Episode 131: Listening Double Speed on Videos/Audiobooks/Podcasts to Help You Save More Time
In this quick tip episode, Fiona shares a bit of advice from a fellow small business owner who wanted to listen to more audiobooks given the limited time. We recommend giving this tactic a try to see if this is something you prefer doing to save more time on your schedule… and hopefully help you learn more.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Listening double speed
Samples
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Episode transcript:
Hello, and welcome to Episode 131 of the My Daily Business Coach Podcast. I am so appreciative of you giving up your time and your attention to be with me on this quick tip episode. So, these quick tip episodes, roughly 10 minutes or less, and really giving you something actionable that you can do or learn or takeaway and action, I guess, today. So today is really one for those people who are into learning, and discovering and uncovering, and I know that a lot of my audience are those type of people who just really love education and learning and yeah, just discovering new things. They're very curious people. And I love that about all of you.
So, before I dive in, I just want to pay my respects and acknowledge the traditional owners on the land on which I record this podcast, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, and I just pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. So like I said, today is a quick tip episode. And today I'm talking about a tactic that you might employ when you are learning. So here we go.
So, this might be a little controversial. And I know that when I first sort of heard about it, I was like, oh, that doesn't sound very enjoyable. And, I’ve been doing it probably for the last two years. And definitely, I've just gotten used to it. And I like it. So why is it sound so cryptic. So, a couple of years ago, probably, gosh, probably 2017 2018, I was lucky enough and fortunate enough to be invited as a speaker at the Creative Morning series, which is worldwide series of an a really great, great resource. And it's where they have different creative people around the world speak on a topic. So what you do is you get given a word, and you can take that word, and you can spin it and speak on it, however you see fit. And what's really cool is that you get the word for that month. So say, the month is July, and the word is calm. And all these other speakers all around the world, also get that and so you have these incredible, get libraries, really, of all these different creative people taking one word and sort of reflecting on their career, their lifestyle in relation to that word.
So my word was chaos. And I spoke very personally about something that I had gone through. And at the time, I hadn't really talked about it that much. And I definitely hadn't stood in front of a crowd of like, 400 people and talked about it. So I was quite nervous. And actually, I've never really watched the video back because it was the most nervous that I've ever been talking to a crowd ever. And I just felt like I could not catch my breath the whole way along it. But today is not I'm not talking about you know how to do public speaking or anything. What I'm talking about is something else. And Jeremy Wortsman, who at the time was running creative mornings, Melbourne, and he's very well known. He's very well respected. found here in Melbourne. He's got a creative agency. He's got all sorts of awesome things going on. But he was really trying to help me feel comfortable, really. And so we were just talking out there before we got started. And we're talking about books and audio books. And he was talking about Audible, and I was saying how I used to work at audible. And he told me, I was like, what books are you reading? And he was listening to some books, and he said, Oh, yeah, I get through this many books a month. And I was like, oh, wow, that's like, pretty great. And I said, you just listened to them all the time. And he said, Oh no, I listen on double speed. And I was like, double speed.
Like, whoa, like, is that really horrible to listen to things like really, really fast all the time. And so anyway, I sort of kept it in the back of my memory. And then I am a mum, I've got two young children. I run my own business. You know, I'm a wife. I've got other commitments and other things going on. And so I listened to a lot of audio books as well as podcasts and other things and YouTube videos. And I thought know what would happen if I kind of sped up the speed of which I listened to them. And what I found is that some I can't speed it up because they talk pretty fast as it is, I think I'm one of those people, I talk pretty fast, but some people don't. And when you speed it up, it actually, it doesn't ruin the experience at all. And so I generally listen to things now on a speed of not double speed. But I generally listen at like 1.5.
So what I've been able to do is to be able to listen to a lot more stuff, take in it without, you know, not enjoying the experience without feeling like oh, I'm just listening to this weird, really fast person talking. And it's been really great because actually got through things in a much quicker time. So in terms of say, I'm in a mastermind in the US, and they have replays available for the videos that the calls that I don't get to all of them because of the time difference. And what I found is that when I speed it up, I'm actually not missing out at all. And so it's great, because I can look at a video and think, Oh, god, it's an hour and a half, I don't have a whole hour and a half to watch this. But if I speed it up to like 1.5, it might be an hour or just under, and I'm loving it. So I've been doing that for two years. Like I said, Audible, I quite often speed up the reading.
And I just want to really, really stress that it doesn't ruin the experience with with some people it does. And so I just stopped and I just listened to it at normal speed. But with other things, it's been absolutely fine. So if you are somebody who regularly listens to podcasts, who regularly listens to audiobooks, or you often, you know, go down a rabbit hole of YouTube, but for educational purposes, and hey, like hands up here, we all do that, you can just change the speed. So if you are on any kind of video, or on YouTube, you can find like a little gear icon in it sort of the Settings icon, usually it's on the bottom right of the actual video or whatever you're playing. And if you click on that, what you'll see is sort of the settings gear wherever you can find that, and it will have playback speed, and it will always default to normal. And what you want to do is click on that. And if you're on YouTube, you can slow it down, you can slow it down to a quarter of the speed. And then you can make it up to two times the speed. So double speed.
If you are listening to a podcast, you're not watching a video, it depends what app you're using to listen to. But if you're using, say the apple podcast app, if you've got an iPhone, then you go into the episode that you're listening to. And you actually click it open. So usually what will happen is the title will come down on the bottom. And if you click into that, you will see the whole episode. And what will happen on the bottom left is also one times and that's the speed, so you can actually speed it up. So I'm just going to play one of my episodes, and I'll show you what it sounds like:
Respects to their elders past, present and emerging. So let's jump in.
And so that's on a single one spade. And now here's what it sounds like when I speed it up. It's a tough one, but it is one they probably need an iPad, or your iPhone, iPad, or somebody that can take notes. If you're driving or you're at the gym, you can always find all the show notes over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/..
And of course, you could also slow it down, which would sound like this:
...podcast. All right, in the intro, let's get into today's episode.
So that's kind of half speed. So when I had it before on one and a half speed, as you listen to my interviews with small business owners, one of the questions that I ask every single person who comes on is what are the tech tools.
So it's really up to you know, your audio preferences. So what I usually do is kind of listen to it at 1.25 or 1.5 and 1.5 is okay, then I'll just keep it on there. And sometimes, you know, people are really slow. And so I will listen to it at 1.75. And again, I know that there'll be people out here thinking, gosh, that just takes away any enjoyment. What I found is that a lot of the time, it doesn't make it that different. And also, it's really, for me, I feel like I'm taking in the information, more so than when there are a lot of gaps in conversations. Sometimes my mind will wander to I've got to get that from the shops, I'm gonna do this or whatever. And I'm not focused. So I actually find it focuses me more. But as I said, if I'm listening and say I put it on 1.25 to kind of test and it just doesn't sound great. Or I feel like I'm not actually getting the emotion or other things from it, then I'll just listen to it at normal speed. I don't listen to every single thing in my life at 1.5. But I have listened to quite a few and I think it's actually been really good. And I'll get through things faster.
And again, I'm not someone who's like all about the hustle productivity. Yeah, like 10x everything. That's not me, but I just find this a really useful tactic and I guess I do need to shout out Jeremy Worstman because he's the first person who told me that that's how you lessons. And I do remember at the time thinking, then he must have enjoyed the books. He must just be like rushing through them. But I can totally see what he what he's doing now and you kind of get used to it. And yeah, just means that I'm not sitting there watching a video for an hour and a half when I could watch it for an hour.
Anyway, I know this will be controversial. Like I said, I'm sure that we people that think, oh, gosh, I would hate to do that. And there'll be other people who might think I'll give it a go. And I know that with me, I do talk fast. So probably if you're gonna listen to it any faster. Yeah, it's up to you, I guess. Yeah, you feel that, that that works. But I have had people before say you really talk very fast. And I'll try and slow it down. But yeah, so that is the tactic today. It's all about kind of listening to things or you know, when your education is coming to you from a podcast, an app, an audio book, a YouTube video, and you're thinking I just wish I had a bit more time. Then try speeding up the speed and the volume and see what happens.
Anyway, that is it for today's quick tip episode. I would love to hear your thoughts, especially on this one.
Do you speed up podcast? Do you speed up my podcast? What do you think of this? So don't be a stranger. Come on over to at @mydailybusinesscoach on Instagram. Send me a DM. I love hearing from people. I love sending you a DM back. I often send voice notes. And you actually can't speed up voice notes just PS. But yeah, I'd love to hear what you do and how you kind of if this is even part of your life or if this is a totally new thing that you are yet to uncover like I was a couple of years ago.
Alright, that is it for today's episode. As always, you'll find the full show notes over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/131. If you have 10 seconds, even five seconds, you know speed speed. I'd love it if you could leave a quick review or just tap the stars. It really really helps this podcast get seen by other small business owners out there. All right, thank you again for listening. Thank you for attention. Hope you stay healthy and look after your family and all your loved ones and I'll see you again soon.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram at @mydailybusinesscoach.
