For as long as I can remember, music made my creative world go around. Catching those electronic beats while doing anything really helped me lose myself in the work and get the job done faster (and more pleasantly). That’s what it’s all about really, losing yourself in the moment and being at your personal best. So how does this relate to your industry?

I read an awesome article in Computer arts magazine that really hit home for me. Jason Arber reiterates the importance of music within a working environment to “shut out the outside world” and keep the creativity flowing until all hours of the morning. How right he is!! I don’t think I ever remember a time when I didn’t stick the headphones on my ears while on some sort of project. It’s been almost life saving when a deadline was looming behind my shoulder. Somehow the electronic base seemed to ease the stress of the deadline hitting home in an hour (and the client phone calls too!!).

Chris Boyd Brewer wrote the following material in a blog called, Music and Learning: Integrating Music in the Classroom: “In the 1960’s, Dr. Georgi Lozanov and Evelyna Gateva researched ways to increase memory abilities including the use of music in the classroom. Their successes caught the attention of the world. Teaching techniques developed from their creative experiments and today we have a solid format for effective multisensory and whole brain learning called Accelerated Learning. “

Chris also tells us that background music is used to stimulate internal processing, to facilitate creativity, and encourage personal reflection. Playing reflective music, such as solo piano in either classical or contemporary styles, as students are writing or journaling holds attention for longer periods of time than without the music. In one study, students wrote twice as much with music than without!

Although I love reflective music, there is nothing like some Ministry of Sound tunes to whisk up some creativity in amongst the pressures of deadlines. I know a lot of people can resonate with that.

For others music can be a release from reality, a way to shut out the world or even their heads gong into overdrive (or in other words, negative or pointless self talk). So it’s not only a driving force, but has a calming nature.

Sometimes you do need to tune out from the humbug of the office distractions. Removing these inoperative distractions can help you retain focus and offsetting the time you flick in between facebook or twitter for a peak (come on we’re all guilty of it!!).

So next time your in the office, put on your headphones! You never know what you might come up with when that deadline heads your way. Maybe for you it’s a way to relax, unwind and really settle after a long meeting or as a means of focusing when you have a lot of paperwork to sort through. Whatever it may be for you, indulge in it because it does make working life a lot easier and more pleasant to deal with. And wouldn’t we all like that on a daily basis?

See you at the iTunes store