How Sports helped me with my doctorate.

I didn’t finish my doctorate in silence.

I finished it with sports on in the background—every season, every semester. Fall meant college football Saturdays and NFL Sundays. Winter brought college basketball and the NBA. Spring turned into March Madness. And when summer hit, baseball filled the air.

It might sound like a distraction, but for me, it was structure. Rhythm. A kind of background beat that kept me grounded when everything else felt overwhelming. While others talk about needing complete quiet to work, I learned that I’m the kind of person who focuses better with ambient energy. The noise didn’t pull me away—it helped me stay in.

There’s actually a term for this: ambient attention anchors. It’s the idea that certain background elements—like music, coffee shop chatter, or yes, sports—can help filter distractions and maintain cognitive engagement. I didn’t know the term back then. I just knew I wrote better when I could check the halftime score, revise while watching a pitcher work the count, or push through a long writing session during an overtime thriller.

What I once considered a guilty pleasure—watching games while studying—turned out to be a kind of neuro-personal productivity hack. It gave shape to my days, added a layer of joy to the grind, and reminded me that even when the dissertation got heavy, there were still games being played.

And maybe that’s the point: it doesn’t always have to be silent to be sacred.

So if you’re wired like me—if silence unnerves you more than it calms you—maybe it’s time to stop fighting that. Maybe you don’t need to work like “they” say you should. Maybe your focus fuel doesn’t look like a candlelit desk in a quiet room.

For me it was The NFL Redzone in the fall. ESPN and TNT for basketball in the winter. The Cubs and Dodgers in the summer. Maybe it sounds like a crowd cheering or a buzzer going off.

And maybe—just maybe—that’s okay.

What unconventional habits or environments actually help you focus better—despite what others might think.