7 Benefits of Listening to Audiobooks

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Audiobook Benefits in a Nutshell

Have you ever wondered if audiobooks have any benefits? What about what the benefits of audiobooks may be? If you answered yes to those questions I can tell you you’re in the right place. Sometimes it can be hard to sit down with a book for a half hour to an hour each day. One of the best ways to combat that is through the use of audiobooks. They are really a game changer when it comes getting your daily dose of book in. Think about this for a minute, when was the last time you had a chance to read a book? When was the last time you asked someone what books they’ve been reading? The sad true is that we live in a time with access to information constantly but people don’t read as often as they could. You may be wondering what the real benefits of audiobooks are, I have found 7 that I think are most worthwhile.

1)  Audiobooks Are Easy To Listen To While Doing Other Tasks

This is pretty self explanatory but I’ll give you some examples. Audiobooks are great to use in place of music when you are doing things like driving, exercising, cleaning, cooking, or maybe even at work. You will be amazed at how many more books you can listen to when you start playing them all the time. This reason by itself makes audiobooks worth it. Imagine how nice it would be to listen to your favorite motivational book at the office or a thriller while you’re cleaning your house.

2) Audiobooks Are Great For Dyslexics

I came across this after talking with a few of my friends about books. I knew one of them was dyslexic but had never considered how it would affect how often they read. We were discussing how often someone should read and they complained about how difficult it was. I pointed out that audiobooks are a great alternative. They tried it out and became hooked on the idea of listening to audiobooks. The is also one of the benefits of audiobooks for students. I know people that struggled with textbooks because of dyslexia. Most schools offer software that will turn textbooks into audiobooks.

3) Listen To Them With Others

Listening to audiobooks with friends and coworkers has been a fun experience. It gives you a chance to hear other people’s opinions about a book. It is like going out to the movies. In the end everyone has the same ideas to talk about and it’s fun to dig into what could be going on in the background of the book’s universe. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline was the first experience I had with how great audiobooks can be. After listening to that books with my coworkers we are all excited to go see the movie when it comes out. Fingers crossed that it will be a good one. 

4) Listening To Audiobooks While Reading The Book

This one sounds strange but it works out really well. Reading and listening to audiobooks at the same time gives you more things to remember. It ties into Edgar Dale’s cone of learning. That is an interesting topic that I can talk about another day. What you need to know is the more ways you do something and the more work it takes to do those things the easier it is to remember. I’ve used listening to the audiobook while reading the book to learn about stock options, real estate investing, stoicism, and starting a business. None of those topics are easy but I think listening to the audiobooks while I read helped me with retention. This is one of the biggest benefits to audiobooks.

5) More Simple Than Reading a Summary

Unless you are in a big rush to read through a summary for some reason audiobooks are a great option. It is painless to listen to a audiobook. On the other hand you could buy a summary which won’t give you all the details. An alternative would be to jump on Reddit. I know that great summaries can end up on Reddit but you have to be careful about what people are saying. It’s easy to leave out important details. If it were up to me when picking audiobooks vs reading Reddit, I’m going to go with an audiobook 9 times out of 10. There is a lot to be said about sticking with a community though and if you find the right one the users on Reddit will treat you right.

6) Audiobooks Are Great For Adults

The benefits of audiobooks for adults pretty much covers everything I’ve mentioned plus more. Adults are the largest group of people in the world. Many of them are limited on time. Not only that but as you get older your eyesight can decrease. Audiobooks counteract that because you can listen to them instead of reading them. Adults are also limited on time bringing back the benefits of listening while you do other things. It also ties into the last benefit I have to talk about.

7)  Adjustable Speed

One of the coolest benefits of audiobooks is that you can adjust the speed. I personally like to listen at anywhere from 1.5x to 2.5x speed. It all depends on how many times I’ve listened to the book, how the voice actors voice sounds sped up, and how hard to comprehend the books is. I usually recommend starting off at 1x to 1.5x and going from there when you are new to audiobooks. This is not the time to listen with your friends they will probably look at you weird when you start playing a chipmunk book at them.

The Benefits Are Real

As you can see there are many benefits to audiobooks. I’m sure if you sit there and think about it you can come up with a few more on your own. Now that you’re thinking about audiobooks you should check out Audible from Amazon. They seem to really know what they are doing. Once you started you’ll see that audiobooks are good for the brain. There aren’t too many other ways to have fun while you learn. It’s nice to know that you can listen with friends when you have a fun book or you can read along with a hard copy if it’s something more serious. Don’t forget how many audiobook benefits there are. Now get out there are start listening. If you want to see more post like this sign up to the newsletter and share on your favorite social media.

Stop Thinking Start Doing

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People are always talking about how they are thinking about doing something. The more you think about something the harder it gets. The only way to get out of this rut is to do something. When you start doing things it becomes easier and you realize that the effort it takes to do something is less than thinking about it. I’ve laid out a simple set of concepts that will help you go from thinking to doing.

Hit the Ground Running

Getting started is the hardest part. This is the point where you have to create an idea, decide it’s worth doing and then do it.  The process of getting started can be broken down into two parts. Those two parts are “Think of an Idea” and “Take Action”.
  • Think of an Idea

Thinking of your idea is the easiest part. You can start this part many different ways and it’s most about what makes you feel creative. When you have a good idea make sure you write it down so you don’t forget it.
  • Take Action

Taking action can be difficult. Depending on what your idea is it can be difficult to take the first step. This is where planning comes in. During the take action stage you will want to break down your idea into parts that you can do. Don’t overthink this. Pick 5 things that you will need to do or learn to reach your goal. List them in order from most to least importance and start checking them off.

Expand Your Understanding

The next step in the process of doing instead of thinking is personal development. In this stage you are “evolving” and “learning”. There is no correct order for this because you are just trying to take the knowledge you are gaining from doing and then adapting it to make it better.
  • Evolving

This part of the process is when your idea grows and changes as you learn more about what you are doing. Your initial idea may be great but as you get more involved you will see that some things won’t work as well as you would like and you will need to change what you’re doing.
  • Learning

This is probably the most important part of doing something rather than thinking about it. When you are thinking about something you will constantly be looking at the same information and the amount you learn will be small. When you start doing you take in more information because of the new experiences. At this point take in as much information as possible. Learn from mentors, mistakes, videos, books or whatever you find that makes learning easy.

Don’t Give Up

Giving up is the biggest mistake you can make when you are trying to do something rather than think about it. When you give up on something before you are done you essentially turn all of the time and effort you put in into a waste. You don’t want to waste time because time is your most precious asset. If you are at the point where you want to give up look at your options and see if you can take your newfound knowledge in a different direction. Whatever you do don’t give up.

Achieve Success

This is the last stage in doing instead of thinking. Your hard work pays off when you become successful but don’t forget that success is what you want it to be. When you have finally achieved your goals you will be able to look back at all of the things you went through. You will be able to appreciate what you have done for yourself. You will now have a new skill set that you can apply to your next idea. Every time you have an idea stop thinking and start doing.