What seems to work for me is something I have seen/heard a bunch of times in the background (Futurama, electronic music) which scratches that mind wandering itch without it dragging me away from what I want to be doing.

[–] littlewonder@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I have two types of podcasts: those I listen to when doing work that is pretty mindless so I can focus on the podcast, and those that are entertaining but not important enough that it matters if I miss something while reading directions or thinking through next steps on my project, etc.

Come to think of it, I have one other category, actually, which are podcasts that are interesting but get a big backlog because I'm not that excited about them. I use those to fall asleep.

[–] nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 month ago

For me it’s similar, but podcasts for housework and cleaning, music for working, silence for drawing/problem solving.

[–] Agrivar@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

I've probably listened to the entire MCU, in order, fifteen times over the past two years. I can ignore it and happily work or game, while it calms the tiny part of my brain that's registering it - and then I'll notice an especially good scene is coming up, so I pause whatever's currently on top and switch to the video for a scene or two... then back to work/play.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 month ago

Fully Ramblomatic (previously known as Zero Punctuation) videos do this for me