The Sound of Focus: Training Your Attention

Lessons from the Long Haul

There's a particular kind of quiet that settles over my desk in the early morning—my first espresso still steaming, headphones on, acoustic piano streaming, and digital stacks of climate reports that seem to multiply overnight. It's in these early moments, before the urgency of deadlines and the weight of planetary crisis press in, that I remember why this work chose me.

I inadvertently discovered the power of music during the loneliest phase of graduate school—that endless stretch when dissertation writing becomes your entire world. Days blurred into weeks, weeks into months, all spent wrestling with ideas that felt too big for the page.

I made it through by building myself a routine that became my lifeline.

I was living near the UCSD campus then, north of San Diego. Every morning, I'd drive to the same coffee shop in University Heights, close to downtown. There I'd spend hours typing away at my laptop, take a little break for a snack and more coffee, then return to writing. All of this while listening to the same couple of albums on repeat—Gipsy Kings and Supernature—until the melodies became as familiar as my own heartbeat.

Now, years later, I do something similar: queue up a Spotify playlist, set a timer, and tackle 1-2 hours of deep focus work first thing in the morning. Part of what makes this work is the habit—taking the same actions in the same sequence. But a lot of it is music's ability to transport us to a particular headspace and signal to our brains that it's time to focus intensely on one thing.

In high school, I was on the swim team. You know what we all did before competitions? Played the same playlist of upbeat music—on the pool deck, in the car during those early morning drives to meets. The songs became our ritual, our preparation, our way of telling our bodies: This is what we're here to do.

Field-Tested: Your Deep Focus Soundtrack

When you're drowning in emails, requests, and an endless to-do list, how do you create the mental space for work that actually matters? This is a question I get constantly from climate leaders trying to balance urgency with depth.

My answer: Use music to signal to your brain that it's time to focus on what's important.

The science backs this up. Music enhances language retention, executive function, and sustained attention. It triggers reward systems in the brain while reducing stress and improving performance. For climate work—where we're constantly toggling between crisis response and long-term thinking—music becomes a critical tool for mental state management.

Here's the system I've refined:

Choose your focus soundtrack: Pick a favorite playlist, soundtrack, or album—start with something that has no lyrics, nothing too emotionally stimulating. The key is familiar music you enjoy, something your brain can predict and settle into.

Create the ritual:

• Start with 20 minutes of deep focus time daily
• Play the same playlist each time
• Set a timer so you're not watching the clock
• Begin your most important work immediately when the music starts

Stick with it: Use the same routine for two weeks. Your brain will start associating those opening notes with focused work, making it easier to drop into deep concentration.

My current rotation:

• Morning writing: Film soundtracks (This is Ennio Morricone, Spotify playlist)
• Policy analysis: Classical playlists with steady rhythms (Cozy Winter Classical by Hitha)
• Creative projects: Ambient or acoustic instrumental (Brain.Fm Radio)

The magic isn't in the specific music—it's in the consistency. You're training your attention like an athlete trains their body, with the same cues and conditions each time.

Your turn: Pick one playlist this week. Same songs, same focus block, same time of day. See what happens when you give your brain the gift of predictable beauty while tackling unpredictable work.

Signals & Shifts

The productivity research: Harvard Business Review explored whether music actually makes us more productive (spoiler: it can, with the right conditions). Their findings align with what many climate leaders already know intuitively—the right soundtrack can transform scattered attention into sustained focus.

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​A climate anthem for hard days: When the work feels overwhelming, Pattie Gonia, Yo-Yo Ma, and Quinn Christopherson offer us "Won't Give Up"—a song about not giving up on the planet or on each other. Sometimes we need reminders that resilience can sound like hope.

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Take good care of yourself and the work that's yours to do. Both matter more than you know.

Nikoosh

Work That Lasts arrives every other Wednesday. Forward to a colleague who might need these tools, or reply and let me know what's working in your own practice.

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