While music has certain benefits like making the person entertain while studying, it also damages the person’s stability and productivity over time.
First things first, the music waves consist of the composition of a set of sound waves. When we listen to music, we are making the composing part of our brain busy. Therefore, we will be composing with low productivity while listening to music.
Also, even if you are doing physical activity, you get used to the heartbeat. When you later use your mental abilities, you will feel the need for music which will eventually drop your productivity tremendously.
“I found that listening to music while I code, impedes my concentration. Over time, I realized that listening to music, only feels like it improved my concentration, when actually, it divided my attention.
Programming is the act of arranging procedural elements, in sequence, selection and iteration. Music, is the arrangement of tonal and rhythmic elements in sequence, selection and iteration. It is logical, therefore, that programming and music use similar parts of the brain, and that listening to music, consumes resources, that the programming part of your brain requires.”
Robert C. Martin
Constant Noise Level
To increase the focus on the work, the environment has to have a constant level of noise. It should not have constantly changing noises.
My solution for forming a constant level of noise is to use high-quality headphones with the ASoftMurmur like applications to create a constant sound that will clean all the dynamic background sounds.
The other solution is to use earplugs. It may be a good option in certain circumstances.
Towards the end
All in all, having a piece of music you like may give you a temporal boost of productivity while working but, over the long rung the dynamic nature of the music will degrade the level of knowledge acquisition as well as the effectiveness. Care should be given to overall effectiveness when listening to music.