DEV Community

michTheBrandofficial
michTheBrandofficial

Posted on

Effects of listening 🎧 to music while coding

"Do you listen to music 🎵 while coding?"

I was asked this question recently by a friend of mine.

Well, I do it a lot, even though it is a bad habit.

🤚 Don't get me wrong.

Listening to music 🎶 is great. It can:

  • Improve your mood.
  • Help reduce depression.
  • And decrease anxiety.

But becomes a problem when you do it too often.

Especially when listening to high-BPM music while doing work that you are required to be deeply immersed in.

This leads to sensory overload, which is the overstimulation of one or more of the body's five senses.

When our brains 🧠 are constantly bombarded with sensory information or have to process too much complex information, we become overwhelmed and exhausted.

The solution to this?

I recommend listening to Lo-Fi music while working.

Lo-fi music is a genre that features mellow melodies and calming vibes, making it ideal for creating a relaxing atmosphere while studying and working.

This type of music is often instrumental, with minimal lyrics, which can reduce distractions and help you improve concentration.

Do like 👍 and 🏃 follow for more content.

Top comments (55)

Collapse
 
sarthology profile image
Sarthak Sharma

Definitely, if something that hasn’t Changed about how I code, it’s playing music before writing the first line of code.

And soundtracks are my personal favourite.

Long time ago, I even created a github repo for collections of soundtracks and a lot of people collaborated with their recommendations.

github.com/sarthology/ProjectSound...

Collapse
 
bbkr profile image
Paweł bbkr Pabian

I've tried Lo-Fi once and immediately disliked it. I cannot listen to music as background noise, my brain tries to process it too much. And with Lo-Fi this was even more occupying, as I unintentionaly tried to constantly denoise it. So my case is against your thesis :)

Collapse
 
noah_jackson513 profile image
Noah Jackson

I think it can work for some people. I really enjoy lofi music when I code. Anything that is repetitive, low bpm, and has no lyrics tends to help me focus better.

Collapse
 
michthebrandofficial profile image
michTheBrandofficial

Same as me. I always go for low BPM songs

Collapse
 
michthebrandofficial profile image
michTheBrandofficial

Well, not everybody would like exactly the same thing.

Then, what genre do you listen to?

Collapse
 
overflow profile image
overFlow

When I'm learning.NO!
When I'm working ....it might make me head bop too much!!!
But to psyche myself out before i get to work ....its cool!!

It also depends. I listen to lyrics automatically. So i will easily be distracted.

Collapse
 
pavelee profile image
Paweł Ciosek

Highly recommend Intense studying from Spotify. Helps to stay focus 🧘 during coding 👨‍💻

spotify.link/0kWmAo6dJDb

Collapse
 
michthebrandofficial profile image
michTheBrandofficial

Whoa. I will surely check it out

Collapse
 
thomasbnt profile image
Thomas Bnt ☕

Oh? Undefined link :(

Collapse
 
pavelee profile image
Paweł Ciosek
Collapse
 
jd2r profile image
DR

I'm a big lo-fi fan when it comes to doing things I need to concentrate on. I feel like other genres (with probably the exception of jazz) are things that you listen to when you're doing something less requiring of mental power, like exercise.

Collapse
 
michthebrandofficial profile image
michTheBrandofficial

Yeah. It's exactly when I do my workouts that I play high BPM music

Collapse
 
raibtoffoletto profile image
Raí B. Toffoletto

I can only listen to podcasts while coding.

I'm a trained classical musician first, so any kind of music will grab 90% of my attention... it's a problem also when I'm talking to people, it's super hard to concentrate on what are they saying....

So my advice is to find the right music for you. Music do influence you physically and mentally, like EDM is probably not a good idea for when you are debugging something hard...

Collapse
 
rasheedmozaffar profile image
Rasheed K Mozaffar

I think the choice of music depends on the task at hand, I agree with you on Lo-fi music as it's really helpful for solid concentration whereby heavy songs with lyrics can be sorta overwhelming, but for some tasks when the work is like crystal clear and you know exactly what you're doing without having to go back and forth in your mind trying to figure out a solution, then some heavy songs can make up a great ambience for such fun and enjoyable work sessions!

Collapse
 
abdallaamin profile image
abdallaamin

when i need to focus on a heavy coding session with too much logic implementation or on a tight deadline What works best for me is ASMR .as it may sound funny but it just put me in the mood to focus like no other. I listen to different stuff recently alot of rap and r&p on a chill coding sessions when working on ui only or on a side projects .

Also recently discovered a new fav genera which is an extension to lofi . So if u are a fan of the cyberpunk game vibes ( futuristic retro wave and synth lofi ) Give it a try you will enjoy it guaranteed

Cyberpunk lofi
spotify.link/8j5NCAAqQDb

Collapse
 
soulfiremage profile image
Richard Griffiths

I do not believe, in the slightest, that it's universally a bad habit actually. Sure, it may not work for many, but I find that I can stay deep in the zone with very complex sql queries whilst listening to things like Halo theme tunes or similar stuff. God of war was another.

Collapse
 
ingosteinke profile image
Ingo Steinke, web developer

What's Lo-fi? Something like white noise?

Collapse
 
michthebrandofficial profile image
michTheBrandofficial

“Lo-fi” is short for “low fidelity,” and initially referred to a low-quality recording with audible imperfections, such as background noise or performance mistakes, recorded with inexpensive equipment