Listening to music is probably one of the most fulfilling activities one can do. It can boost your mood, calm you down, and help you reflect. However, we tend to forget that what makes listening to music such a great activity is its natural ability to be paired with anything else. There is a long list of things to do while listening to music and blasting your favorite tunes while doing other activities makes things 100% more entertaining and, surprisingly, more productive even. With that said, we’ve listed some of the tasks you can do all with your music turned up. To make things more interesting, we’ve also compiled some facts that you may or may not have encountered yet about music and your favorite activities. Let’s get started!
Go for a Walk
Walking is perhaps the most basic form of physical exercise you can get yet it is one of the most calming and effective of them all. With that said, whether you allot a specific time of the day to walk or you just walk as a part of your daily commute, this activity is still high on the list of what to do when listening to music. It is given that improving your mood and pumping you up are some of the biggest benefits of listening to music while running. However, on a more detailed and a little nerdy scope of things, music can actually steady you walking rhythm, speed, stride, length, and etc. Dragon Boating has benefitted from the beats provided by their drum so why can’t you do the same thing for your morning runs, right? Also, you don’t have to be the only one to benefit from the pacing perks of music. If you would like it, you could always take your dog with you so that you could both get the physical activity that you need.
Get Your Creativity Flowing
Creativity is an artist’s bread and butter. However, to mere mortals like us, doing art can still be a great source of enjoyment and relaxation. Fortunately, this activity is something that can be enhanced even further by music. In fact, a lot of research has shown that music can get those coveted creative juices flowing! As established earlier in this article, music can boost our mood and relax our minds. Now, the more relaxed your mind is, the better it will perform, and the higher the chance you’ll get one of Jimmy Neutron’s brain blasts. The reason behind this is that brain activity while listening to music increases by a ton so blasting your favorite tunes during an art session is not a bad idea at all.
Work Out at Home
Can’t go for your usual evening run because of the pandemic? Well, you might want to consider working out at home instead. Fortunately, listening to music while working out has its own merits as well. Music can boost you mentally and unlock your inner Rocky Balboa easily. If you have been regularly working out at home the past few months, chances are you’ve built your own playlist already containing the songs that hype you the most — probably containing rock, alternative music, or hip-hop. Apart from strength training, another one on the list of what to do when listening to music is Zumba. In fact, music is a requirement for Zumba and we are not complaining. With the power of a good tune, Zumba can turn from a tiring dancing activity to an upbeat and memorable one.
Play Some Games
Games and music go well together as proven by the countless memorable tracks played on both console and mobile games such as FIFA and Call of Duty. Listening to music while playing these games can intensify the mood or calm you down. Apart from those, other examples of games to play while listening to music are simple ones you can play with your family such as Uno or the usual board games. You don’t often need to listen for auditory clues for family-oriented games so playing music should be fine. Much like the other activities mentioned above, playing games can also be one of the best things to do while listening to a podcast due to its very calm (unless you’re being super competitive) nature.
Cook or Bake
We got gamers, runners, artists, and now, chefs. Cooking is another activity where music can play a huge role, particularly to slow things down or make you feel like you’re in Ratatouille. Cooking with songs you can dance to can be quite a pairing too! If you cook to destress, a non-lyrical slow and steady classical composition might help you meditate even better. On the other hand, if you treat cooking as a chore, listening to your favorite songs might ease the burden a little bit. You may check out the “Ultimate Cooking Playlist” on Spotify to know some of the tracks you can listen to. Give it a shot and see which ones you might like.
Study or Work
Some might say this is debatable and we perfectly understand why. In fact, even the research community is divided when it comes to this topic. The idea that music boosts academic intelligence came from one of the most controversial and famous studies called the ‘Mozart Effect’. This refers to the claim that listening to Mozart’s music can increase your general intelligence. However, this study has actually long been disproven with more studies claiming that the relevance of music and raising one’s IQ is still unknown. So if you’re one of those who like to create your own world with noise-canceling headphones while studying or working, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Do Household Chores
Last but not the least, good songs have the ability to turn any dull situation into a memorable one so it’s just right to include doing household chores in this list of what to do when listening to music. We’ve established how music can make cooking so much better and other chores deserve the same love too. Whether you’re cleaning your place, washing the dishes, or doing the laundry, hearing (or even singing) your favorite songs would surely make things more than bearable. Much like working out, though, wireless headphones are recommended to eliminate the chances of getting interrupted by those cords.
Conclusion
Music just makes everything so much better. Case in point, a lot of people hate running but continuously dream of its health benefits. Well, from fitness goals to boring chores, music is the answer — so let it guide you. In the end, we all have our go-to songs and these songs are branded as such because they make us feel a certain way. Pair these with any given task and you sure would end up with a memorable time. That’s almost a guarantee! What about you? What other tasks do you love doing or have grown to love because of music? Tell us about it in the comments section.
