No, the title does not mean that I’m slowing down with business activities. Quite the contrary, in fact. What changed is the technology that enabled us to “listen” to books instead of having to sit down and “read” them. The difference between the two – without sacrificing comprehension – is huge.
When I was an employee of a company, I used to be able to make sure that I read books regularly – at least one a month. Upon becoming a small-business owner, my waking hours have become consumed on “getting things done.” As a result, I’ve never felt that I could spare the time to sit down and read a book. In other words, reading a book became a luxury of time that I could not afford. Or so I thought until recently.
Then, one day, when visiting our son Jesse and his family, I noticed him “listening” to a book on his audio device. At first, I did not think anything of it. Then David began noticing on gooddreads how many books Jesse was reading. The volume caught my attention, too. Thanks to Jesse’s practice, David and I were able to discover the benefit of audio books.
For the most part, both of us are interested in similar topics. So far, we’ve had only a few books to which one of us was not interested at all. This happens once in a great while when the title does not appear to reflect the content early on, and I quickly lose interest. Most books, however, introduce us to different experiences and viewpoints which, in turn, stimulate our minds. Even some, which we think are light-hearted topics going in, end up delighting us with fascination about certain authors’ experiences and perspectives. I’m hooked on audio books!
Another benefit of audio books is that we can adjust the speed at which we listen. We rarely listen at its original speed, or at 1.00x. Instead, we typically set it at 1.25x; and sometimes, at 1.50x. We download audio books into our smart phones. Whenever we have our breakfast, lunch, dinner, and in-between snacks together, we listen to a portion of the book. When doing dishes, we listen. When driving to and from a destination, we listen. Each day, the time to listen to an audio book gives me a wonderful change of pace from the periods of intense focus under which I typically work.
Yet-another benefit is no more sleepless nights. Let me explain. Ever since I began running our own business, I was having difficulty sleeping at night. This used to be caused primarily by the fact that my mind simply would not stop thinking of all the tasks – even after I wrote them down – that needed to get done to keep our business going. Today, when I’m ready to go to sleep, I set the audio book on a timer for 15 minutes. Nine out of ten times, it puts me right out within minutes. The next morning, I simply reset the “start” time to where it was the night before.
In business, everything is about measuring performance. Applying the same concept, starting September 2018, I began keeping track of the book titles to which David and I listened together. As of December 31, 2018, it was 28; i.e., an average of 7 per month.
I’m starting the new year with a sense of gratitude to all those who helped create and finesse the technology to make audio books what they are today. Most of us humans are hungry for knowledge. Their contribution to humanity, therefore, is huge. I found some information on early pioneers of audio books.
