How Music Can Improve Your Work Performance

By Regina Grossenbacher on March 24, 2023

Summary

Creating a great playlist for work can boost employee morale, motivation, and productivity. Listening to music has been shown to reduce stress and increase creativity, making it a powerful tool for the workplace. This blog post provides tips for creating an appropriate and effective work playlist, including choosing the right platform and genres.

Can happiness really be found in a great playlist? Let’s find out by understanding the power of music and how putting together a playlist for the workplace can go a long way toward boosting employee morale, motivation, productivity, and teamwork.

The Power of Music: Why It’s Much More than Just Groovy Tunes

Music has been around since the dawn of time, and for good reason. It is an artform that brings people together and has a profound impact on our mood and energy levels. In fact, studies show that listening to music can reduce stress, increase productivity, and even enhance creativity.

Build Playlists for Work Because

It allows employees to connect and bond over their shared love of music. A playlist can also be used to set the tone for the day or week. Crank up the volume with a high-energy playlist to get everyone pumped up for the workweek or create a chill playlist to help them stay focused during crunch time.

61% of workers said they listen to music at work to boost their productivity and happiness – Spotify

90% of workers perform better, and 88% produce more accurate work when using music as a productivity tool – Wrike

Tips for Creating the Ultimate Work Playlist

Getting started with a playlist is as easy as hitting “play”!

  • You’ll need to decide on a platform to create and share your playlist. Popular options include Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.
  • You can create a playlist for yourself to enjoy or create a collaborative one and let your team add their favorite tunes. Classical music, lo-fi beats, ambient or nature sounds, instrumentals, and white noise are popular genres known to increase productivity.
  • Be sure that any songs on a shared playlist are workplace appropriate and respectful of all cultures and identities.

Concluding Note ♪

Finally, a few things to keep in mind: You don’t want the music to be too loud or distracting, or you’ll risk decreasing productivity. Be open to feedback and suggestions from your team, too. Creating a collaborative playlist can be a great way to promote teamwork and communication. Don’t be afraid to mix things up with different playlists for different occasions. Who knows? You might just create the perfect soundtrack for a winning pitch!

Resources:

Ways Music for the Office Can Make Employees More Productive. (n.d.). https://cloudcovermusic.com/blog/music-makes-employees-healthier-more-productive/#:~:text=Music%20makes%20people%20feel%20good,is%20not%20harsh%20and%20distracting

Mautz, Scott. Want to Boost Your Productivity? Science Says Listen to Music With These 6 Rules In Mind.

Bergland, Christopher. The Neuroscience of Music, Mindset, and Motivation. 29 December 2012.

Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201212/the-neuroscience-music-mindset-and-motivation