When you are working out, one of the best things to do is actually to listen to music. As simple as it may seem, it actually works. I mean honestly, you can’t tell me that if and when you’ve tried it, you haven’t been slightly distracted. If you’re exerting yourself as you should, you certainly won’t be singing along. But you may be singing along in your head, which is good enough. It’s more distracting for some of us.
But the point is that you actually focus less on the time, and you check your time less, making it seem to go by faster. I’ve also been better able to ignore by little downtime till I push past it, and it really helps in varying capacities. I’ve used generally music I like, because otherwise I spend way too much time skipping past it, and I have a certain mix that is more upbeat and will keep me going rather than the slower songs that make me want to stop. But who knows, maybe you only like David Lanz or something, which is basically all pretty calm. It depends on your personal preferences as to what you choose and how you use it.