If I am engaging in rote work that doesn’t require much creativity or doesn’t fully engage my mind, then part of my attention tends to wander. It might not lead to total distraction, but it does produce an uneasy feeling I describe as anxiety.
I always imagined that music can serve a similar function in others, but I believe that my having been a musician (and a serious one when I was younger) causes me to engage a little too deeply into whatever music is playing, so it’s a little too active for me.
Sometimes I get into phases that need a little extra. The Marvel movies phase 1-3 are solid, as is Breaking Bad.
I swap to prog rock music (again stuff I've heard multiple times before) if I have something particularly creative and demanding to work on.
Some things (code, writing docs) I can only do them with music in the background, usually music that is either downtempo, instrumental or both (for the most part Pink Floyd, Sting, Mogwai, Morcheeba or several jazz/fusion artists).
Without music it 10x harder for me to get those activities going.
Before I needed some background music - electronic or hip-hop in any language but English (to avoid my brain focusing on the lyrics).
Now with meds I sit in silence all day.
I found this to work really well in many different situations: https://youtu.be/P48QELwruQs
I usually can't do any background noise with a pattern but there are a handful of albums I've listened to hundreds of times while working over the years in the same way I think you're talking about. I ended up finally ripping them from old cd's because every year Spotify would tell me that I basically no other music mattered to me in comparison ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I also listen to mynoise.net (a gem of the internet) pretty often. Over the years a few of their tracks have become mentally associated with a sort of calm productivity for me
Honestly the ADHD focus ones are kind of random because they're sort of just albums I happened to be listening to at the point in my life when I finally started doing programming professionally (I def still like them though)
These are the ones I listen to the most when I'm programming. I'll flip through them depending on my mood at the moment:
Tool - Lateralus
Don Ross - Klimbim
Axiom of Choice - Niya Yesh
Axiom of Choice - Unfolding
Anoushka Shankar & Karsh Kale - Breathing Underwater
They're just sort of cooked into my brain at this point
Oh, there's also an album of Harpsicord music that I used to listen to at cafes because for whatever reason the Harpsicord drowns out voices really well (for me at least). I can't remember what it is now, though. I mostly use mynoise.net cafe tracks for that now
Wow, I've known that album since 2009? 2010? and never seen anyone else ever mention it. Curious if you remember how you found it?
I ask because the way I found it was odd enough that it sticks with me...
I was helping a friend in high school with their computer. I went to a boarding school without much internet and all the kids traded music on thumb drives. Windows Vista was new in our parts, and this girl's laptop was one of the first ones running it that I'd had access to. Asked her if she had any interesting music and she said not really, but there were some sample tracks that had come with the computer. So she gave me the Vista sample pack haha.
My favorite track was Karsh Kale's Distance, listened to it a lot. Later (months later, on vacation) looked the guy up to see if he'd made more like it. Didn't really click with the album Distance was from, but Breathing Under Water made the cut into "albums I remember to this day" (and I too have ADHD).
I have a friend who's a drummer, and at some point in the early 2000's he picked up a tabla (a type of indian drum--sounds like something you're probably familiar with). I was really fascinated by tabla and started looking into more indian music, which led to listening to Ravi Shankar. I think I mentioned that to the same friend who told me about Anoushka and loaned me a copy of Breathing Under Water.
I haven't actually listened to any Karsh Kale, but I'll have to check it out.
I think that's also why I ended up listening to Table Beat Science (which I forgot to mention before).
Another more random album totally unrelated to those that I really like:
Iarla Ó Lionáird - I Could Read The Sky
It's more irish folksy inspired but has a vibe I always really liked. I used to sometimes just pick a random CD at the local music shop that I'd never heard and buy it. I think that's how I found that pme. That's also how I ended up with the four cd play-them-all-at-once flaming lips album(s) zaireeka. In retrospect, sort of an adhd thing to do, lol
Your harpsichord comment reminded me of a folk band called Muszikas
Muszikas just went on my list.
I don't listen to tool a ton anymore. I still like their stuff and think they're a talented band but just don't get the urge often, except for Lateralus.
Some of it is just happenstance, I think, but something about that album's energy and vibe can help me intentionally get into a steamroller of hyperfocus on work problems. It's honestly sort of draining for me? So I don't do it a lot. I can honestly say that I've listened to that album many hundreds of times at this point, so my brain long since stopped latching onto the patterns and lyrics.
For some reason I've never sat down and listened to Aphex Twin, which feels weird now. I'll have to check them out more intentionally.
I had a period where I’d play old episodes of Mr. Rogers while working.
When one of my kids was an infant, the only thing that would get him back to sleep in the middle of the night was watching shows like House Hunters on HGTV.
Something about the chill vibe, people interacting kindly and relatively quietly, nice scenery, no music or sound effects, longer durations without cuts.
Contrast this with, say, Sports Center on ESPN, where it’s a constant blitz on the senses.
One weird thing that works me is playing reality TV in the background (love and hip hop, vanderpump ect). Seems to have really calming effect on my brain which lets me focus on work. I've realized over the years that my adhd is just suppressed anxiety in disguise and reality TV masks it.