
Stop listening to music while you work - indus
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/neuroscientist-shares-10-minute-trick-182900218.html
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draw_down
Maybe the enjoyment you get from listening to the music is valuable in itself.
There are worse things than pleasure. Just a thought.

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BFay
And maybe that enjoyment will make you a happier person in general, which will
in turn make you more productive because you won't worry and second-guess
yourself so much.

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Obi_Juan_Kenobi
The real conclusion is that, all else equal, music decreases cognitive
performance (memory tasks, mostly) a bit. It doesn't conclude that actual
workers are more or less productive. Enjoying yourself more, even at the
expense of cognitive performance, might be far more valuable in maintaining
motivation and productive work.

A quick search didn't turn anything up in the literature, but my guess is that
some distraction is beneficial in real-world scenarios. The challenge of
productive work, for me, is generally staying on task, not summoning my
cognitive abilities. If music can redirect or 'absorb' stray attention, it may
assist in staying on task. Certainly a wealth of experience seems to support
this; I have a very hard time getting things done without music.

TL;DR: I wouldn't extrapolate real productivity from memory tasks in a study.

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jjn2009
I notice this effect really strongly when there are lyrics in a song but
without lyrics and with electronic music that is very repetitive it can be
more so on the beneficial side for myself, the effect that the complexity of
the music has on the listener is something I'd like to see in one of these
studies.

