A few years ago, I found the music genre Math rock (especially instrumentals) which has been phenomenal for whenever I have to be productive, since my brain is hyped and busy enough to not bother me with thoughts, but not too busy to be completely distracted. I swear it's like handing my toddler brain a tablet just to have a few minutes of uninterrupted time to be able to do some Adult Things like writing emails and uni stuff.

if someone is interested, I can drop the link to my Math rock playlist on Spotify

Edit: Here you go, a link for my little playlist with mainly Math rock tracks (aptly called "Traubenzucker", which is German for "dextrose" lol): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/30EWXxsm8mj2exYlne10Dw?si=D6kBAFemQe2BKiL9WWCPJQ&pt=f6f1836c5d7b6182ea91098653b5b127&pi=iC_J-yz6RrOie

I think this link only works for a week, so if the link is invalid, just send me a message and I'll send you a new one :)

I play metal covers of classical music, and orchestral covers of Rock songs.

Essentially, songs I recognize, but no lyrics to tie up my language processor.

So many types of electronic music. Trance. EDM. House. A DJ.

Sub focus and Infected mushroom off the top of my head for a couple of good ones that help me pound out the computer work 😁

If you’re a gamer then I’d strongly recommend you get a playlist of bangers from your favourite games. They tend to be high energy, low on distracting lyrics, and if you’ve played the game any amount then they’ve might have gotten associated with a “locked in” brain state so you feel like whatever task you’re achieving is analogous to gaming.

My playlist has tracks from Streets of Rage 2, Golden Sun, Pokémon, Smash Bros and Super Hexagon amongst others.

Anything with a fast beat and no lyrics.

I have a Spotify playlist I found called "drum'n'bass no lyrics" that fits the bill.

Also use any of the bonkers releases (favourite is bonkers 14) but they have lyrics.. I've found that once I've listened to them a few times though I don't notice the lyrics anymore...

Vaporwave

Stuff like Tycho, edamame, emancipator.

The first broken social scene album

SomaFM's left Coast 70s works also

I like instrumental electronic songs, stuff with soft emphasis on melody, but a definite beat to rely on and some good atmosphere and mood. Found a good few songs like that out of the demoscene, actually!

https://youtu.be/nXZrPmUrKBo

LukHash - especially the stuff without vocals sadly it seems I like the older stuff more, so my collection isn't growing.
Thank you for this thread to get some more suggestions!

It's been a few years I've only listened to music without any vocals in it. My favorite is tuning to SomaFM's ambient-music stations like Synphaera, Deep Space One, Space Station and, if you are really into the slowest kind of ambient music, Drone Zone. Soma has many instrumental stations with specific genres like Fluid for instrumental trap.

White and Pink noise where shown to increase concentration in ADHD people

Of course, I have this tab in Mull lying around for 3 weeks and in one week it will be auto-deleted!

Gotta get some white noise!

Usually soft guitar instrumentals:

Playlists:

• Andy McKee
• Antoine Dufour

Baroque classical

Risk of Rain 2 OST

The French radio station Fip is really good background music. I can pretty much have that on constantly, and even the occasional announcements don’t really break my concentration, as I don’t speak French.

I have a channel on cytube for that exact purpose, feel free to hop on if that's your jam ! It doesn't require you to sign in or anything

https://cytu.be/r/incredible-live-music

Enya can be helpful for me. Otherwise soothing classical music, the fast and loud works can be a little too distracting. It also helps me to listen to the same thing when doing a task to train my brain to focus when listening to it.

Nightcore'd stuff, when I need to get amped up to do something not interesting, stuff like apocalyptica for relaxing/wind down

Halo soundtracks

Try "The Innovators" album.

Boards of Canada

Danheim got me through homework for most of college, got me in focus mode

can't listen to music when working makes me focus on the music and not the work and i get nothing done silence please

What can really work well is an ambient background noise, such as the TNG engine ambient noise or whatever you are into (SWTOR station ambient, ...), wind, ocean.

The trick then is to put it on exactly when the focussed studying starts, and to turn it off abruptly when you (have to) interrupt, e. g. for phone, door, water.

That prevents you from the half-assed "I'm technically working right now" when you are really not.

Depends on the task but yes.

Pandora has a station called "music for studying" that I find pretty helpful. It's a combo of instrumental electronic and classical and it's just upbeat enough to keep me focused without being distracting.

I have a public playlist on YouTube: The adventures of Bango Skank. It's really eclectic with something for everyone. Just hit shuffle and enjoy!