Eight Things to Listen to When Writing (other than music and TV)
Boost your productivity! (maybe)
Turn off the TV. Turn off the music. They’re destroying your creativity and productivity.
ALL OBSTACLES WERE ONCE STARDUST
How many people claim that watching TV or listening to music makes them MORE productive? I’m not saying that’s not true for anyone, but most of us are fooling ourselves. When we scroll social media (uhh…does Medium count?), the interface catches our brain in a unique way. It sends tiny dopamine spikes through your mind and body. You FEEL rewarded without actually getting anything for it (besides the feeling, which isn’t worthless but…).
“It’s not the enemy. It’s just a reflection of our own free will.” — Denzel Washington
It’s not a secret. Social media companies design the interface to provoke envy. We either feel it for others — we want what they have — or we’re provoking it in others. The only ones who avoid burnout are those who co-manage each other’s addiction by functioning as a mutual supply.
Even if you use the tool to explore other kinds of experiences, the human brain can’t help but need to fight against the deliberately addictive nature of using the platform. Yes, yes, that includes Medium. When we leave Twitter or the TV on in the background, we often feel motivated. Rewarded. We WANT to write. Finally. And now you know why.
We’ve become functional addicts. That feeling of reward and motivation comes at the cost of the very resources that would have empowered us to write. What becomes more important? The feeling of wanting to write but being unable to do so? I don’t think that’s worthless. Writing should not be terror and agony every time.
But be clear what makes you FEEL like writing while INHIBITING your ability to do so vs what may feel like hard work BUT EMPOWERS you to actually get the writing done.
And that’s before we even get to how to cultivate a relationship with your creativity that makes writing (or really any kind of storytelling) a joyful experience you can turn to whenever you need that comfort.
WHAT HELPS YOU WRITE?
What helps me is turning on the sounds and ambience that contain no addictive potential (for me).
What’s the difference?
There are common elements that content creators take advantage of just to make their content accessible and their audience’s feel engaged.
Google can tell you whatever you want to know about that. This article is about exploring what empowers YOU.
It’s a coincidence whether the circumstances that empower you also empower another person. The ingredients, recipes, and menus you share are what bring intimacy and connection through empowered individuation. You can’t know another person without taking the time to see what separates THEM from YOU. And you can’t begin to understand what snaps your creativity back into existence as easily as an Infinity Gauntlet until you seek out the stones from your own personal reality.
So just for now, let’s set aside what stones/sounds empower anyone but you.
This moment is not for them. This moment is for you and only you.
Because when it comes to what puts your mind to work? Opens the flood of ideas? Reveals that the inspired creativity you thought you’d never feel again was always there? Just WAITING to be activated?
In the end, it may not even be THE SOUND itself that fills your pen until it’s overflowing with ink and ideas.
WHAT GETS YOUR FOOT TO START TAPPING?
Yes, we want a sound or experience that hooks us, that fills us with that energy, that inspires that FEELING of life and creativity and innovation —
But that feeling may just be a feeling. And the tool that evokes that feeling may come at the cost of being able to do anything with it.
Can you tell I’ve spent a lot of time in twelve step groups? It’s not just a collection of steps. It’s a lifestyle.
By that token, you can feel the difference when you’re consuming something and there’s no compulsion to stop before or after you’ve had enough. You may instead find yourself increasingly dissatisfied — and yet increasingly ravenous for the very thing that left you wanting.
You can feel when the thing instead compels you to keep consuming until you’ve had enough. When it’s okay to drink a little more deeply now and again. Why it’s best to hit pause here and there because healthy limits empower us in all things. If you’ve been feeling desperate (or just curious) on how to supercharge your creative productivity, here are eight alternatives to music and TV.
EIGHT ALTERNATIVES TO MUSIC AND TV
CATEGORY 1: SOUNDS OF NATURE
For me, there’s something fulfilling in my heart about the sounds of nature. I prefer the real thing, but just listening to these sounds quiets my thoughts and feelings.
I can breathe. I can focus. I can create.
1. A CREEK
2. A LIGHT/HEAVY RAINSTORM
3. THE WAVES ON A BEACH
CATEGORY 2: SOUNDS OF PEOPLE SPEAKING
Not a movie. Not a television show. Certainly not your mom. I mean things like lectures and podcasts.
4. LECTURES, SOLO PODCASTS
Unless you’re already into this sort of thing, you may have already skipped this one. But if you’re into it, boy have I got someone to recommend!!
Shelley Kagan is one of my favorite philosophers (and occasional debaters) of all time. More than that, he’s one of my favorite professors.
I have a special relationship with professors. The woman who ended up being the closest to a godmother I’ll probably ever get is a professor. And a journalist. And a dancer. And a singer. And a mom. And a grandmother. And…just kinda amazing.
I always expected the professor who taught me to love teaching as much as learning would be a woman. I never expected I’d also found myself blown away by a male professor.
And holy crap is Shelley Kagan a cool professor! I mean, at least from what I’ve seen online.
Have I taken a single course from him? If you count auditing, then yes.
Well…if you count listening to/watching the free version of his Yale course on DEATH about a dozen times as auditing. And in a pandemic, isn’t that just as good? Bueller?
I’ve gone back to this course over and over again not just for the concepts and ideas that helped me break free of my cult-like upbringing, but for the hope that there might be one good man out there in the world.
Shelley is a wonderful orator, a brilliant philosopher, and pretty good at helping me focus when I need to put my deepest ideas into words.
5. GROUP PODCASTS
This is a tough one. It’s not like I can just point at podcasts and say ah, there’s the caffeine for me. It has to be the right ones.
The wrong ones are so right, there’s no way I can stop myself from listening. I might feel inspired by Brene Brown, but it’s in a way from which I can’t emotionally or mentally distance myself.
I am going to listen to literally every second of each episode of Brene Brown’s podcast. Or YouTube video. Or chapter of her audiobook.
Compare that to Just the Gist from Rosie Waterland and Jacob Stanley.
There, at least, I know with a pretty-much-guaranteed consistency that one week will feature a story from Rosie (and I’ll be hopelessly enthralled). The other week will feature a story from that dulcet-toned adonis Jacob, and while his stories are always just as amazing, there’s something soothing about his voice that lets me just as easily engage as relax into a creative danger zone.
6. AUDIOBOOKS
Don’t pay any attention to the content (okay, maybe a little lol). With an audiobook, you want a narrator who speaks with the rhythms and cadence you swing for in your own storytelling voice. I adore RC Bray and Ray Porter reading as little as a grocery list, but they’ve also narrated a bunch of books I love.
I have to listen to the audiobooks at least once just for the sheer pleasure of it — even an old favorite is given new life when paired with a great audiobook narrator — but after that? Within ten seconds, I’ve hypnotized myself into that place writers go when every part of their being is focused on manifesting what once only existed in their imagination.
7. TONAL/SENSORY/ASMR
Are you distracted by actual words? Use ASMR to awaken your mind, your body, your heart — the holy trinity of creativity. You may want to listen for a few minutes before you put finger to keyboard (does anyone but me still put pen to paper?).
For those of you who watched The White Lotus, you’ll remember it as that cool scene you may have already Googled.
8. HEALING VIBES/ENERGY CHANNEL/GALAXY STUFF
If this video doesn’t help calm the inner chaos, I’m not sure what will.
I like finding different varieties of these visualizations. As cool as it is to sit on a beach, it’s cooler to imagine I’m the Silver Surfer-ess. I mean, if Norrin Radd let Mary Jane borrow his surfboard, surely he’ll imbue me with a portion of Power Cosmic.
BONUS
And if you’re just not ready to stop putting on your favorite movie in the background…get some earbuds. Play the movie on your phone. Turn the screen over. You are only allowed to listen to the audio.
BONUS BONUS
And if you still MUST HAVE MUSIC, go with video game music. It’s literally made to help you focus on whatever is in your visual and mental fields of perception.
May I suggest starting with the soundtrack to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild?
THE END (DAMN GIRL, THAT’S DARK)
Hi, it’s Stephenie!
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