Our brains have only a certain amount of attention and productivity to be delegated at one time, and the constant sound of music in the background detracts from that productivity.

  When sitting down to study, my main focus is not only finishing the task at hand, but understanding everything I am reading or practicing. It seems obvious that the less amount of distractions a person has, the more productive they are. Music is one of those distractions.

  Some students claim that music helps them focus, and makes studying more enjoyable. But according to a study conducted at the University of Wales, “Listening to music can damage your performance on certain study tasks.” Participants were placed in the same environment and asked to study a list of numbers. The group with music performed significantly worse, over a number of trials.

  A fairly well known theory known as the Mozart Effect, claims that listening to classical music, specifically that composed by Mozart, can “induce a short-term improvement on the performance of certain kinds of mental tasks known as “spatial-temporal reasoning.”

  But when put to the test this effect was been almost impossible to prove according to multiple studies published by Learning Scientists, practically negating any benefits of listening to music while studying.

  It is not only the research that proves listening to music while studying as an altar-productive choice. But personal experience. In four years of high school, I have gone through waves of listening to music while studying and not.

  I have found that I stay more focused when the music is off and it is almost as if I can hear my own thoughts. In the times when I was listening to music, words of songs I knew would distract me, and I would find myself processing the words I was hearing opposed to the words I was reading in my textbook.

  The constant changing of songs also seems to prove a distractions to my study habits. Every three minutes a new sogn to adjust to, subconsciously forcing you to refocus on your studies. And then suddenly a song comes on that you don’t like. So your studies are paused so you can unlock your computer, change the song, and force yourself to refocus once again.

  The constant distraction that music causes overpowers any positive experience it could add to your studies, as well as decreases productivity significantly.

  With the conclusion of finals and the start of the second semester upon us, try something new. When you sit down to study, turn the music down, turn the phone off, and stop the multitasking.