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Music for Productivity and Focus

Beat the obsession, take back control, and use music to focus rather than distract

Niklas Göke
Published in
15 min readNov 3, 2017

If you’re listening to music right now, please, press pause.The following is a musical without sound in three acts.Act I:   The Fight That Turned Into A War
Act II: Compulsive Listening On The Rise
Act III: Give Up Power, Take Back Control

On 17th of September 2016, I canceled my Spotify Premium subscription.
I wasn’t unhappy or couldn’t afford it any longer. I had been a raving customer for over three years. I wasn’t even sure why I did it at the time, but now I know:

I needed to stop using Spotify to save myself.

In August 1994, a CD of Sting’s album Ten Summoner’s Tales became the first ever purchase made on the internet, for $12.48 plus shipping. I can’t decide which part of that sentence is the hardest to believe today: that we had to ship music once, that it cost extra, or that anyone would pay $12.48 for a single album.

And yet, those things felt normal not that long ago. I’m only 26, but I still remember doing all of them. I would save some cash, go to a website and order CDs from my favorite bands. I had a clunky Discman, a space hogging CD rack, a big pair of headphones and a drawer full…

Better Humans
Better Humans

Published in Better Humans

Better Humans is one of the largest and oldest Medium’s publications on self-improvement and personal development. Our goal is to bring you the world’s most helpful writing on human potential.

Niklas Göke
Niklas Göke

Written by Niklas Göke

I write for dreamers, doers, and unbroken optimists. Read my daily blog here: https://nik.art/

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