Over at the LifeHack blog, the topic of the week is music and work.  The post talks about how music supports productivity, and get you into the right working mode. The perfect song can help you get through difficult times and mental blocks alike.  When you hear your favorite song, you become a different person. The song that boosts your energy and lifts your spirits shouldn’t be discounted as a valuable part of your workday.  According to Patricia Preston-Roberts, a board-certified music therapist in New York City, singing can lower heart rate and decrease blood pressure. Medically speaking, it’s an instant stress-reliever.

This was something, I realized, that I’d never thought about before.  I’ve always taken for granted the role that music plays in my work, and haven’t paid attention to how inspired I’m able to be with and without it.  I work in my corporate office in silence, and I’ve often complained that the environment is stifling when I need to brainstorm or generate creative ideas for a new client or project.  Some of my colleagues have overcome this by syncing their iPods to their desktops.  One of them even sends around a Monday “rock out” audio file to get everyone jazzed for the coming week. 

When I’m working on a new book at home, though, my tradition is to put together a soundtrack for it.  I choose the songs based on their lyrics and tone, so that listening will put me in the perfect mood to communicate the right messages to my audience.  For example, when writing my latest nonfiction career book for 20 and 30-somethings, How’d You Score THAT Gig?, I jammed to the White Stripes and Franz Ferdinand on iTunes.  My new novel, on the other hand, requires the much more mellow sensibilities of Damien Rice and Duncan Sheik. 

Do you have a theme song (or songs) for work?  And if you listen to it in an office setting, how do your boss and colleagues feel about it?