How I Started ‘Reading’ 28 More Books Per Year

After suffering a mental meltdown in 2018, I moved back to my hometown of Los Angeles and started driving for the ride-sharing service Lyft, until I was able to get back on my feet.

If you’ve ever been to L.A., you know driving around this city is about as much fun as watching your late local news, so I began listening to audiobooks through Audible.

Up until this point, I would read about two books per year, mainly because I “didn’t have enough time.” (In reality, I didn’t want to make time.)

But, after listening to my first audiobook — Modern Romance, hilariously narrated by the comedian and author himself, Aziz Ansari — I realized just how many benefits there are to consuming books through spoken, rather than written, word.

For one thing, you can listen to an audiobook while engaged in other non-cognitively demanding activities, such as cooking, cleaning, household chores, driving, walking, some forms of exercise, and using public transportation.

This effectively means you can “borrow time” from other activities, which (a) allows you to get more bang (things done) for your buck (time), and (b) results in the consumption of more books. In my case, I went from reading around two books per year, to consuming more than two books per month.

In quickly becoming an avid audiobook listener, here are some tips and tricks for maximizing the audiobook experience:

Increase the narration speed to stay engaged.

It’s normal to lose focus while listening to an audiobook — which is why the Audible app’s 30-second rewind feature is so handy — but I’ve found that increasing the narration speed reduces the amount of times I get sidetracked. (As of writing this post, I listen to audiobooks 1.75 times faster than the normal narration speed.)

A faster narration speed achieves two objectives: First, it requires you to pay more attention because the narrator is talking faster. And two, it decreases the amount of pauses the narrator takes, which leaves less time to wander off in thought.

(Not to mention, I’m an ungodly slow reader, so increasing the narration speed enables me to finish books faster than if I read them.)

Don’t use other tech while listening to an audiobook.

Again, audiobooks are terrific during times in which you’re doing other non-cognitively demanding activities. Be mindful, however, that these activities do not include:

• Texting
• Using other apps
• Watching TV, even on mute

Audiobooks still require you to be fully engaged, and you’ll only get the full value of the book if you’re focused exclusively on it.

Train your brain to sustain longer periods of listening.

One of my cousins recently made the comment that she doesn’t listen to audiobooks because it’s too difficult for her to focus on them.

We know our attention spans are becoming exponentially shorter with all the digital devices in our lives, including but not limited to the mobile phone and its bells and whistles: notifications, social media feeds, features designed to increase usage and engagement, et cetera.

This is to say, we need to proactively rewire our brains to sustain longer periods of focus — on everything from complex, cognitively demanding tasks (Deep Work), to something as “simple” as listening to an audiobook.

Rewiring our brains is like training a muscle to carry more weight: It takes discipline, consistency and repetition. As it relates to the subject at hand, begin by listening to an audiobook for 10 minutes, and then increase this amount of time by five minutes every few days, or whenever you notice your ability to remain focused is becoming easier.

Ultimately, you’ll start consuming more books than you’d otherwise consume by taking time out of your days to read them.

There’s more where that came from at Hack My Time.