Everyone has their preference when it comes to studying with background music/noise/ audio. For me personally,  the music I play almost cues my mind to get into a ‘zone’ and so I thought I would share my routine. 

• Chemistry homework problems 
  • For a task that requires me to draw and problem solve, I prefer not being distracted by words or even beats, and so my go to playlist is ‘nature’.  
  • Listening to a compilation of soothing waves, rain, chirping birds, crickets, and binaural frequencies provides me with some sort of background noise but isn’t  distracting enough. 
  • What I like about listening to a natural playlist is how I almost don’t feel like I am confined inside studying, where for example a jazz playlist might. 
  • This playlist is 8 hours long and I tend to play it when I know the task will take more time than average.

• Anki due cards 
  • As of right now, my typical daily routine includes 350 due cards for Cell Biology. These due cards are a mixture of ‘fill in the blank’ where I use the best word to complete the sentence, and multiple choice questions. 
  • This task takes me about an hour to an hour and a half , and like the majority of my tasks, I need to be focused. Although what has helped me with the active recall has been soft lofi beats where there is a sort of rhythm (that natural sounds lack) 
  • I am not into heavy music and so finding a relaxing yet catchy playlist has been tough. Listening to this chill lofi playlist has kept me engaged in the material and not just feel like time is passing by.  

• Essay/ general longform writing 
  • At least for me personally, I try as hard as I can to limit my distractions when completing a task that has a set due date (either academic or professional) because I know that when I get distracted, it is sometimes hard to get back in the zone. 
  • When I am writing either essays/ paragraphs/ descriptions/ blog posts/ etc. words in songs are out of the picture because I know that I might end up typing what I hear and not what I think! 
  • So, I prefer a steady loop of the same pieces. I used to listen to the lofi playlist (mentioned above) or even just binaural beats, although (especially with the binaural beats) I found that I needed to keep my brain awake to focus but to also be creative. 
  • The playlist that is my current go-to is a mixture of meditation/instrumental sounds that remind me of the times I used to feel the cool crisp air as I sat around the fire pit with my family. 
  • I tend to loop this playlist because it does take me more than 1 hour to write an essay, but it helps that the 1 hour of music is very synchronous and isn’t distracting when time’s up. 

I hope this helps and you take a listen to one of these playlists. Best of luck studying!