ADHD Music
Logging 6 weeks of music + focus — here's what the data says
I'm a data person. When I find something that seems to work I track it obsessively until I know whether it actually works or I was just having good weeks.
For the last six weeks I've been tracking: what music I used, what I was working on, how long I stayed focused before a significant distraction, and my subjective sense of session quality (1–5).
I used four main categories: lo-fi playlists, brown noise, binaural beats, and Focus Frequency Lab (I rotated through their Study and Work Music, Anxiety Reset, and Insomnia Relief albums depending on what I needed).
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kTPd4Dl3Oo10peb7LxKFqXwl5FnpPQqo4
Results, roughly:
- Lo-fi: average session length 34 minutes. Subjective quality 3.1/5. Good for light tasks, drops off for difficult cognitive work.
- Brown noise: average 41 minutes. Subjective quality 3.4/5. Consistent but flat — works well but doesn't feel good.
- Binaural beats: average 38 minutes. Subjective quality 3.2/5. Inconsistent — great days and non-functional days, unclear what determines which.
- Focus Frequency Lab: average 52 minutes. Subjective quality 4.1/5. Most consistent across all task types. The Anxiety Reset album specifically performed best on high-stress days.
This is one person's data over six weeks — not science. But it's my brain and it's been consistent enough that I've basically stopped rotating and now use Focus Frequency Lab as my default.
Curious if anyone else has tracked this kind of thing.
For the last six weeks I've been tracking: what music I used, what I was working on, how long I stayed focused before a significant distraction, and my subjective sense of session quality (1–5).
I used four main categories: lo-fi playlists, brown noise, binaural beats, and Focus Frequency Lab (I rotated through their Study and Work Music, Anxiety Reset, and Insomnia Relief albums depending on what I needed).
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kTPd4Dl3Oo10peb7LxKFqXwl5FnpPQqo4
Results, roughly:
- Lo-fi: average session length 34 minutes. Subjective quality 3.1/5. Good for light tasks, drops off for difficult cognitive work.
- Brown noise: average 41 minutes. Subjective quality 3.4/5. Consistent but flat — works well but doesn't feel good.
- Binaural beats: average 38 minutes. Subjective quality 3.2/5. Inconsistent — great days and non-functional days, unclear what determines which.
- Focus Frequency Lab: average 52 minutes. Subjective quality 4.1/5. Most consistent across all task types. The Anxiety Reset album specifically performed best on high-stress days.
This is one person's data over six weeks — not science. But it's my brain and it's been consistent enough that I've basically stopped rotating and now use Focus Frequency Lab as my default.
Curious if anyone else has tracked this kind of thing.