What I'm listening to to stay focused.

daily magic

Jan 17

What I’m Listening To To Stay Focused

Hey, guys! It’s me, just checking in for a fun blog post while I’m at the beginning of my second week off work-but-not-really-as-I’m-trying-to-get-this-dream-side-hustle-off-the-ground.
One of the things I’ve really had to figure out was how to stay focused. I’m reeeeaally easily distracted, you see, by whatever tiny trigger that’s thrown at me. Be it a cat trying to claim all my attention, or a social media notification, or that one (rather non-urgent) chore which always leads to me basically cleaning or rearranging my entire apartment. One of the things that helps me, though, - apart from just turning off those notifications - is the right soundtrack. I do have a couple of staples when it comes to that, but I’ve also implemented some new discoveries last week that have really worked for me, so yay!
Discover my favourite focus listens as you read on.

film scores but make it peaceful.

I’ve had an extensive film scores playlist ever since I started my Spotify account, but the thing is: some of the soundtracks I love also include some really bombastic, loud, dramatic scores that tend to startle me when I’m, you know… in the zone. And by startle I DO mean the near-heart attack, fall off my chair, throw my Apple Pencil into the air in surprise kind of startle. It’s not pretty, I can tell you that. So. To avoid those kinds of situations, I decided to take the more soothing film music and drop it into a new playlist, also wanting to add other instrumental music I love whenever I come across it as a little extra something-something. And thus my focus. playlist was born!

all out fifties.

While I really love for soothing film scores to accompany me while I work, they do tend to suck out my energy after a while. Hours and hours of this makes me a little too zen, I think. That’s when I switch over to some fifties music, to let Elvis & friends shake me up (get it, get it?) a little bit. Why the fifties, you ask? I thought you were a seventies/eighties kind of person? Well, I am! But those playlists tend to pull me away from work and right into some living room dancing, while those classy fifties tunes don’t (except for Papa Loves Mambo. Damn you, Perry Como!).

BUT. Now that I mentioned that…

dance break for some real boosts!

You’ll have heard this one, but, hey: it’s not at all good to keep working for hours on end without taking some sort of break. Especially not when screens are involved, let alone when you tend to have reaaaaally bad posture while you draw on them (guilty). This is where my favourite playlist in the whole history of playlists comes in: living room dancing. Dancing is not mandatory, by the way. Rhythmically swinging that feathery cat toy, singing along while you stretch and/or anything else you do away from that desk: all good. The only thing I really need to learn now is timing those breaks, as they tend to take a bit longer than originally intended. Oops.

nature sounds.

Oh, don’t laugh. I’m a sucker for these when it comes to staying focused OR relaxed. Not all of them, though. Rain on the window? Yay. Soothing, elegant wee little bird twittering? Also yay. Downright thunderstorms, downpours and birds that sound like they could kill you in your sleep? There goes that Pencil again… Sadly, I’ve yet to find a playlist that doesn’t throw me off with one of those last ones. The good kind of nature sounds, however, are featured in the killer combo that’s up next:

movie music & ambience videos.

This last one is definitely my most favourite discovery when it comes to focus music, and quite a recent one at that. They were recommended to me by a friend, and I can’t believe I didn’t come across them (or thought to look them up) myself. There’s a couple of great channels, like Ambient Worlds and Mister Ambience, to follow if this sounds like your thing, but you can easily find a ton of other creators and/or videos if you just look them up by whatever’s your favourite movie. To give you an idea: Rainy Days at Hogwarts, and the Hook, Middle Earth and Jurassic Park videos are some of my favourites. And How To Train Your Dragon! Or the bagpipe and Highlands sounds of Braveheart! Oh, and those gentle Pride & Prejudice piano tunes… Yeah, I could go on and on.

I’ll leave you with some quick links to the playlists I mentioned while I, myself, unplug from this day’s screens and get ready to, well… Go witness a certain Shakespearean tragedy on a different kind of screen.

Because, hey; you should never forget to actually enjoy some well-deserved time off at the end of a productive day!