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Ben Halpern
Ben Halpern

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The Best Deep Work Soundtrack

Without a doubt, when I need to get a lot of deep work done, usually writing and shipping code, my favorite playlist is the sound track from the movie The Social Network.

πŸ‘‰ See it on Spotify

πŸ‘‰ About it on WikiPedia

This soundtrack was just so perfectly designed to tell a tale of getting things done. I don't have the musical vocabulary to do it a lot of justice, but it is just such a mood setter.

If you're looking for a productivity soundtrack, I urge you to check it out.

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Top comments (20)

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jamiekaren profile image
Jamie Ferrugiaro • Edited

Personally, I love movie soundtracks that make me feel like I'm about to save the galaxy (or similar epic event happening) when working. Nothing makes me feel more productive or motivated than that ;). I've recently been obsessed with the show The Expanse, so that's definitely been in the rotation lately.

On the other hand, I can go through various phases from modern violin to instrumentals with more beats to them. It really fluctuates with my current mood.

I also put an extreme value in being able to listen to music (especially with headphones) when needing to concentrate. As someone with ADD, that's really important. Having the ability to block out distractions (talking, background noise, etc) is huge for keeping focus for me.

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laurieontech profile image
Laurie

Yup, the Interstellar score is perfection for working!

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malgamves profile image
Daniel Madalitso Phiri

You would definitely try out where's the drop by Deadmau5 it always does it for me. Very stimulating!

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fernandomaia profile image
Fernando Maia

Totally agree with you! I'd like to add that games OSTs also helps me a lot with focusing or concentrating. I do believe that this is because, just like movies soundtracks, these songs were made for you keep your focus on what's happening on the screen, and the music just follows it.

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danazar96 profile image
Aidan Walters-Williams

Huge fan of listening to ambient composers while working (Nils Frahm, Olafur Arnalds, Max Richter to name a few).

This playlist on Spotify is one of my favourite things to listen to also:
open.spotify.com/user/spotify/play...

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rademaker13 profile image
Robin • Edited

This is more my cup of tea :) , maybe you like my playlist, it is in this style

Easy Coding

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andreirusu_ profile image
Andrei Rusu

Nils Frahm performance at the BBC Proms in 2015 was amazing: youtube.com/watch?v=e1mHyj3lubQ

I love Max Richter's Sleep album.

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michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

I got a couple of recommendations, I'd like to toss in here...

For the past few weeks, I've been really digging this station for relaxed sample-heavy hip hop sorta beats:

Haven't listened to this in a hot minute, but it's worth checking out these goofy beats that were generated from data collected in the US open tennis match (in 2014 I think) and curated into music by James Murphy. To be honest, not sure how much human intervention went into it.

&

... and yep, I rely on YouTube way too much for music. πŸ˜…

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tonydiaz profile image
Tony Diaz

What better to hack away than listening to the Hackers soundtrack

Spotify link

Youtube

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flrnd profile image
Florian Rand

Oh man... I had forgotten how bad was that movie.

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jackharner profile image
Jack Harner πŸš€

For me, the best focus music is stuff with a beat to tap along to and minimal vocals.

I'm a big fan of the Lush LoFi playlist on Spotify.

The Future Beats Show is also great. A fairly eclectic collection of "Just Good Music".

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cseeman profile image
christine

I haven't checked out that soundtrack before, but I'm looking it up now. Thanks for recommendations, I really can't do lyrics while I am trying to concentrate so I'm always on the lookout for new music to try. I also wrote an article about this a while back

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juanfrank77 profile image
Juan F Gonzalez

Funny cuz I found that soundtrack earlier and I thought it would be awesome to get 'in the zone' and be all focused. And I listened to it for like 15 mins and then was like "this is just now working". The soundtrack ended up distracting me more than anything.

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monderred profile image
Israel Rosas

Well here is my grain of sand friends, it's a playlist i made for myself but i really enjoy working with it, it includes some songs from Trent Reznor, hope some of you can enjoy it.

open.spotify.com/playlist/3XE7yMCA...

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jovanhernandex profile image
Jovan Hernandez

All of Trent's soundtracks are great for when I need to push code. I especially love Gone Girl.

I also recommend Mr. Robot's soundtracks.

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michiels profile image
Michiel Sikkes

Oh yes this is so true. This has been my #1 for years!

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undeveloper profile image
unDeveloper

My grain of sand:
youtu.be/7JqKRqOmzi0

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pgrekovich profile image
Pasha Grekovich
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jovanhernandex profile image
Jovan Hernandez

this is another good one.