The evenings are getting darker on Koa's desk. In much of Europe the clocks go back on Sunday 25 October this year, and from then on the sky is already black when the evening study session starts. Koa has decided to make that cosy instead of gloomy. Step one: get the sound right.
Why lyrics and reading don't mix
Many of us reach for a favourite playlist the moment the books come out. Research suggests that's worth a second thought. In a 2014 study in Applied Cognitive Psychology, psychologists Perham and Currie gave students reading comprehension tasks in four conditions: music with lyrics they liked, music with lyrics they disliked, instrumental music, and silence.
The result: students did best in silence, a bit worse with instrumental music, and worst with lyrics. Liking the song didn't help at all. Fun detail: the students themselves predicted that lyrics would distract them. We know it, we just press play anyway.
Psychologists call this kind of interference the irrelevant sound effect: sounds that change a lot, especially speech, tend to disturb verbal tasks like reading and memorising, even when you're trying to ignore them. Your brain simply can't stop listening to words.
Koa's spooky-cosy soundtrack, ranked
- Silence (or earplugs). The quiet winner for reading, vocabulary and anything with lots of words. Not exciting, but it works.
- Steady background sound. Rain, a crackling fireplace, wind in the trees, or white, pink or brown noise. Honest note: the research on coloured noise is still small and mixed, so treat it as "helps some people mask a noisy flat", not as a brain hack.
- Instrumental music. Lo-fi, piano, film scores. Fine for maths, drawing or tidying your notes. Keep the volume low.
- Songs with lyrics. Save them for the break. A spooky playlist and a little dance between focus blocks is a perfect Pink Halloween reward.
Make the dark evening work for you
- Light first. Switch on a proper desk lamp before you start, not just fairy lights. Candles are for the atmosphere, the lamp is for your eyes.
- Start earlier than you think. Dark evenings make us sleepy sooner. Put your hardest task in the first block.
- Pick your sound before the timer starts. Choosing a playlist mid-block is a classic distraction trap.
- Get cosy, not horizontal. A blanket on your lap is lovely. Studying in bed usually ends in a nap.
Koa's own setup: rain sounds on low, a warm lamp, and her sleepy Koa sherpa blanket over her knees. Then she sets the free study timer on pinkoa.com for 25 minutes and lets the rain do the rest.
Shade of the day: no. 16
Today is day sixteen of Koa's pink shade calendar, and the shade card for no. 16 is the picture at the top of this post. Koa thinks it's made for a candle-lit study evening with the rain outside.
Psst: the launch-month code KOA20 still takes 20% off in the shop until 25 October.
Follow Koa: Instagram · TikTok · Threads · X · Pinterest · YouTube
Sources: Perham & Currie (2014), Applied Cognitive Psychology, summarised by Themantic Education.