Field notes

What we know about sound and attention — from the research, and from building 1–2 hour focus sessions week after week. No hype, no healing frequencies; just what holds up.

Does music help you focus? What works and what doesn't
The honest overview: mood and masking, the lyrics problem, and how to match sound to task.
Deep work music: building a 2-hour session that actually works
Why session length beats song choice, and the four properties that survive hour two.
Music for coding: what programmers actually need
Interruption cost, the lyrics rule and its one exception, and picks by task phase.
Study music that doesn't distract
A student's guide by subject and study phase — encoding, practice, and self-testing.
Rain sounds for focus: why rain beats silence in a noisy world
Masking, predictability without repetition, and why real recordings beat synthesis.
Brown noise vs white noise: which should you use?
The noise colours in plain language, the ADHD question, and a simple decision rule.
Music for meditation: what to play and what to avoid
Sound as an anchor, the properties that make it meditative, and an honest note on "healing frequencies".
Binaural beats: what the evidence really says
A real auditory illusion, an unproven mechanism, and what to use instead or alongside.

Prefer to just press play? Every session applies these notes: Deep Work Lodge on YouTube.