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1:01

♪ Hey ♪ Hello

1:17

and welcome back to another episode of Beyond

1:20

the To-Do List. I am your host, Eric

1:22

Fischer, and this is the show where I talk to the people

1:25

behind the productivity. This week, it's a little

1:27

bit of a different kind of an episode. This is

1:29

a podcast conversation I actually

1:32

had on a different podcast.

1:34

Mindy Peterson of the Enhance Life

1:36

with Music podcast reached out

1:39

after she heard me talking with

1:41

Gretchen Rubin on this show earlier this

1:43

year about her book, The Five Senses, and

1:45

she could tell that I was just a huge music fan. And

1:48

in this conversation I had with her on her

1:50

show, that she was gracious enough to let me

1:52

use the audio for an episode of my show,

1:55

because honestly I just wanted to call attention to this conversation.

1:57

I had a fun time doing it, and honestly.

4:00

our lives better, whether we consider ourselves

4:02

musicians or not. And a lot

4:04

of times I'm talking to experts within

4:06

the music field. And I know

4:09

you love music, but it's not your

4:11

day job. And so I'm really excited to talk

4:13

about this topic from

4:15

your perspective. And just starting

4:17

out, can you tell us what your relationship with

4:19

music is, whether you have any

4:22

musical training in your background, when

4:24

you became aware of and especially interested

4:26

in music, how you discovered music and boost

4:29

your productivity. Tell us about your background

4:31

with music.

4:32

Yeah. Oh gosh. I'm going to try and

4:34

be as brief with this as I can, because there's a lot

4:37

of, as I was thinking back through my

4:39

music superhero origin story, there

4:41

were a lot of, you know, meaningful

4:44

beats to it, figuratively

4:46

and literally, I guess. And so

4:48

I guess it starts with it's in my genes,

4:51

my grandparents, especially my

4:53

grandfather, he had a grand piano

4:55

in the house and played it constantly

4:57

when we were there. And it was, you know, I

4:59

would hide underneath the piano while he was playing

5:02

and just hear it reverberate. And, you know,

5:04

I had no clue what music was. I just knew that

5:07

it was something that was constant and it was always

5:09

around. It was part of the atmosphere of that house.

5:13

And my grandmother played as well. They had different horns

5:15

and things. They grew up, both of

5:17

them as part of families

5:20

that were involved with the Salvation

5:22

Army. And obviously then the Salvation Army band.

5:25

And so then my mom, she

5:27

inherited that. And honestly,

5:30

the first time I ever encountered

5:32

the musical sound of music, I

5:34

thought, why is my mom singing

5:37

on this radio? Why? And

5:39

my mom had a, at least a little bit

5:41

of a similarity visual wise

5:44

to Julie Andrews, but she definitely could

5:46

sing like her. And

5:48

it was kind of almost an oppressive thing in some

5:51

senses, because it was like, oh my gosh, that's

5:53

my mom. And she's got that. Once I kind of came

5:55

to terms with, oh, she's

5:57

a really good singer when it comes to like, And

6:00

it was an undiscovered talent or

6:02

tool or whatever. It was just very,

6:05

very interesting. And so then, obviously,

6:07

as I grew up, my mom was very

6:10

encouraging and often nudging,

6:13

somewhat forcefully, to do

6:16

musical inclined things like choir

6:18

and church and things like that. Piano

6:20

lessons didn't really take... We all... Myself

6:23

and my two brothers, we played a lot and

6:25

learned different things on the

6:28

grand piano. At my grandparents, we had

6:30

a piano in our house at some point

6:32

for a stretch of time. But

6:35

none of us ever, the three of us, ever really

6:37

felt like we could master

6:39

or do the lessons that we were given.

6:42

It just didn't stick. You know, that's one of

6:44

those things you look back and you're like, man, I kind of wish I had

6:46

stuck with that. That would have been really cool. You know,

6:48

a lot of people have that regret, but whatever.

6:51

I did take the French horn

6:54

in fifth and sixth grade and

6:57

got pretty good with it. I was doing pretty

6:59

well with it. And going into junior

7:02

high, the awkwardness of being

7:04

in junior high, that kind of went out

7:07

the window fairly quickly. But by

7:09

that point, I was already recording

7:12

songs off the radio and scrolling

7:15

up and down the dial and hitting record when something would

7:17

come on. And I'm like, oh, this sounds cool. And

7:20

just capturing it and then replaying it. And

7:23

you know, basically that over

7:25

time morphed into making

7:27

mixtapes of things that

7:29

I recorded off either the radio or CDs

7:32

that I borrow from the library and sitting in

7:34

my room and pouring over liner notes

7:37

on different things like that. But

7:40

yeah, that is kind of the foundation,

7:43

I guess, is the best way to put it. childhood

7:47

up through junior high. And

7:49

then I started to become aware of, oh, I really like

7:52

this. Like, you know, being the reclusive introvert

7:54

that was in his room, listening

7:56

to music on CDs and just branching

7:59

out into all these. different directions. And I

8:01

think that was around the time I discovered the

8:03

Beatles and realized, oh,

8:06

they're doing something on a whole other level here.

8:08

And in fact, I've heard other people copying

8:10

them without knowing it all this time.

8:13

And it kind of became this key that unlocked everything

8:15

up till that point. There

8:18

is more, but I'm going to pause just to see if you

8:20

have any comments or questions. Yeah,

8:21

no, it's just so fun to hear

8:24

everybody's story. And when you mention

8:26

your grandparents having that piano and

8:29

hearing it when you were in that house and music

8:31

was just kind of infused in the experience

8:33

of being a part of that house. You know, it

8:35

just reminds me of how influential

8:38

our behavior is on the young

8:40

people in our lives, because you could have

8:42

had parents and grandparents who forcefully

8:45

nudged you as you invented. I love

8:47

that because that was me as a mother. But

8:51

you know, just experiencing how much

8:53

your grandfather loved music

8:55

and implemented it into his life

8:58

was, I'm sure, hugely influential

9:00

on you, maybe without you even realizing it.

9:03

Now, I know you've mentioned in podcast

9:05

episodes before how when

9:07

you were in college, I think you had a semester off

9:10

and you mentioned this experience of working

9:12

in a warehouse, I think, and

9:16

using music to really

9:18

kind of transform your perception of time.

9:20

Was that sort of the first time that you

9:23

remember or recall using music

9:26

to sort of enhance your productivity

9:28

or just your life experience of a certain,

9:31

in this case, a job? That's

9:33

exactly right. I'm glad you brought that up because that really is

9:35

kind of the next beat. There's a little bit of

9:37

a preamble to that, which is so once

9:40

I noticed and became aware of how

9:42

much I liked music, I kind of leaned into

9:44

it. Part of the gig of going

9:47

to that warehouse every day was I would walk by

9:49

the library on the way there

9:51

and back. So in the morning, I would

9:53

be dropping things off into

9:56

the book drop. And on the way home, I would

9:58

stop and I would look more things off.

12:00

And I just would get

12:03

to the point where I felt like my mind

12:05

was not functioning anymore

12:07

because I was so bored.

12:10

And if you can keep your mind engaged in other

12:12

ways, then it keeps you sharp for when you

12:15

do need to

12:16

use your brain for your job, even if the job

12:19

is boring in the sense that it's mainly say

12:21

manual labor that doesn't require

12:24

mental activity.

12:25

Yeah, exactly. At some point I came across,

12:27

and you may have had somebody else bring this up on the

12:30

show before, but there's actually

12:32

a couple Kurt Vonnegut quotes. And

12:34

one of them that I thought of while I was thinking about this

12:36

was, he says, music to

12:39

me is proof of the existence of

12:41

God. It is so extraordinarily

12:43

full of magic and in tough times of my life,

12:46

I can listen to music and it makes such

12:48

a difference.

12:49

I have not had

12:50

that come up on the podcast before. So I'm

12:52

glad you mentioned that. I love that. I'll have

12:54

to look that quote up. He has another one too that

12:57

kind of ties in. He says, if I should ever

12:59

die, God forbid, let this be

13:01

my epitaph. The only proof

13:03

he needed for the existence of God was

13:05

music.

13:06

Wow. Yeah.

13:08

I love those. So it was around this

13:10

time that I suddenly found, wait, music

13:12

has power and I was unaware

13:15

of it up until this point. I was

13:17

kind of playing with it. It was like,

13:19

oh, the fire kept me warm up until that point. But

13:21

then I realized, oh, I get kind

13:24

of a science behind this.

13:26

Yeah. So since that time,

13:28

what are some of the ways that you have

13:31

found that you can implement music in your personal

13:33

life, your professional life? Do you have

13:35

favorite ways to use music

13:37

to enhance productivity or

13:39

enrich your life?

13:41

Yeah, there's a lot of different ways. So there's a couple of different directions

13:43

I can go here. One is I

13:46

love to drive and for a while

13:48

there post college, I had a job

13:50

where I was a courier and

13:52

would drive an hour a

13:55

day twice, five times

13:57

a week, and then do other things at that building.

14:00

you know, deliver packages, things like that. But

14:02

that was like two, that was 10 hours of drive

14:05

time a week. Suddenly that

14:07

I was like doing, I was basically doing carpool

14:10

karaoke. And

14:12

it was super fun and it would make it go, it would

14:14

make it go super fast. It was enjoyable.

14:17

And you know, and the thing is, is

14:19

like one of the trips home each day

14:21

was in the evening from like 10 30 to 11 30 at night. I

14:25

don't want to be listening to calm music

14:28

at that time. So, you know, I should be starting

14:30

to, yeah, exactly. So it

14:32

was all about, you know, curation and

14:35

deciding, you know, what's the upbeat

14:37

music that's going to keep me awake at that time. Music

14:40

has a lot to do with mood and motivation.

14:42

So motivation is another thing that

14:45

can help. Like if I'm just dragging, it just

14:47

makes sense. Like I've got certain playlists

14:50

that I've got set up. It's like, I'm

14:52

trying to, I'm pausing

14:54

to try and not say the words out loud so

14:56

that speakers that play those

14:59

things don't hear me fall them

15:01

into action while we're recording. But

15:04

I'll say, hey, device, there

15:06

you go. That doesn't trigger anything. Hey, device, play

15:08

this playlist and I'll call it my name

15:10

and it'll then, you know, do that. And once in a while

15:12

I'll change those playlists up. But it's like, as

15:15

soon as that first, you know, beat of that

15:17

first song hits, it's like, there you go. And,

15:19

you know, I've got certain ones, there's, there's

15:21

certain albums that I've found that are like, you

15:24

know, it's maybe electronica or something

15:26

like that. That's like, it's a 35 minute playlist

15:28

or the whole album is 35 minutes. And it's like

15:31

the perfect duration to say, okay, I'm

15:33

going to sit down and do this one thing

15:35

and it's going to take me maybe a half hour. And

15:38

that album from start to finish, once

15:40

it ends, it's like, oh, break time.

15:42

Oh, interesting. I've

15:45

heard parents say that they

15:47

will ask their kids to

15:50

clean up

15:51

for one song.

15:52

So that's sort of a similar concept. Oh,

15:55

that's brilliant. I got to use that. I know.

15:58

And the thing is, is I can tell. that

16:00

my habits are rubbing off on my kids because

16:04

they love listening to music. They're humming

16:06

earworms that they've heard in the car with

16:08

us, but my son, who

16:11

I have to ask to clean his room all the time, he

16:13

will put music on in his room and

16:15

then he can spend time in there and clean and do

16:18

things like that. So mood and motivation,

16:21

setting at certain time duration, resetting

16:26

your mind. And here's the thing, one

16:28

of the things that I wanna call attention to is sometimes, like

16:31

I did this morning actually, and I actually thought about

16:33

this while I was walking. I took a walk

16:35

outside around the block. It takes about 15

16:38

minutes to do a full rotation. Often

16:40

I, in the past, would go out

16:43

and have headphones in and I would either listen to music

16:46

or a podcast. Podcasts,

16:48

man, that wreaks havoc on your music, listening to

16:50

a pot. And so that's

16:53

a whole other topic right there. But

16:56

I went out and I had nothing in my ears and

16:58

I thought, I'm just gonna go and walk

17:00

in silence. And so that's another way,

17:03

I know that's the absence of music, but it

17:06

actually isn't, the key here is intentionality.

17:09

It's that I'm going to go outside and I'm

17:11

going to walk without background noise

17:14

that I am pumping into my ears, you know?

17:16

Well, and there's a song about that, the sound of silence.

17:18

Yeah. So

17:21

that's some of the different ways. Now, one of the things I actually

17:23

didn't mention in my whole background there was

17:25

at some point in, I think

17:27

it was around that junior high time, I

17:30

started falling asleep listening to

17:32

music and I have ever since. It's

17:35

a habit for better or for worse.

17:38

It drowns out friends

17:40

and roommates and wives snoring

17:44

and my own snoring, I guess, for others. But,

17:47

and I have listened to podcasts going

17:49

to sleep too. I've kind of put them on a sleep timer. I

17:52

do that with the music as well. The

17:54

form and function of it has changed over time, but

17:56

it started off as just, oh,

17:58

this kind of. of distracts my mind

18:01

at the end of the day and helps me fall asleep quickly.

18:04

And there would be times where I would

18:06

suddenly find I'd remembered or

18:09

inadvertently, almost through osmosis,

18:12

memorized certain albums

18:15

because I would play them as I'd go to sleep and then I'd

18:17

wake up and be like, wow, I really know this and

18:19

I didn't know it, that I knew it.

18:21

Well, yeah, I mean, there's some interesting studies

18:23

in science on how sleep

18:26

affects our memory and so I imagine

18:28

whatever you're hearing as you're falling asleep

18:31

can feed into that somehow.

18:33

Yeah.

18:33

You mentioned how music

18:36

can alter our time perception, it can alter

18:38

our mood. Are there

18:40

any thoughts that you have

18:42

on the relationship between how music

18:45

and productivity intersect with factors

18:47

like stress management and

18:49

creativity? Yeah,

18:51

well, and here's the thing. I think

18:53

that, again, this is why I have different playlists

18:56

set up. So when I want

18:58

to be creative, again, sometimes

19:00

it's about focusing on the task at hand

19:02

and I have tools for that. There's a certain

19:04

tool that I use that gets you in a certain

19:07

brain wave length or

19:09

brain, I don't know, but anyway. Yeah,

19:12

I mean, I think I know what you're talking about

19:14

and I want to come back to that, but keep going. So

19:16

we can come back to that one. I want to put that aside.

19:19

But what I have found, because I also

19:21

have diagnosed ADHD

19:24

and this plays a factor into that, but it does for

19:26

other people as well regardless, because we all have symptoms

19:29

of that to a certain extent based on technology

19:31

of these days. It's just a fact, in

19:34

my mind at least. It

19:36

has a lot to do with resetting things.

19:39

It's kind of why sometimes when you walk through a room

19:42

or the doorway to a room, you're like,

19:44

now, what did I come in here for? And

19:46

you've got to reset. You've got to pull your attention

19:48

back. It's all about intentionality. And so what

19:51

I was talking about earlier of your

19:53

mood or how motivated you feel or how energetic

19:56

you feel or if you just feel like you're distracted

19:58

or

19:59

whatever.

19:59

it comes down to having

20:02

a certain amount of momentum.

20:06

It's almost like unleashing a wave and then

20:08

you ride it like surfboard. I

20:11

like that. I

20:13

guess let's go with this. Let's lean in on

20:16

this. So imagine that music is

20:18

this big wide

20:20

wall with all these different doors, and

20:22

you go up to them and you decide, okay, I'm

20:25

feeling this and I want to feel this

20:28

or need to feel this in order

20:30

to do this. Want

20:33

it to take self-awareness of who

20:35

I am and how I feel right now,

20:38

awareness of what I need to do and

20:40

where I need to go. Then

20:42

you walk along and say, oh, there it is. Then you

20:44

push the button and the water

20:46

just pours out and you grab your surfboard and jump on

20:48

and just ride it. That

20:51

helps because one, if

20:54

you're just in a funk,

20:57

one,

20:57

music can really pull you out of it,

21:00

or two, music can really help you stay

21:02

there if you want to wallow in it, if that's a creative

21:05

function for you. That could

21:07

be helpful in processing it too.

21:10

You can stay and sit in it

21:12

and have the music help you work through

21:14

it. Yes, that's one of the other, I don't want to

21:17

just say, music makes me happy and it

21:19

makes me feel good all the time. No, music

21:21

makes me feel period. It's

21:24

about which thing you need to do. Do I need

21:26

to use it to process something

21:28

or do I need it to lift me up out of?

21:31

Do I need it to distract

21:33

me from how I'm feeling, or

21:35

do I need it to help me really lean

21:38

in and be creative? If I want to play,

21:41

I don't know, funk music and if that

21:43

helps you be creative or something, I don't know, classical.

21:46

Actually, here's another function of that. If you want

21:48

to be creative, one of the things you can

21:50

do is play certain kinds of music because

21:52

music, much like smell, is

21:55

another sense that is tied into memory.

21:58

I can't hear certain. types of classical music

22:01

without feeling like I'm sitting back at

22:03

the kitchen table in

22:06

my grandparents' house that I talked about earlier

22:09

and feel like I just woke up after sleeping in

22:11

and woke up there at their house and

22:14

it's time for breakfast and there's a public radio station

22:16

playing classical music. And so that brings me right

22:18

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22:21

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your podcasts. Well,

25:50

those are some really insightful practical

25:52

ways about how to use and utilize

25:55

music as a very functional tool

25:57

in your life. And I love how

25:59

you talk. about using

26:02

music for getting momentum,

26:04

for falling asleep, for

26:06

staying awake, for

26:09

being creative, for processing

26:11

bad feelings. I mean, there's so many

26:13

different ways to use music. I know there's

26:15

certain music I listen to every night

26:18

as I'm winding down. It's

26:20

like Spotify playlist

26:23

for Enya, because it's like that kind

26:25

of music just helps me wind down. And

26:28

it's totally different than music I listen to when

26:30

I'm cleaning, or when I'm driving,

26:33

or you mentioned classical music, and

26:36

also kind of hitting the reset button. For

26:38

some reason, sitting through live

26:40

classical music, for me,

26:42

is like a massage for my brain.

26:45

I just walk out of there feeling like I

26:48

have homeostasis, like everything

26:50

has been equalized. I have equilibrium

26:52

again. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but

26:54

I love how you talk about all of these different

26:57

functions, and how we can be intentional

26:59

about using music

27:00

to accomplish the end goal that we

27:02

want. Yeah, yeah. There's so much

27:04

power to it. And again, it's really all about,

27:06

again, recognizing what

27:09

the state is that you're in currently,

27:11

what the activity is that you need,

27:13

and what state is required for that, and then

27:16

basically picking and choosing and moving

27:19

that direction. And again, it may be, you know,

27:21

there may be one artist or something like that,

27:24

that runs the spectrum for you, which

27:26

is kind of cool.

27:27

Yeah.

27:28

All right, let's go back to that tool that you were

27:30

mentioning. One question

27:32

I was gonna ask, and we kind of hit this a little

27:35

bit, are there any specific tools

27:37

or apps or technologies that you recommend

27:39

for individuals who are looking to

27:41

utilize music

27:42

for productivity? And you sort of alluded

27:44

to one. Go ahead and tell us about

27:46

it. Yeah, well, aside from really

27:49

good noise-canceling headphones, which come in handy

27:51

all the time, whether you're out and about

27:53

working here or there, or need

27:56

to block out people that are working in the same home

27:58

as you, and you. need to be productive

28:00

in that sense. And honestly, it just

28:02

helps you hear the music that you're listening to better.

28:05

One of the tools that I have found

28:08

for years now really works for me

28:10

as Brain FM. And

28:12

it's essentially music

28:15

that is scientifically proven

28:17

to increase focus. It's

28:20

not necessarily... Well, it is music and

28:22

it isn't. There's no lyrics. There's

28:25

no singing. There's no sound

28:27

design in it that is going to

28:29

sound close to, as I think

28:31

they've explained it before to me, like

28:33

a human voice because that can be

28:36

somewhat distracting and pull you out of

28:38

it. But what

28:40

it is is it is essentially they

28:43

worked with academic institutions and

28:45

ran experiments and observed

28:47

the effects of the brain using

28:49

EEG machines and MRI

28:51

machines as certain types of

28:54

sound design. And when I say sound design,

28:56

that makes it sound like it's not music. No, it actually

28:58

is. There's all different kinds, like

29:01

classical and electronic

29:03

and things like that. But they did a test

29:06

with this alongside of

29:08

a placebo and they found

29:10

that by choosing one

29:12

different styles of music, but also

29:15

more importantly, different outcomes.

29:17

So for example, there's one that's for resting. There's

29:21

one for napping. There's for focus.

29:24

There's for creativity. And what

29:26

it does is it gets you essentially it's called

29:28

phase locking, neural phase locking.

29:31

As you listen to the music, it gets

29:33

your brain locked

29:36

into that phase where it's easier

29:39

for it to do certain tasks.

29:42

I know you've mentioned brain FM

29:44

on your episodes and I need

29:46

to dig into that because it does sound really

29:49

fascinating.

29:49

Yeah. Some

29:52

people may have heard of binaural beats

29:54

in the past. It's not

29:56

that. It's got a much

29:58

stronger effect. I tried that before

30:00

and had a little bit of an effect with it. But

30:03

when I came across this, I realized, oh,

30:05

okay, so this means

30:07

that I can get results. I

30:11

really only use it when I want results. I

30:13

kinda liken it to, especially with the productivity

30:15

aspect of it, I like to think of it as

30:17

the Clydesdale horses,

30:20

where they've got those blinders on their eyes,

30:23

they only look forward, it's kinda like that. It

30:25

kinda removes that fight or flight mechanism

30:28

from your brain and keeps you seated

30:31

in the place where you are, staring straight ahead

30:33

and getting the thing done that you need to get done. That's

30:36

the focus aspect of it. But like I

30:39

said, I've used it to take naps that

30:41

have been much more restful than regular ones. You

30:43

can have it playing for hours at the time

30:46

at night and it will get you into

30:48

a deeper sleep zone as well.

30:51

So that is another option.

30:52

Interesting. And that is an app,

30:55

right? Yes. Okay, we'll definitely

30:57

include links in the show notes to that. And like

30:59

I said, I wanna dive into that and check

31:01

that out on my own too. There

31:03

was a former guest quite a while ago

31:06

on this podcast, Charlene Habermeyer,

31:08

who curated a Spotify

31:10

playlist that's really

31:13

to help concentrate. Like if you're trying to

31:15

get work done, it's classical music

31:17

that's been specially selected for

31:19

its ability to help you concentrate and focus.

31:22

And when I interviewed her, it was sort of

31:24

early on in COVID when all

31:26

my kids, my kids were here, my husband,

31:29

we were all right on top of each other. And

31:31

so it was great timing. Cause I was like, oh

31:33

my goodness, signed me up for this. And

31:35

I still use it. We were driving

31:37

home on Saturday from

31:40

Michigan, visiting relatives

31:42

over the 4th of July. And

31:45

on the way home, my husband was driving, he had

31:47

the radio going and I was trying to get some work

31:49

done. And so just pop those earbuds

31:52

in, turn that Spotify playlist

31:54

on. And so I was listening to that music and able to

31:56

completely focus on what I was doing without

31:58

being distracted by.

31:59

the talk radio and

32:02

music that he had going. Yeah, and

32:04

that's what gave me initially, well there was something

32:06

else I used to use, but then I found this. Actually

32:09

there's one other thing, and you've probably never heard of this. This

32:12

is a productivity trick that I've heard that actually involves

32:15

actual music. And

32:18

it was, gosh, I

32:20

don't know if I should even open this can of worms, but let's

32:22

just say this. I heard it from

32:25

somebody and I tried it. What

32:27

it is, is you find a singular

32:30

song that you aren't going

32:32

to hate after you do

32:34

this. You put it in a playlist by itself

32:37

and you put it on repeat so

32:40

that when it starts, it plays and

32:42

it gets you there. Whatever

32:44

it is about that song, you want to be careful about the selecting

32:47

of the song, but you pick that song, you start

32:49

it up, you have it go, and then when it finishes,

32:51

it starts over again immediately. And

32:53

it kind of just creates this state

32:56

of when this song is playing, I

32:58

am doing this. And

33:01

it's like if you're doing loops or if

33:04

it was a super loud song or something, I

33:06

have done it. I picked a particular

33:08

U2 song and I had it go

33:11

for, it was what, a three

33:13

and a half something like that minute

33:16

song. And I think I found

33:18

that I did it for almost an hour one time. Really?

33:21

And this would drive people nuts. Some people would be like, oh my gosh,

33:23

no, I can't listen to the same song over and over

33:25

and over again. I could totally do it. I

33:27

think you have to try it. Yeah. I

33:30

think you have to, and I think it might be, you either maybe have it, one,

33:32

it may not be for you given. Two,

33:35

it might be that you picked the wrong song by

33:37

the wrong person and you don't want you careful to not

33:39

ruin the song because you don't want to play it

33:41

out, so to speak. But good music

33:44

can't be played out, right? Let's just

33:46

live with that.

33:46

Yeah, yeah. No, I'm with you. As

33:48

you're describing this, I'm thinking, I've

33:50

sort of unconsciously done this

33:52

before. Like if I'm thinking, just kind

33:54

of try to process a certain topic, there

33:57

could be a song that just

33:59

is right. for

34:01

whatever it is I'm contemplating and reflecting

34:04

on and trying to work through. Sometimes

34:06

I will like if I'm in the car, I'll just like hit

34:09

the repeat one, tap

34:11

it until it gets to that and it'll just keep repeating

34:13

that same song. Because otherwise,

34:15

it's like you get in this groove where you're really

34:18

processing things and then it switches

34:20

to a completely different song. You're like, no,

34:23

let's go back.

34:23

Yeah. So I totally

34:25

get what you're doing, what you're talking about.

34:28

Yeah, I think that's great.

34:29

Yeah. So that's another, I

34:32

can't believe I hadn't even thought about that in a while. I haven't done

34:34

it in a while. Although I considered it

34:36

because there was a song that came out as a single

34:38

by somebody a couple weeks ago,

34:41

days ago, and I thought this might be another song

34:43

like that. I just hadn't even thought about it that way.

34:46

Well, before we run out of time, just

34:49

real quick, do you, in your opinion,

34:51

do you have any ideas about what the

34:53

future of music's role could be

34:55

and enhancing productivity? Are there any

34:58

new developments?

34:59

Yeah. There's been a couple

35:02

things that tie together, and again, I love the

35:04

Beatles, so it all comes back to them for me with

35:06

that. I remember recently reading

35:08

that with all the hype of AI recently,

35:11

that there's been algorithms that have been

35:13

able to clean up audio of John

35:16

Lennon that now will

35:18

be able to be used by

35:21

Paul in a song that they never officially

35:23

recorded or something like that. Yes. Yeah. They

35:27

did that a little bit back in the day of

35:29

the mid-90s with the Beatles anthology, but with

35:31

AI enhancement, knowing

35:33

what it's supposed to sound like, I mean, again, I'm not going to pretend

35:36

to know what I'm talking about here, but I think

35:38

that's the way things are going. That's

35:40

more of an archival and cleanup

35:43

and use for current purposes kind

35:45

of a thing. But again, I'm curious if

35:47

there's a way that, like we talked about with Brain

35:49

FM, if merging that

35:51

with somehow AI in the coming

35:54

future, we'll be able to particularly,

35:57

there'll be you wear your aura. Ring

36:00

which is another tool out there that senses mood

36:02

heartbeat all these different kinds of things and. Works

36:05

algorithmically with the ring to

36:08

an ai to headphones you have

36:10

in that help you know i

36:13

can see your energy starting to let me play

36:15

you some music that will hurt you back

36:17

up. You know i don't

36:19

know what enough about you with your consent. Help

36:23

you in that way i guess is that's where

36:25

i'm seeing things maybe go yeah

36:27

what are you. Some apps

36:29

are already starting to get there that

36:31

are specially designed for the

36:33

elderly people dementia because

36:36

that's an area where we

36:38

will get really benefit from that partly

36:40

because that musical memory is the last to fade

36:42

away so even people who. May

36:44

not recognize their loved ones will

36:47

still really respond to music

36:49

and so. I'm interesting to

36:51

see what the latest developments are

36:53

but i know i've had people as a on

36:55

this podcast were. Talking about

36:58

sort of that type of an aspect

37:00

not quite to the point of like an or a ring

37:02

but yeah moving that direction

37:05

so really fascinating

37:06

stuff yeah.

37:07

Well i already told listeners a little

37:10

bit about your your podcast but

37:12

before we close things out with a coda what

37:15

else do you want listeners to know about

37:17

the beyond the to do list podcast

37:19

obviously i'm a huge fan and i highly

37:21

recommend that. What is

37:24

interesting about my relationship with

37:26

your podcast is it's one of those podcast

37:28

that i listen to regularly

37:31

just like as a guilty pleasure

37:33

it's not. I got certain podcast

37:35

that i listen to because i feel like i should because

37:38

it's news and i want to see informed or

37:40

it's work related or it's

37:43

like spiritual formation that i just feel

37:45

like i. Want to be intentional

37:47

about doing that but yours is

37:49

like i just listen cuz

37:50

i really enjoy it i have those two yes. Yeah

37:54

so yeah so anything else that

37:56

we haven't already mentioned about the beyond the to

37:58

do list podcast the u.s. want to let listeners

38:00

know.

38:01

Yeah, I mean, ultimately, it's not,

38:04

it's, it's called beyond the to-do list because it's

38:06

about the broad spectrum of

38:08

productivity. It's often about not doing

38:11

things. So if productivity

38:13

has you feeling guilty about

38:15

what you're, if you're doing enough

38:18

or not, or you feel like you're not doing

38:20

enough, I think you'll find the kindred spirit

38:22

in me and my guests. That's not to

38:24

say that we don't like say, okay, here's how to hustle

38:26

at a moment's notice when you really need to. That

38:28

is not the focus of productivity for me.

38:31

And it's not what productivity is all about. This

38:33

is all about living a better life so it means

38:36

knowing when to do things and when not to

38:38

do things. And this episode would have

38:40

fit perfectly inside of my show.

38:43

So if you enjoyed this conversation,

38:45

I think you'll enjoy the show. That's

38:49

another podcast crossed off your listening

38:51

to do list or should I say playlist? Thank

38:54

you so much for listening. I hope that you enjoyed

38:56

this flipping of the script and

38:58

the flipping of the mic from around

39:01

the other side of the table or however you want to put

39:03

it. I had a great time talking with Mindy. I had a great time

39:05

talking about this topic specifically,

39:08

my history with music, as well

39:11

as all the different things that

39:13

music can do to enrich your

39:15

life. There are so many different aspects. Honestly,

39:18

through this conversation, you were awakened

39:20

to some other ways that

39:22

music can enrich your life in

39:25

some way, form or fashion.

39:27

I hope that you have found that music

39:29

is not just for passing the time. It's kind

39:32

of, in fact, there's I should have

39:34

found this. There is a quote out there

39:36

and I sent it to one of my musician

39:38

friends immediately that music

39:41

is kind of the way you decorate time or some

39:43

other paraphrasing of that. But anyway,

39:46

I really hope that you enjoyed this conversation. If you

39:48

did, make sure to go to the show notes. One,

39:50

check out our sponsors to support the show. Two,

39:53

drop your email in, jump in on the email

39:55

list for this show so you get

39:57

weekly updates, as well as my three. productivity

40:00

tips for the week and you will also find

40:02

the link for Brain FM and my discount

40:05

there and the link to Enhance

40:07

Life Music Podcast with Mindy

40:09

Peterson. If you found this

40:11

podcast helpful, one, make sure to go check out Mindy's

40:14

show, but two, share this episode out

40:16

to somebody that you know needs to hear it. Maybe

40:18

they're a music fan, but they haven't tried some

40:20

of the ways that music can help you with

40:22

your productivity and enhance your life even more

40:25

than just background noise. Share this

40:27

episode with them. Let them know about it. Click that

40:29

share button in your podcast player app of choice. Let

40:31

them know you were thinking of them as you heard this.

40:34

Thank you again for doing me that favor. Thank

40:36

you for sharing this episode. Thank you for listening

40:39

and I will see you next episode.

41:15

Are you ready to create more predictable income

41:17

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41:20

Abigail Pumphrey, host of the Strategy Hour Podcast

41:23

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41:25

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