Last.FM and my Productivity.

So I like to listen to music when I have to write or work on something. It allows me to tune out the rest of the world and just focus on what I'm trying to do for the most part. A big part of listening to music is that it motivates me to do the work. The problem with this is that I can't have music that I know too well, particularly I can't have music that I can sing along to. Cause it makes me look like an idiot when I start singing with headphones in. As it is, when I'm grooving along to music I'm very aware that the office door is almost closed and I'm alone, most of the time. Also if I know the music too well I end up just listening instead of working. 

The two ways I then make this work for me is to listen to specific types of music depending on the task at hand. When I need to read, I need light instramental music like The Album leaf. When I need to write, The Album leaf and the like usually works, or some girly music that I don't know too well. This is how I found Tristan Prettyman. Unfortunatly I know her music too well now to work to. If I really REALLY need to write and I must have power and energy in my words. It has to be daft punk and the like. The second technique is Radio. I used to use Pandora all the time and loved that it suggested other music that I had never heard of. Well Pandora doesn't love Canada anymore so now I use Last.Fm. And really the only reason I had used pandora instead of last.fm is the order in which I found the sites. They are both great because you can create a station and grow it over time, you can skip song you don't like and you can learn all about new artist. So basically I pick my mood based on what I'm working on and pick a station to match. 

It's great.