Spotify playlist for home office work

The best Spotify playlists for working at home

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Your home office music probably sucks.

I don’t know about you, but I struggle to get work done without listening to music.

Now, the music I listen to drastically varies depending on the task in hand which means there’s no one size fits all when it comes to the best Spotify playlist for working at home.

Sometimes I might want music to help wake me up and start the day off right, and other times I might need to wind down after a hard days work in my office.

So if you’re sat in your home office and after some music to help you focus on getting work done, you’re in the right place!

What makes good study music?

No words

It’s always best to study and get work done with music that has no words. This means you’re far more likely to stay focused and concentrate on the task at hand rather than have your concentration wander.

Long play time

A longer play time means less time thinking about what songs to play and more time working. This also works well if the songs you listen too are drastically different in their genre.

By listening to a single track of a single music genre you’re allowing your brain to stay in the ‘Flow’ state for as long as possible

Lengthy playlist

The absolute best way to listen to music is by combining both of the above into a lengthy playlist. This will allow you to have a work playlist set up and ready to go so you can get straight into work every day without worrying about it.

So without further ado, lets explore 6 of the best Spotify playlists for working at home.

Study with me – Ali Abdaal

Length: 62 hours 14 minutes

Songs: 1,082

Genre: Varies

Ali has put together an absolutely massive Spotify playlist that’s specifically designed to help you focus on your work or study.

In case you haven’t stumbled across his absolutely magnificent YouTube channel before, let me fill you in.

Ali started his youtube channel around 5 years ago (in 2016) originally with the idea to help medical school students pass their exams.

It quickly transitioned into becoming one of the Uk’s (if not the worlds) biggest productivity youtube channels.

You’ll often find Ali in his home office talking about the latest and greatest self improvement books, the best and most productive Mac apps, and flaunting his unbelievably high typing speed.

From time to time he’ll also do hour long videos with the intention for his viewers to study along with him in a kind of virtual co-working space.

And as an added bonus he’s created this spotifiy list to help us become productive grease monkeys whenever we need to get work done.

In the playlist you’ll find songs from movie epics, world famous series, and legendary classical music pieces.

The playlist tends to most heavily feature music from tv and movies which allows you to lose yourself almost entirely for hours at a time.

There have been times when I’ve started listening to it, and 5,000 words later I look up and realise how absolutely consumed I’ve been without realising it.

So grab yourself a coffee (or matcha) and be prepared to lose yourself in your work like never before.

Best for those how want to lose themselves for hours (My favourite on the list!)

Binaural beats: Focus

Length: 5 hours 42 minutes

Songs: 108

Genre: Brainwave music

This is almost definitely something you haven’t heard of before, and it’s unusual to say the least.

We know that listening to music can absolutely help us to focus on work or study, but only if the songs dont have words.

So what about if we take that one step further and introduce a type of music that activates different brainwave frequencies until you reach peak focus in a gamma state?

Binaural beats literally change the state of your brain so you’re able to enter ‘Flow state’ as quickly and efficiently as possible.

What are binaural beats?

binarual beats for studying

In short, Binaural beats are two different tones heard in each ear. Both frequencies have to be less than 1000hz and have a difference of no more than 30hz.

For this reason, the effects of binaural beats can only be realised if you’re listening through headphones.

Potential benefits of binaural beats

According to Healthline, the following are potential benefits of listening to binaural beats:

  • Reduce anxiety
  • Increase focus and concentration
  • Lower stress
  • Increase relaxation
  • Foster positive moods
  • Promote creativity
  • Help manage pain

If you’re working from your home office, it’s possible that all of these benefits will positively influence your working day.

The most prevelant of all however is likely to be increased focus and concentration. If you’ve yet to have a work session listening to just binaural beats, I urge you to give it a go and see if it works for you.

Whilst it might not be the most inspirational Spotify playlist for working at home, it has the potential to be the most impactful to your workflow.

Best for those who want to focus and get work done quickly

Anime Vibe – Lofi

Length: 3 hours 41 minutes

Songs: 78

Genre: lofi study music

I’ve already talked at length about the power of lofi music to aid studying here, so it’s no surprise it rears it’s head again.

We’ve all been there. The works piling up and we keep finding excuses to put it off despite the fact it’s due in a few days time.

Work and study can at times be extremely overwhelming, so why not listen to music that’ll help you take a step back and chill out.

Even with impending deadlines and stacks of work to do, sometimes it’s just nice to vibe for a bit.

Work can wait, right?

Best for those who need to chill out whilst still being productive

Background noise – Coffee shop

Length: 56 minutes 5 seconds

Songs: 28

Genre: White noise

Sometimes you just want to work away from your office, even if you’re working from home. Ideally this would be in some cozy French cafe but it’s not always possible.

Fortunately that’s where this coffee shop background noise playslist comes in.

It’s only 56 minutes long but that’s not a problem because it’s white noise. Just set it to shuffle and repeat once it’s played all the songs and you’ll be able to work from your fictional French cafe for hours!

Why you should work from a coffee shop (or virtual one in this case)

coffee shop environment

A change in environment can stimulate your mind and your work

If you’ve ever felt stagnant or had writers block, one of the best pieces of advice I can give you is to change up your working environment. Your mind gets used to the same old routine and gets to a point where it feels like it doesnt have to be creative anymore.

Routine is the enemy of creativity. So switch up your work space.

Ambient noise can boost creativity

A study published in 2012 by Oxford University Press called that explored the effects of ambient noise on creative cognition found that ambient noise can actually increase your creative output.

This might sound a little strange if you feel yourself becoming distracted at the first sign of outside or ambient noise, but there is clearly some scientific evidence to back it up.

If you’re one of these people who struggles with ambient noise interuptions, this playlist is even more important for you.

By playing the sounds in a place you chose and have control over, you can better prepare yourself for unexpected sounds should you ever chose to work outside your office.

This will help you focus for longer periods of time and in turn increase the amount of work you can churn out in a smaller time frame.

It’s nice to feel like you can escape

Not all of us have the privilege to travel freely whenever we feel like it, so it’s understandable to feel like you want to escape.

That’s a feeling that doesnt have to harm your productivity, but can instead work with it to help you produce some of the best most creative work you ever have.

It’s important to sometimes just take a moment to get caught up in the music and that’s absolutely true when it comes to background noise.

You may end up realising you aren’t in the right profession, you may daydream about your lifelong goals and desires, or you may get lost in your imagination to help you create some of the most thought provoking and creative work you’ve done in ages.

I know for me it’s been extremely important to help reflect on my choices and decide what I want from life. For others it might be far less life changing, but you wont know unless you give it a go!

It’s good to escape reality sometimes!

Best Classical Music – Peaceful Classics

Length: 6 hours 26 minutes

Songs: 82

Genre: Classical

It’s calming, it’s beautiful, and it’s undeniably incredible.

This playlist features tracks from the most notable of composers such as Bach, Chopan, Mozart, Ludovico Einaudi, and many more.

Much like other music that is absent of words, classical music allows its listeners to focus and concentrate on there work.

But it may be more than just the absence of words that leads to an increase in productivity making it the perfect working accompaniment for your home office.

classical music spotify playlist

J S Jenkins wrote a paper on ‘The Mozart effect‘ which claimed that ‘after listening to Mozart’s sonata for 10 minutes, the average person showed significantly better spatial reasoning skills than after periods of listening to relaxation instructions designed to lower blood pressure or silence.’

So what does that mean in relation to working from your home office?

Listening to classical music (specifically mozart) has been shown to increase your temporal reasoning skills temporarily.

Temporal reasoning is crucial to how we reason, think and create. So if there’s a chance it can boost your productivity, then you should be listening to it.

If you enjoy classical music then this is the genre you should be listening to on the list.

Hint: The song used in the original studies was Mozart’s piano sonata K448

Best for those who enjoy classical music

Time and situational specific music

Length: 6 hours 26 minutes

Songs: 82

Genre: Varies

You know those times when you turn on the computer early in the morning but your so tired that it takes you a good 30 minutes to actually do any proper work?

There’s a playlist for that!

Or what about if you’re writing an epic fantasy novel and need an extra dose of motivation?

There’s a playlist for that too!

This is about the only time you’ll find me recommending songs with spoken words to help increase your productivity at home. Usually it’ll just lead to distraction and lack of work being done, but when you listen to it in the right situation it can really help get you out of a slump.

Whether that’s helping inspire your story, destroying your writers block, or waking you up, you’ll find a playlist to help.

I’ve linked to the playlist ‘Wake up and Smell the Coffee’ because it helps put me in a great mood for the rest of the day and eases me into working when I’m tired.

Other time specific Spotify playlists:

Chilled Afternoon

Evening Chill Songs

Night Chill

Motivation Mix

There’s a Spotify playlist for every mood, it’s just a matter of finding it.

Jonny

The Complete Guide To Living as a Digital Nomad!

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