I love listening to music (Irish music, Chinese, Phonk, Funk, not to be confused with Phonk lol,2000s rock, rap, etc) so much and I feel a bit bored reading in silence. And given the open anti-comm tendencies of my coworkers, I tend to read theory in my car. Only issue is songs in English throw me off because I kinda can’t listen to a song while also reading words. So sometimes instrumentals or foreign language songs are good (except for Sailing The Seas Depends on The Helmsman, I won’t be able to focus because it’s such a great song) to have in the background. I used to like reading along with a narrator voicing it on my phone but it gets annoying sometimes. Idk, what do yall do while reading? Do you ever have Tv on in the background?
I require music to be able to do anything really. If I don’t listen to music, my ADHD will cause me to become understimulated and then I’ll get distracted and realize hours later that I completely forgot what I was even doing. However, when I’m reading something that’s difficult to read or keep track of, I have to turn the music off because I need all the energy my brain can provide to stay focused on it. I try to keep the amount of time spent without music minimal, so once I’ve gotten past the difficult part, I’ll turn it back on.
The only music that works for me is loud, fast music that’s full of complex patterns that can provide stimulation for my brain, and doesn’t get quiet in the middle like many classical songs do. Vocals ruin it for me in most cases, so nearly all of the music I listen to has no vocals. In order for me to tolerate the vocals, they have to add to the already existing patterns of the song. This completely rules out rap music and most kinds of popular music.
Also, I get used to music quickly. I can’t listen to the same song for more than a few days, and then I can’t listen to it again for a year at least. This makes finding music very, very difficult because my preferences are not very common. Every time I’ve made a playlist, it hasn’t lasted longer than a couple weeks before I had to find something new.
My coworker has a very similar tendency and I couldn’t be more ok with it, music makes work easier