One problem I face with audiobooks is that I find it much harder to focus on the material. I keep catching myself drifting away even when the material is really interesting. If any of you have a similar problem, how did you address it?
I zone out occasionally, but that happens when I read as well. One way to get around that would be to listen to books continuity isn’t especially important so that losing your place will not be as costly.
I’ve found that it’s easier for me to focus when I speed up the audiobook’s playback sufficiently that I have to exert some small effort to follow what’s going on. The Audible app on the iPhone lets you speed up the playback up to 3x. I now listen to all my audiobooks at that maximum speed. As an added advantage, you get through a lot more material.
The cost of this technique is that the extra attention required might preclude you from effectively performing some of the manual tasks listed as benefit (1) in the post. I usually only listen to audiobooks while I’m working out, walking somewhere or using public transport.
Another idea is to make it easily rewindable (I presume such word doesn’t exist, but you get the gist). In my car, there are several moments when I need to go back a few minutes.
One problem I face with audiobooks is that I find it much harder to focus on the material. I keep catching myself drifting away even when the material is really interesting. If any of you have a similar problem, how did you address it?
I zone out occasionally, but that happens when I read as well. One way to get around that would be to listen to books continuity isn’t especially important so that losing your place will not be as costly.
I’ve found that it’s easier for me to focus when I speed up the audiobook’s playback sufficiently that I have to exert some small effort to follow what’s going on. The Audible app on the iPhone lets you speed up the playback up to 3x. I now listen to all my audiobooks at that maximum speed. As an added advantage, you get through a lot more material.
The cost of this technique is that the extra attention required might preclude you from effectively performing some of the manual tasks listed as benefit (1) in the post. I usually only listen to audiobooks while I’m working out, walking somewhere or using public transport.
Another idea is to make it easily rewindable (I presume such word doesn’t exist, but you get the gist). In my car, there are several moments when I need to go back a few minutes.