"A Man Walks Down the Street, He Says, Why Am I Short Of Attention? Got A Short Little Span of Attention" - Music and ADD

A while back, the New York Times ran an article about the dangers of multi-tasking. I thought it was ridiculous at the time and I still think it is silly. It contains "news" such as "The findings, according to neuroscientists, psychologists and management professors, suggest that many people would be wise to curb their multitasking behavior when working in an office, studying or driving a car."

I can't imagine that even people without ADD actually think their attention is equally shared among things like talking on the phone and paying attention to the road. It didn't strike me as something scientists needed to study.

But I have been thinking a lot about this line in the article: "Listening to soothing background music while studying may improve concentration. But other distractions — most songs with lyrics, instant messaging, television shows — hamper performance."

I listen to music with lyrics while studying and writing papers. I have been trying to writing papers in a quiet library recently, and it has been a disaster. One of the things about ADD is that people with ADD are more likely to seek out distractions or get distracted by things that are available and interesting but is not the task at hand (O.K. that's essentially a working definition of ADD). For me, that manifests itself as a lot of time on the Internet. (Case and point this blog). But when I am listening to music with lyrics,--I try to choose songs whose lyrics I already know so I won't spend time trying to figure out the lyrics--I am less likely to get distracted by all out time wasters like Internet or random walks. I type more quickly and am more focused. It's choosing the lesser evil and I think it works.

Lyrics in the Title from Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" click play below to hear the song (with a weird video).

Paul Simon - You Can Call Me Al
Uploaded by manon42