Having My Cake and Eating it, too

I love listening to music. Listening to music makes me a more cheerful person -- life is more dreary without music. I'm not sure I've ever been one who particularly enjoys making music; but I enjoy listening to it. Life is just better with a soundtrack.

When I was in high school & college, I always did my math homework with music playing -- I was always able to knock out mathematics while also enjoying tunes at the same time. In some ways listening to music raised my efficiency level because it kept my mind from wandering & being distracted -- I'd knock out my homework quicker with music playing. However, when it came to my English Composition & Literature classes, I could never pull off the same feat. Music was a major distraction to me while I attempted to read & write -- the lyrics of the songs would compete with the content of my homework for my attention.

Now that my vocation consists in large part of reading and writing, I've not been able to enjoy music at the same time as I work... that is, until just a couple of weeks ago. I've recently discovered a way to listen to music while I'm working. I wish I had made this discovery ten years ago! I've figured out that I can listen to instrument-only music & raise my level of productivity in reading/writing projects!

(My use of exclamation points should express to you how much this means to me!!)

There is a wonderful web site on the internet called "Pandora." It is an internet radio station, but not any ordinary station. At Pandora you can create your own personal station & seed it with your own musical tastes. So a couple of weeks ago I created a station called No Vocal Radio that plays great music without lyrics. I can vote "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" on whether I like the music that's played or not. Pandora is simply the most wonderful music site on the planet.

I've thrived in my work the last couple of weeks because of the creation of NVR. I've discovered a bunch of new music that I never thought I would enjoy but do. I now listen to anything from John Williams to Explosions in the Sky to Ronald Jenkees. And since Pandora helps you discover new music, I've just begun to enjoy the musical stylings of Georges Bizet and Apocalyptica.

Check out NVR or make your own Pandora station, and add an awesome soundtrack to your life.