Summary

  • A great benefit of audiobooks is that they can be listened to whilst doing other activities
  • However, the issue with audiobooks is that absorption and retention can be difficult as you’re not giving the audiobook your full attention like you would if you were reading a physical book
  • Pick knowledgeable dense audiobooks and relate them to a similar activity whilst listening
  • For example, listening to an audiobook about running whilst out on a run herself
  • She found that absorbing more from the book whilst doing the relevant activity whilst listening
  • She also found that using the rewind tool smartly helped her to absorb information better
  • Instead of speeding through the audiobook to finish it quicker, she found it more beneficial to listen to it at a normal speed, or slow it down, depending on the complexity of the audiobook

She also uses note-taking to help with retention, pausing at chapter breaks to summarize the main points, and creating visual or written summaries of key takeaways to deepen her understanding of the material

  • Another tip is to immediately create an action plan upon listening to the audiobook so that you put the knowledge into practice to reinforce your learning

By Saikat Basu

Original Article