A Highly Recommended Skill
I've just noticed that I've gained a new skill: I can now do schoolwork or read while listening to music--IF the music is familiar.

Music without words is best. Music with words has to be so familiar that I can predict not just the words but the different instrumental parts. But I've apparently learned, now, not to be distracted by music if the music is very predictable.

Why is this so beneficial?

Well, when I wear an mp3 player (they can actually be had for pretty cheap), I get a better effect than I do from earplugs. Earplugs only muffle noise, and in some odd situations can even make it easier to hear things (don't ask me why; maybe it has to do with auditory processing, something like wearing sunglasses makes it easier to see.) But when I am wearing earplugs, I'm still analyzing everything around me, and I can't shut off that tendency to analyze auditory input, spending attention on it and not what I wanted to spend attention on.

Over the last summer, I learned how to use my mp3 player to drown out the quiet noises of a laboratory in action so that I could concentrate on my statistics. This was easy work for the most part, but it was hard enough to teach me how to shut out the predictable auditory input from an mp3 player, which in turn blocks out the unpredictable (and thus impossible to ignore) noise from my surroundings. I can now study in a relatively non-chaotic public place. That means suddenly, I've gained access to study lounges, coffee shops,  libraries, cafeterias (in the off-hours) and other areas that are mostly congenial and quiet except for the chatter of other patrons.

The other day I did physics problems at Barnes & Noble. (Bookstore chain with a nice atmosphere, including lots of chairs to sit in and read. They don't even mind if you don't buy something because they know that once you are addicted to books you will eventually buy something even if you don't do it today.) I was able to concentrate despite people having conversations at the next table and the quiet music from the store speakers.

Using an MP3 player in this fashion is, I think, a highly recommended skill. As a result of learning to do this, under certain circumstances, I no longer need complete quiet (or white noise) to study!

-The ambient noise can't be so much that I have to turn up the sound on the mp3 player more than halfway, or it'll be distracting anyway.
-The area can't be chaotic. It still has to be well-organized.
-If lit by fluorescent lighting, the bulbs can't flicker. (New sorts, especially CFLs, flicker too fast for me to see. Whew!)
-The music on the mp3 player has to be familiar, and preferably without words. Classical music is best; soundtracks, second best.
-I have to have a reasonable amount of concentration available. This does take more concentration than studying in a quiet room, though it's a manageable amount of "more".

I knew a lot of other autistic people were very fond of mp3 players, but I never understood the point of playing music practically your entire waking hours. (I play books on tape, for the most part, when I'm doing something that isn't stimulating enough to keep my attention. This strategy literally keeps me from crashing into other cars.) Now, maybe I'm getting the idea. Maybe all these people are using music to block out unwanted auditory input, and simply got the concept sooner than me: It's easier to concentrate when the auditory input you're trying to cope with is ultra-familiar.