The Frugal Law Student’s Free Soundtrack For Maximum Productivity

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I’m always looking for different ways to maximize my productivity and effectiveness during law school. One of the things that I’ve discovered that helps is blocking distractions and stimulating my brain with productivity soundtracks. Depending on the task, I’ll listen to something that will help me focus my attention and get the most out of my time. Here’s the breakdown of my productivity soundtrack.

1. Trance Music. I used to hate trance music. I always thought it was for a weirdos tripping out on Ecstasy and sucking on binkies. But I started reading on different productivity blogs that computer programmers listen to it while banging out code because it helps them focus. I gave it a try this past week while I’ve been writing my law review article and was surprised that it helped me focus in on my writing. The beats put me in some sort of zen like state that helps the words flow from my brain to the keyboard. To get my fix of trance music for free, I’ve created a trance channel on Pandora. Whenever it’s time for writing and research, I just open up my browser to Pandora and let the music play softly in my headphones. In about 10 minutes I’m in the zone.
2. Nature white noise. When ever I’m reading or outlining my classes, I like to be a little more relaxed and not as jazzed up as I am when I’m listening to trance. So, I pop on my headphones and listen to some soothing nature sounds like a running stream and birds chirping. It’s the perfect white noise to keep me from getting distracted by people wandering around the library. To create this soothing soundscape, I use Atmosphere Lite, a free nature sound generator for your PC. Atmosphere Lite is pretty robust for a free program. There’s different premade settings like “woodland forest” or “fireside.” You can also create your own soundscape easily. I usually just use the running stream file. Atmosphere lite also lets you add binaural beats to the sound mix. Some people claim binaural beats can help boost learning levels. I’m not so sure about it, but it can’t hurt having them in there.

What is your soundtrack for maximum productivity? Drop a line in the comment box.

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8 Comments

1. Jake on 07.09.2007 at 14:27 (Reply)

   Ambient trance is also really good for driving. The pieces without words are great to turn on low. I do it at work every night and time flies.

   1. Law School Blog on 06.11.2007 at 15:17 (Reply)

      Long drives are great for ambient trance!!!

      di.fm has some great stations. I just throw them into Raima Radio and blast away

2. Andrew Flusche on 07.09.2007 at 19:30 (Reply)

   Sweet! I’ve been looking for an ambient sound program like this for a while. I will definitely give that a try.

3. Mark on 08.09.2007 at 18:48 (Reply)

   On iTunes there are a lot of great chill music channels. Chillout music, just like ambient, is excellent to study to. I think of it as classical music with synthesizers.

4. Marsha on 10.10.2007 at 19:49 (Reply)

   I found Baroque music the best study music when I was in law school. There’s a Baroque music channel on iTunes.

   Sometimes New Age music was good to study by. I like the WinterScapes channel at Live365.com, but it’s mostly Christmas/holiday music.

   1. Brett McKay on 10.10.2007 at 20:24 (Reply)

      Marsha-
      I’ll have to give Baroque music a try. How long ago did you graduate from law school?

5. kim on 04.11.2007 at 15:07 (Reply)

   Hey there. You should check out Moby “Play”, Hooverphonic “The Magnificent Tree”, Radiohead “OK Computer” or anything by Mozart. Apparently, listening to Mozart fires up a lot of brain cells, even if you only have 2 like me.

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