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Is listening to music at work calming or distracting?

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Calming		80%	760 votes	Total: 945 votes
Distracting		20%	185 votes	Total: 945 votes

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Distracting

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by Lesley Aeschliman

I have to admit that I had a hard time answering this question. But after careful consideration, and thinking about how the question relates to me, I ended up going with "distracting."

I am the first to admit that I like to have music in the background while I'm working (in fact, I have music going in the background right now as I write this). I know that when I'm working and listening to music, and a song I really like comes on, I am extremely tempted to stop what I'm doing and listen to it. While I try really hard to fight the temptation, I end up giving in to it, more often than not.

Also, there are times I find that when I have music going in the background while trying to work, my mind is trying to process the music that's playing at the same time that I'm trying to think about what it is I'm needing to get accomplished. I have to admit that with music playing in the background while I write this piece, it's making it harder for me to think about how to write what it is I want to say. If that isn't distracting, then I don't know what is! Well, perhaps there could be other things that could be just as distracting, or even more distracting than that for other people. But for me personally, that is rather distracting.

Perhaps it can be argued that I could stop listening to music while trying to work on my writing. However, I am addicted to the music. If I don't have music going, then the silence gets to me after a while, and the silence can be just as distracting as the music. So for me, it's a no-win situation.

I'm sure there are people out there who can work with the music in the background and not be distracted by it. And for those people who have that ability, I will give them some major props for being able to avoid temptation. However, I simply am not one of those people.

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Below are the top articles rated and ranked by Helium members on:

Is listening to music at work calming or distracting?

Distracting

1 of 19
by Barb Hopkins

I have always listened to music when I was working. Sometimes the music was piped in through the office P.A. system and other
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2 of 19
by Erin Smyth

For years I thought that listening to music at work would be a definite plus. Sometimes during school classes, ones that
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Calming

1 of 66
by Anna Maria Ryan

Everybody's job is hard and for the majority of people, nobody wants to be at their job. Given the choice most people would
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2 of 66
by Poetic Enigma

First of all, I would say it depends on what kind of music is being played, and what kind of work environment is around.
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