Music has always been a passion of mine. I play the guitar, collect records, go to live shows as often as possible, and I am always on the hunt for new music, no matter the genre [and I firmly believe there is always more great music to be found]. But the music I listen to most often [e.g., James Blake, LCD Soundsystem, Wilco, Radiohead, Kurt Vile] doesn’t typically work well when I need to concentrate deeply, such as during my deep work sessions for WFC. But music is important to me, so I’ve searched for the ideal music to listen to when I need to focus.
What is deep work? As discussed in our recent blog post, “Using Deep Work to Raise the Bar in Financial Thought Leadership,” deep work is a professional activity performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that pushes your cognitive capabilities to their limit. At WFC, we have embraced the principles of deep work to improve our ability to write institutional-quality financial thought leadership as efficiently as possible, and to enable us to achieve the work/life balance that is so important to us.
Everyone has their own custom needs when it comes to the ideal setup for deep work. I have found instrumental music—and in particular ambient music—to be the best music to accompany my daily deep work sessions. Ambient music is essentially designed as background music; it can generally be defined as gentle, instrumental music with no persistent beat, and it creates a pleasant atmosphere. Think heavy on the hums, tones, and repetition, light on the vocals and traditional structure.
Below, I share a few of my top artists and albums for deep work. Pair these selections with some noise-canceling headphones and a blank wall to stare at, and you have my setup for deep work.
Music to Accompany Deep Work: Connor’s Suggestions
- Brian Eno – Ambient 1: Music for Airports
- There is no better way to begin your first venture into ambient music than with Brian Eno, who essentially created [and named] the genre in the 1970s. Eno, a self-described “non-musician” who went on to become one of popular music’s most influential and innovative figures, creates ambient music that seems to suspend and transcend time. His entire catalogue is ripe for deep work, but I recommend beginning with Ambient 1: Music for Airports, released in 1978. Eno described this music as equally “ignorable as it is interesting” and intended to “induce calm and a space to think.” No wonder it works so well for deep work.
- Nils Frahm – Screws
- Nils Frahm is a German musician, composer, and record producer who has become one of my favorite contemporary artists. He is a masterful pianist who creates beautiful instrumental music that has a bit more structure than a strict definition of ambient music would allow, but not enough structure to distract me while deeply concentrating. He is also an incredible live performer whom I highly recommend seeing in concert if you get the chance. His 2012 album Screws is a favorite, but his entire catalogue is outstanding.
- Sufjan Stevens, Lowell Brams – Aporia
- Sufjan Stevens is a well-known singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who has released a total of seven studio albums and been nominated for an Academy Award and a Grammy. He is best known as a creator of indie folk music, such as his acclaimed 2005 album Illinois. But his most recent release, Aporia, is a departure from his typical style. Aporia is 21 tracks and 42 minutes of futuristic and somewhat dystopian instrumental music that has become a staple for my deep work sessions. If you’re looking for a little extra momentum and tension to kick your deep work into gear, you won’t be disappointed.
- Luke Howard – Sun, Cloud
- I discovered Luke Howard when listening to Nils Frahm radio on Spotify. Howard is an Australian composer and pianist who shares many similarities with Frahm – they both create beautiful instrumental music that generally centers around the piano. Howard’s 2013 album Sun, Cloud is a favorite, and I particularly love the album’s sixth track, “Portrait Gallery”. Howard’s music is peaceful, relaxing, and uplifting, and it exudes a sense of calm optimism to help power extended periods of concentration.
- Nils Frahm Radio
- If you enjoy Frahm’s album Screws, try his Spotify radio station, which provides a great “shuffle” of Frahm’s music as well as other artists that are similar in style. I love to use Spotify radio stations like this one to discover new music. On occasion the songs can get a little off track from the deep work vibe I’m targeting, but ~90% of the time Spotify nails it.
- Brian Eno Radio
- Brian Eno’s Spotify radio station is a fantastic resource for ambient music. You’ll get a good variety of Eno’s tracks, which are consistent in their focus on creating a meditative and non-distracting atmosphere, as well as other songs and artists focused on ambient music. Hit shuffle and let the wandering tones ensue!
I hope many of you will give ambient instrumental music a shot the next time you need to concentrate for an extended period of time. Remember to review our other tips for deep work, and please reach out to me to let me know what you think of these artists. I am always on the hunt for new music, so I would love to hear your deep work music suggestions, too!
About the Author
A Break to Discuss Breaks
After last week’s post on attention residue, multiple readers have asked about taking breaks during deep work sessions. These questions highlight an apparent tension.
On the one hand, in my book on the topic and here on Study Hacks I often extol the productive virtue of spending multiple hours [and sometimes even days] in a state of distraction-free deep work. As I emphasized last week, these sessions need to be truly free of distraction — even quick glances at your inbox, for example, are enough to significantly reduce your cognitive capacity.
On the other hand, in my Straight-A book [published, if you can believe it, almost exactly a decade before Deep Work], I recommend students study in 50 minute chunks followed by 10 minute breaks. I cite some relevant cognitive science to back up this timing. Similar recommendations are also made by adherents to the pomodoro technique, which suggests short timed bursts of concentration partitioned by breaks.
Which idea is right?
Deep Breaks
The short answer to the above question: both.
Deep work requires you to focus intensely on a demanding task. But few can maintain peak cognitive intensity for more than an hour or so without some sort of relief.
This relief is necessary. But it’s also dangerous.
Most types of breaks you might take in this situation will wrench your attention away from the task at hand and leave you with a thick slather of attention residue.
If you’re careful, however, it’s possible to take a so-called deep break which will allow your mind a chance to regroup and recharge without impeding your ability to quickly ramp back up your concentration.
Anyone who regularly succeeds in long deep work sessions is almost certainly someone skilled at deploying deep breaks to keep the session going without burning out or losing focus.
There’s no single description of what constitutes a deep break, but here are some useful heuristics from my own experience:
- Deep breaks should not turn your attention to a target that might generate a professional or social obligation that you cannot completely fulfill during the break [e.g., glancing at an email inbox or social media feed].
- Deep breaks should not turn your attention to a target that your mind associates with time-consuming distraction rituals [e.g., many people have a set “cycle” of distracting web sites they visit when they surf that has become so ingrained that looking at one site sends their mind the message it’s time to look at them all].
- Deep breaks should not turn your attention to a related, but not quite the same, professional task [e.g., if you’re trying to write a report, and you turn your attention to quickly editing an unrelated report].
- Deep breaks should not turn your attention to a topic that is complicated, stressful and/or something that will sometime soon need a lot of your attention.
- Deep breaks should not usually last more than 10 – 15 minutes, with some exceptions, such as for meals.
Breaks that avoid the above warnings should probably be okay. For example, here are some of my standard deep break activities:
- Taking a short walk to get more water or coffee while trying to just observe my surroundings.
- Day dreaming about the good things that could come from succeeding with the deep work task at hand [e.g., when working on a proof, I might day dream about how I would describe the result if I ended up publishing it].
- Summarizing to myself what I already know about the task at hand and what I’m trying to accomplish.
- Reading a book chapter or magazine article that has nothing to do with the deep task at hand.
- If I’m working at home, doing something fun with my boys [who, fortunately for me, rarely bring up distributed algorithm theory when we play].
- Complete a household task or short errand.
I don’t want to be too rigid in my description of these breaks. The key message is that when it comes to deep work, you shouldn’t feel like you’re required to maintain peak concentration for hours on end. [If you try to, you’ll fail.] On the other hand, be mindful about how you take your cognitive breathers as they play a key role in whether the deep work session as a whole will succeed.
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Thank you to the 200 – 300 people who showed up last night to listen to Scott and me discuss learning strategies. I enjoyed the discussion and your questions. If you missed the webinar, but want to learn more about Scott’s new rapid learning course [which was the inspiration for the event], you can visit the course website.
[Photo by Ghislain Mary]