The Atlantic

The Best Music for Productivity? Silence

Studies show that for most types of cognitively demanding tasks, anything but quiet hurts performance.
Source: Muttering hat by artist Kate Hartman (MIKE BLAKE / REUTERS)

Like most modern “knowledge” workers, I spend my days in an open office. That means I also spend my days amid ringing phones, the inquisitive tones of co-workers conducting interviews, and—because we work in a somewhat old, infamous building—the pounding and drilling of seemingly endless renovations.

Even so, the #content must still be wrung from my distracted brain. And so, I join the characters of in wearing headphones almost all day, every day. And what better to listen to with headphones than music? By now, I’ve worked my way through all the “Focus” playlists on Spotify—most of

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