Music has always been one of those constants. Not something I engage with passively — it's more functional than that. It does things that other things don't do.
The start signal
The first thing I do when I sit down to work is put music on. Not after getting set up, not halfway through — first. It's a signal to my brain that something is beginning. There's something about the combination of sound and intention that shifts the internal state in a way that just sitting down and opening a laptop doesn't. The music marks the transition. Work starts when the music starts.
What I actually listen to
For working it tends to be electronic — NCS stuff, things without lyrics or with lyrics that don't pull at my attention. Music with words I find interesting competes with the thinking. Music that's rhythmically engaging but not linguistically demanding sits alongside the work rather than on top of it.
Outside of working it's more varied. Whatever the mood calls for. Music has always tracked to emotional state more than genre for me — the same feeling can be reached by very different songs depending on what else is going on.
What it does on harder days
On bad days music is one of the first things I reach for. Not to fix anything — more as a stabiliser. Familiar songs especially. The familiarity is part of it; known music requires less processing than new music, so it provides input without adding cognitive load. It fills the space in a way that's grounding rather than demanding.
It's on almost constantly
Most of the time there's something playing. Coding, thinking, doing anything that isn't specifically a conversation — music is usually there. Silence has a texture to it that isn't always comfortable. Music gives the sensory environment something to do that isn't just ambient noise.
I don't think I could work the same way without it. It's not decoration — it's infrastructure.