2020 Made Me A Speed Listener (and That’s OK)

With the end of the disastrous year of 2020 inching ever closer, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting and thinking about things I’ve learned, things I’d like to change in the coming year, and so on.

2020 hasn’t been the perfect year for me by any stretch: I lost some weight but gained it all back, I physically worked less than I have any year since I entered the workforce and somehow managed to let pandemic depression stop me from making 2020 the year for my writing endeavors. Hell, I didn’t even manage to read 12 books, per my Goodreads goal. While I’ll try again next year, I think I’ll be able to squeeze a few more on before the ball drops…if it’s even dropping this year.

Maybe I get a pass for the areas I dropped my ball in 2020, after all, it really wasn’t anyone’s year and we don’t know how much better 2021 is going to be. I will say that I’ve been putting more energy this month into planning for the coming year, not in the New Years Resolution style of doing things, but rather actively thinking about where I’d like to better myself and figuring out the ways to go about it. A few of the things I’m deep in the thick of researching are ways to produce less waste (possibly going more paperless), actually staying on top of things like tracking my calories, and really getting proper workflows in place for writing on my blogs in a way that gives you, my supporters, something to read, while also not leading to content burnout. I managed to burnout several times in 2020 and I feel terrible it.

But I did have one habit that I picked up in 2020 that I’ve stuck with and has really become a part of my way of life at this point: speed listening.

While I was going through the shutdown New Jersey had during the earlier months of the year, I was watching a lot of content on YouTube. Somehow, I fell down the rabbit hole of Ali Abdaal’s channel, and I’ve been continuing to watch him ever since. Over the summer, he posted a video called One Simple Habit that Changed My Life all about how he speed listens to content. I had a pretty sizable podcast backlog, so I figured I’d give it a shot. I fully thought that I was going to hate speed listening to audiobooks and podcasts, but the opposite is true: it’s something that I can’t live without.

Since developing this habit, I’ve taken some of the podcasts I listen to and tried slowing them down. I…just…can’t…listen…like…that…now…because…it…drags…like…they’re…talking…like…this.

I do find that when it comes to audiobooks, I do tend to use a bit more discretion. Anything that’s produced like an audio drama is going to stay at 1x speed so I can take in the story the way it was intended to be heard, but for anything else, the gloves are off. In all fairness, most of the podcasts I listen to are technology and gaming related and they all have roughly the same format: two or more people discussing the news and current events in technology or the tech they use — I can follow that at faster speeds.

I don’t know how well anything else that I want to do for 2021 is going to go, but at least I formed one new habit in 2020 that I’ll carry into the new year!