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Darcy
Darcy

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The power of 'focus music' for programmers

👋

If you've developed a seriously high tolerance for caffeine like me, you may want to read on 🤔.

Quickly after working full-time as a developer, I began to realize that my morning cup of Joe wasn't working for me anymore. Soon, two, three and then four cups of Joe ☕ ☕ ☕ ☕ simply wasn't cutting it for me!

The coffee jitters had me all like:

too-much-coffee

I explored other ways to boost my morning productivity. l-Theanine combined with the coffee does help, but the rest that I tried were overpriced and way overhyped IMO (bulletproof coffee 🤥).

I recently discovered, what I can only describe as, 'focus music'. That is music which has been specifically created to improve focus and concentration. Heck, even Kipochge listens to Kelly Clarkson. I have always avoided music while working as it invariably becomes even more distracting than the original noise I'm trying to drown out. So, when I signed up for a trial with Brain.fm, I wasn't expecting too much (although, I did expect it to be at least better than Kelly Clarkson). However, I was pleasantly surprised by how effective their music was! I was able to quickly and consistently develop a flow state. There is a bunch of research about why their music is so effective (something to do with pitch and lack of instrumental complexity of the music). All I know is that I have replaced my jitter-inducing coffees with a cup of green tea 🍵 and focus music 🎵.

He's deep in that flow:

I have since found the Brain.fm desktop app a little buggy and prefer to work my phone switched off. Therefore, I have replaced it with simply using YouTube which is awash with free focus music soundtracks.

Have you tried 'focus music', and what are your productivity boosters?

Top comments (4)

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malwarebo profile image
Irfan

Looks like we both are on same page. I have also cut off the coffee intake, I no more start my day at work with coffee. I start with a glass of water, then I goto youtube, search programming music, put on headphones and there I go. It always works for me.
Thanks for sharing man!

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jamesdengel profile image
James dengel

I prefer listening to Game OSTs, like final fantasy, it gives me a buzz because I remember how I felt when I played the game, there are no lyrics which means I don't sing along.

Overall it's a great boost as I want to listen and I don't get board.

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katnel20 profile image
Katie Nelson

I’ll stick with Kelly 😄

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darcydev profile image
Darcy

Fair! I'm simply too likely to start singing along with Kelly.... 😄