Speeding up your audio learning
Do you have trouble listening to long recordings? Is it because they are playing at such a slow rate that you try to multitask, but actually lose track to what you were listening to? Steve Pavlina has a nice post on how to overclock your audio learning. I’ve been using this technique for recorded classes, lectures, seminars, podcasts and audiobooks effectively. An hour’s worth of audio can be listened to in about a half hour or less. How? Most modern MP3 players have the ability to speed up the play rate. For example, Windows Media Player has this ability.
Try setting the play rate to 1.5x speed. You should still be able to comprehend the speaker(s), but now you’re consuming the material 1.5 times faster! As you progressively increase your limitations, you will eventually feel comfortable at speeds of 2x or even higher.