artist, etc. is because I’m not really listening.” – Corey E.

“If I need something to really get me in the mood I love listening to

trance techno, or electronica.” – Tim G.

“I tend to go to old favorites, that I am familiar with, that make me comfy and calm and able to focus!” – Sarah Jane G.

“I usually treat music as a distraction and don’t listen to anything while I work. If anything for work, I guess classical.” – Sarah B.

“Disney theme park soundtrack when I’m stressed because it reminds me of people doing harder things excellently.” – Fletcher G.

What about you? What kind of music gets your creative juices flowing?