My 4-Step Framework for Learning With Audiobooks (1)

Speaker 1 (00:00): So over the last few years,

I have listened to over 165 audiobooks, and they've been a total game changer for how

quickly I've been able to learn new stuff. So in this video, we're going to go through my four

step method with eight tips that have helped me to learn from audiobooks more efficiently. Part one,

listening to books versus reading books. Speaker 1 (00:15):

Now there's been some discussion on the internet about whether listening to audiobooks or

reading physical books like which of those counts as reading? Some people argue that it's actually

not the same because well, we're listening rather than reading, and there's something special about

reading a book, whether it's on Kindle or in other formats that counts as reading.

Some people also say that allegedly, we absorb information better when we're reading rather

than when we're listening. Speaker 1 (00:34):

My sense is that this whole reading versus listening debate kind of misses the point

because really we shouldn't be thinking of audio books as being a substitute for physical books,

but instead, a way to compliment our reading habit in other areas of our life. And the way

I think of it is that there's broadly three ways in which audiobooks compliment physical books.

The first one is speed. Speaker 1 (00:49):

Often we can listen to things a lot faster than we can necessarily read those things. Now, we

all have 10 times more books on our recommended or to be read shelves than we're ever going to read

in our lifetimes. And my feeling is that if an audio book is 12 hours long and if I listen to it

at three times speed, well then it takes me four hours to listen to a 12 hour long audiobook.

Speaker 1 (01:05): I know this is super controversial.

We're going to be talking more about the nuances around the speed listening further in the video.

And people often ask like, what do you actually gain from listening to an audiobook at double or

triple speed? Which brings me on to point two of how audiobooks compliment physical books,

which is the idea of quick sampling. Speaker 1 (01:18):

Now, listening to audiobook is a great way of actually sampling a book before you decide to buy

the physical version on Kindle or in paperback. If after listening to some or all of the audio book,

you decide that you actually don't need or want to read the physical version, then suddenly you've

saved time and you don't then have to read this physical book. I went through my Audible and I've

listened to 165 audio books, but of them I've only bought and read the physical version of somewhere

between 20 and 30. Speaker 1 (01:39):

And thirdly, audio books compliment physical books because they're a way of reducing friction. And

the main way they do this is that they allow multitasking. Like I've listened to so many

audio books in my time at the gym and in my time commuting and driving and doing stuff around the

house. And in all those cases, I'm listening to an audiobook where otherwise I would've been

listening to music or nothing at all instead. Speaker 1 (01:56):

Part two, my workflow for learning from audiobooks. So my workflow for learning

from audiobooks is split up into four main steps. Step one is intention. Step two is selection. Step

three is consumption, and step four is processing. All right, let's start with step one, intention.

And really the idea here is like, what is the intention behind listening to this particular

audiobook? Am I listening to the audiobook for pleasure or am I listening to the audiobook for

some kind of efficient learning? Speaker 1 (02:18):

Now there's absolutely nothing wrong with listening to audiobooks for pleasure. I'd say

around 50% of my audiobook listening time has been fiction rather than non-fiction and I'm listening

to the fiction or reading the fiction purely for pleasure. I'm not intending to learn anything or

trying to be productive with my audiobook listening when I'm specifically intending

to listen for pleasure. Speaker 1 (02:34):

Honestly, it can be one of the greatest things in life like listening to an audiobook while driving

while lying on the sofa, or even while playing PlayStation if you're really into that sort of

dopamine hit multitasking method. And in this context, you can just do what works for you.

Speaker 1 (02:44): Now for me personally, again, this

might be controversial to some people, but for me personally, I do find I enjoy fiction books more

when I listen to them at two time speed rather than one time speed because I feel the one time

speed narrations are just a bit too slow and the two time speed is like, okay, this feels decent,

I'm getting all the value from the fiction, I'm able to comprehend all of it very, very easily,

and I'm still enjoying it along the way. Speaker 1 (03:03):

And if you haven't yet started listening to audiobooks, I'd recommend starting with fiction

rather than non-fiction. Nonfiction, to be honest, can be a little bit dry. But if you start with

fiction, something like Stardust by Neil Gaiman, Neil Gaiman is an incredible narrator, he narrates

the book so well, it's fantastic. Or the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson, there's all sorts

of fantastic fiction audiobooks, and it's a great gateway drug into the space and then if you want,

you can start going down the nonfiction route further down the line if you like.

Speaker 1 (03:25): By the way, quick thing,

we've nearly hit 3 million subscribers on this YouTube channel which is fricking insane. And so

to commemorate that milestone, we're going to be doing a massive giveaway and all the details for

that are going to be on my Instagram page. So that'll be linked in the video description if

you want to follow me on Instagram, that will give you all the details closer to the time.

Speaker 1 (03:40): Yeah, back to the video. All right. So now

assuming you want to listen to nonfiction for the sake of learning, that brings us onto step two,

which is selection. And really what we're trying to do here is to select the right book. And my

philosophy here is having a very, very, very wide net, but a very narrow filter. So by wide net,

I generally mean that my threshold for getting a book on Audible or getting an audio book is

really, really low. Speaker 1 (03:58):

And so anytime, almost anytime I'll get a book recommendation from a friend or I'll see a YouTube

video or a podcast or someone on Twitter who I follow recommends a particular book, I would

just almost without thinking buy the audiobook version of it because I know it's so easy for

me to listen to that audiobook and to at least get a sample of what the real book is like.

Speaker 1 (04:13): And that helps me cast the net wide,

but then there's a narrow filter beyond that. So usually at around the half an hour mark, half an

hour into the book, that's when I decide, okay, is this book still continuing to be worth my time?

And is this a book that I actually want to listen to all the way through or until I get bored or do

I just want to abandon it completely right now? Speaker 1 (04:28):

Now again, this might be controversial if you are the sort of person that thinks a book is a

hallowed object and oh, an author has put in work into this book, therefore, you are obligated to

watch the whole thing. But it's like you aren't obligated to watch a whole movie just because

you started, you aren't obligated to read a whole article or even to watch this whole YouTube video

just because you started. Speaker 1 (04:44):

Equally, you are absolutely not obligated to read a book just because you bought it in physical book

or Kindle or audio book format. And to be honest, now that I'm actually writing a book for myself,

I know how much work goes into the introduction and the first two or three chapters initially

compared to the rest of the book, because every publisher knows that most readers don't really

read beyond chapter three of a book. Speaker 1 (05:03):

And so really in nonfiction, generally what the authors are doing is that they are front loading

all of the really good stuff in the introduction in the first three chapters. And so if you don't

get a lot of value out of the introduction in the first three chapters, you are probably not going

to then get amazing value out of the rest of the book. And that's totally fine. That's not to say

the book sucks, but it is to say that some books are just going to land with us better at different

parts of our life. Speaker 1 (05:22):

So maybe you can come back to that book further down the line, or maybe it was more relevant

to you in your past. And that's totally fine, nothing wrong with that, right? So at this point,

we've cast the net wide, we've got a narrow filter and now we have an audiobook that

we're actually listening to all the way through, which brings us to step three, consumption.

Speaker 1 (05:35): Now having done this for the last few

years and listened to over a hundred nonfiction audiobooks that I've genuinely learned stuff from,

I've got four main tips to help you kind of learn more efficiently as you are consuming audiobooks.

The first one is to actively choose the right kind of multitasking activity that you want to do.

Most of us, when we're listening to audiobooks, we don't just sit there and just listen to the

whole audiobook, we generally listen to it while we're doing something else.

Speaker 1 (05:55): And the key thing here is that you

want to choose a multitasking activity that you could do completely on autopilot. So for example,

if that's like cleaning the house or doing the laundry, or driving to and from work,

these things that we do so often that we don't really need to think about it because as soon as

you start doing anything, even vaguely cognitively demanding, that is when the learning completely

goes out the window because really we want the kind of learning part of our mind to be focused

on the audiobook rather than on how we're going to get that crinkle out of our show.

Speaker 1 (06:20): Tip number two is to fiddle with

the speed to the point where it's fast enough, but also comfortable enough to be able to absorb the

information and to learn it effectively. Now this varies massively depending on A, the speed of the

narrator and also depending on the complexity of the topic that you're trying to learn. Now,

broadly the nonfiction books I listen to fall into three categories and depending on these three

categories, that dictates generally what kind of speed I'm going to be comfortable listening

to the audiobook at. Speaker 1 (06:43):

The first one is kind of self-helpy type books, which I'm defining as

I am listening to this book because I'm hoping to gain principles or strategies and tools that I'm

actually going to apply to my life. So these are generally things in the realm of pop psychology

or productivity or business or leadership or management. The reason I'm reading these books

is because I want to apply stuff from them. Speaker 1 (07:01):

Now these are the books that I normally start off listening to at 1.5 times speed. Basically

for every single narrator, one time speed is just way too slow for me personally. Your knowledge may

vary. So I always start off at 1.5 and if I feel that, okay, I'm getting the message and I can very

comfortably keep up with this, then I switch to two times speed. Usually these sorts of books