I'm a big fan of audio books.
In a typical week, I probably burn through at least 2-3 on a range of topics.
A few months ago, I made a decision that has already had a big impact on my life; I started to listen to all of my audio books on 2X (two-times) speed.
Since I believe that many of you can benefit from the same approach, I wanted to offer a few observations from my first few weeks with my life on "fast-forward".
Actual speeds may vary - I'm currently listening to most of my audiobooks on my iPhone.
For those of you that have an iPod Touch or iPhone, you can turn on 2X speed by clicking on the "2X" button on the top right of the screen when you have already started to play an audio book.
Out of curiosity, I decided to measure the speed increase on 2X mode and found that it is not quite "2X".
Specifically, on the iPhone, it seems like the actual speed increase is about 1.
5X.
But, either way, it's still a big increase.
Your brain can handle it - at first, listening to audio books on high speed was a bit challenging.
However, after only a few days, my brain started to get used to the higher speed and my comprehension returned to normal.
in fact, I now have difficulty listening to audio books on "normal" speed.
They just sound so darn slow after listening on 2X.
Your life on fast-forward - in today's busy world, every second that we can take back is precious.
Even if you assume that you are really listening on 1.
5X speed, you can still burn through 6 hour audio books in around 4 hours, which is a big time savings.
Imagine what would happen if you could accelerate the rest of your life in the same way! All-in-all, my life has already been improved significantly by this small trick and I hope yours will be too.
All the best and happy listening!