WORKING-FROM-HOME MUSIC

One of my problems (and listen, there are many) is that I just can’t concentrate on work whenever there’s music on in the background.

I tune it out. I mean I literally have to ignore it, whatever it is: I have to fade it into the background until I can’t hear it, and eventually of course, realise that it might as well be off.

I think it’s interesting that not everyone does this. I like music, and hey, at social events, it’s really useful to have a little atmosphere in the background, especially when it covers the sound of chomping, and the clanking of cutlery.

But when my full attention is on reading, proofreading, or working out how to write the same thing three times without it looking like repetition, the last thing I need is to be accidentally typing in the words to Last Christmas by accident.

I’ve chosen that song there because it’s that time of year. And almost all the gnarled old Christmas classics on everybody’s playlist have distractingly terrible lyrics.

But I don’t want to get sidetracked onto Christmas songs - that’s not today’s topic…

Now. I know. Not all background music has lyrics. Agreed - instrumental is way better, and if the task doesn’t require a huge amount of concentration, a little Vivaldi or some Mahler or something goes a long way. But if it’s too interesting… if it wants me to think about how it’s constructed, or if it’s designed to make me feel something very specific… it just drags me in! Then I’m back to square one! Thinking about plagal cadences instead of technical docs.

So what I’m looking for is music that’s not interesting, but also not so boring that it makes me feel like I’m in a lift. It can’t be singable or deep, nor moving, nor emotive, and it has to be sort of blendable with the silence of working from home, alone. Meanwhile it also needs to be marginally better than silence, and contain no words at all.

I think maybe I’ll just listen to the vacuum cleaner.