If you’re anything like me, you have a playlist for everything. Going to the beach, road trips, even Halloween. So why not have a playlist for studying?
Yeah, studying isn’t as fun as piling in the car with your buds and singing your favorite tunes, but why not make one just for you? Studying sucks, but it doesn’t have to if you put on your fav songs. Where to begin your sick playlist of studying music, you ask? Right here, obviously. Here we go!
What kind of music motivates you?
When putting together a playlist of study music, it’s super important to think about the kind of songs that motivate you. You don’t to lose your morale half way through that history paper, so it’s best to include some music that will keep you going. Are there songs that make you feel like you own the universe? Then put them on your playlist! I highly suggest bands like Sleigh Bells and White Lung in the power department of your study music. (Not to mention both bands are lead by badass front women. Can’t get much cooler than that!)
Try not to get distracted
The last thing you want to do while studying for your massive psychology exam is get totally side tracked due to the music you’re listening to. While you want to listen to something fun, you need to make sure it won’t distract you. As someone who used to dance ballet, listening to the music from The Nutcracker wasn’t very helpful as I would be doing pirouettes in my head. Obviously, this differs for everyone, but you just need to think about what you like, but maybe not too much to the point where your thinking about how much the bass line make you want to get up and dance. Or your thinking about how Skrillex’s bass drop is giving you a headache, and that’s just not cool.
Lyrics or no lyrics?
You sit down to knock out that history project. You turn on some music. Everything’s going great until you realize that you’re bopping in your seat shouting the lyrics to a Haim song and you’re not getting anything done at all. You may not realize it, but lyrics can be just as distracting as the music itself. If you’re one of those people in the previous scenario, (I am too, no shame), you may want to find yourself some instrumental tracks. My suggestions are Lindsey Stirling, Glitch Mob, and The Donkeys. Also, think about some of your favorite movies and video games and see if you can find the scores and soundtracks to study to. If instrumental music isn’t really your thing, try some music with lyrics in different languages, like K-pop and french Ye-ye music to keep you going.
Get energized
Listening to music that will keep you energized and positive is the key to success. If you’re awake at 3:00 A.M doing a final run through on your world literature essay, you need some jams to keep you awake. This goes along with keeping yourself energized. You want to listen to something that makes you feel like you’ve just had a double shot of espresso and you are just feeling so freaking alive. Some suggestions are Deadmau5, Kaskade, and Tame Impala.
… But not too energized
This kind of goes back to that whole staying on track and not getting distracted thing. While fun, energizing music is awesome, you don’t need to be dancing out of your seat. (Save that for when the huge communications project is completed and over and out of your life forever). Not to mention if you’re super stressed out, crazy music might make it worse depending on who you are. Some great bands to chill out to are Tycho and Massive Attack.
So now that you’ve got the low down on how to make an amazing studying playlist, it’s time to get started. You’ve got quite a bit of time to do some playlist tweaking before finals hit and things get super serious. (But you’ll be fine because you’ll have a kickass playlist, and you’re a total superstar.)
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Image via Molly Longest
