Silent but deadly

Why can’t people sit in silence anymore?

Anytime there’s a moment of silence, the natural thing to do is whip out your phone.

I see it all the time.

You know what’s even worse?

Having a “conversation” with someone that doesn’t put their phone down while you’re talking to them.

“mhm.”

“yeah.”

“yup.”

It couldn’t be more obvious that they don’t care what you have to say.

I’ll save the phone rant for another time.

Yet, in today’s newsletter, I wanna talk about how listening to nothing can improve your productivity.

Do you listen to music while you work/study?

Are you willing to sacrifice listening to your favorite songs?

If so, let’s plunge right in.

Why Working In Silence Is OP

For the record, I have no issues with listening to music while you study or work.

It’s songs that have lyrics that I have an issue with.

I can’t tell you how many hours I spent studying in high school (not that many because I was mostly a D and F student) listening to music with lyrics.

Most of us, (me included) think that listening to music is passive.

But it’s not.

Our brains pick up on the sound signals the music omits.

Listening to music with lyrics is fine when you do tasks that don’t require you to think as hard.

For example, 6 years ago I used to work as a bedmaker.

I’d clock in at 9:30am and get my list of beds.

Some days 10 beds and others 20 beds.

Making beds doesn’t require you to think hard.

It’s 95% physical and 5% mental.

Listening to music with lyrics in this case is fine because it’s a repetitive task.

And when something is repetitive, listening to your favorite songs will make “the thing” more enjoyable and less boring.

But now let’s switch from making beds to writing a newsletter.

*Cue the Uno reverse card*

With writing, 95% of it is mental and only 5% is physical.

Writing requires you to think.

It’s like solving a puzzle you can’t see.

The only exception is if you’re jolting down the same sentence or phrase repeatedly.

And if you’re doing that, listening to music is fine.

But when your work requires you to problem solve and use your brain, working in silence is always the better alternative.

Anything that pulls your attention from doing “the thing” is a distraction.

The Protocol You Can Take Action On

So, the next time you do anything that requires you to think, go ninja.

Go buy some earplugs at your local Walmart.

Or

Some noise cancelling headphones.

And if you want to take it to the extreme, put your earplugs in and then your headphones over the earplugs.

You might just be able to hear your own heartbeat.

Because silence is the key for your productivity to blast off like a rocket.

And if you absolutely can’t work in silence, I recommend using music that has no lyrics.

You can search “binaural beats focus” on YouTube and listen to one of those.

Anyway, that’s it for today.

I hope this was helpful.

I know it’s helped me a lot with my productivity the past few days.

Until next time my peeps,

Alex out.

P.S

I created a LinkedIn page.

I’m still getting used to it but if you want more content like this, you can click here.