Is a Listening Plan Right for You!
Not everyone loves to read a book. People take in information differently. People are visual learners, audio learners, kinesthetic learners or some combination. There are people who learn differently. They have to figure out how they learn best. If you read this blog, you’ll know that I’m big on reading. I love to read. I love to read print books. Audio books put me to sleep. But, I sometimes read a book while listening to the audio at twice the speed. When you do that, you read faster, and you’re forced to concentrate on your reading and listening. Since not everyone will enjoy reading print or e-books, I thought I’d devote a post to creating a listening plan, so you can listen your way to success. A few of my friends listen to audio books, and if they enjoy the content, then and only then will they buy the book.
Steps in Listening Plan Process
Listening Plan: Getting the Most Out of Your Listening
As with reading a book, have a compelling reason for listening to audio books. Do you want to learn a new skill? Is there a problem that you’re grappling with? Is there a subject that you’d like to master? Do you need to make better decisions faster? These compelling reasons will inform which books you choose to listen to. I have mentioned before that audio books put me to sleep, but that’s not the case with everyone. If you’re someone who spends a lot of time in a car, transform that time into your professional development time. Listen your way to success.
In Better Than Good
, Zig Ziglar reports on a University of Southern California study, which states, “If you live in a metropolitan area and drive 12,000 miles a year, in three years’ time you can acquire the equivalent of two years of college education in your automobile. The good news is, you can choose your own curriculum! You can recognize what you really are interested in, what you need to know and what you want to know. As a result, you can get the type of education that will equip you more effectively for what you are doing.” Based on the research results, Zig Ziglar came up with the concept of “Automobile University.”
With your listening plan, you shouldn’t stick to just listening to audio books, include podcasts as well. I am just getting into listening to podcasts and there are some very good ones out there. A good place to start your search is in iTunes. If you are driving, obviously you cannot take notes, unless you are using a technology as Dragon Naturally Speaking. But that may take away your focus from driving. If you’re not driving, obviously you can take notes, which will help you to get the most out of your listening time.
Related Post: Tips on Note-taking: The Art of Writing While Listening
Listening Plan: Set a Daily Listening Goal and Schedule it into Your Day
- Schedule a time that you will listen to an audio book. It could be for 30 minutes each day during your commute. Whenever you have free moments, listen to a podcast, or a section or two of an audio book. This is the perfect way for self-education.
- Get up earlier and/or stay up later if necessary to get your listening done.
- If your aim is to attain mastery in a topic within three years, you have to apply the necessary discipline. If you simply want to listen to more books to acquire in-demand skills, or accelerate your career, you still have to listen every day.
- Make your learning time a fun time for the family. Buy audio programs that your family can listen to during family time or on road trip. Except for when I am listening to and reading a book at the same time, the only other time when audio books do not put me to sleep is on road trips.
Listening Plan: What to Listen to Each Month
- Have a compelling reason for listening to the books you do, then choose your books to listen to, based on your reasons.
- Mix it up. Listen to a combination of fiction and non-fiction. Every now and again listen to a children’s book, science fiction, western, historical fiction…. Diversify your Listening. And of course listen to podcasts on topics you are interested in. In this instance, you are focused on professional development, so you’re listening your way to success.
- If you cannot decide which books to listen to, consider joining the Read the World Extreme Reading Challenge. Get the audio book version of the books you choose to read.
- You do not have to buy audio books, get an account with OverDrive, which allows you to borrow e-books and audio books from your public library. It’s important to choose the books you’d like to listen to three months in advance, so you can place them on hold. If you do not want to go on the waiting list for library books, you can subscribe to Audible. You get a credit for one book each month, which is nearly not enough. Audible often has some very good sales. You can also do a combination of OverDrive and Audible. It’s worth mentioning that I got frustrated borrowing audio books from the public library where I live because I always had to place them on hold, and sometimes I had to wait three months to get the books.
- Subscribe to book summaries, choosing the audio options. GetAbstract and Soundview Executive Book Summaries are two good choices.
Listening Plan Process: What Next?
The listening plan process to success is very simple – listen to books every day. I do not want to create a barrier to you listening to more books, podcasts, and book summaries.
Participate in the Read the World Facebook Group! Please take the conversation to my Facebook page.
