As someone who lives a busy lifestyle, I often find it hard to find the time to sit down and read a book. 

I would often find myself starting a book when I had the time, but then that book would be sitting forgotten for a few days if not weeks.

By the time I finished work, I would often get stuck doing other things such as learning towards IT certifications or creating content and by the time I finished I was just too tired to read a book.

To make matters worse, I consider myself to be more of an early bird than a night owl. I often find it difficult to concentrate on things such as books late at night.

That’s when I decided to give Audible a try, and it was worth it! Here’s Why…

It’s Easy To Multitask

Audible has allowed me to listen to books while doing other activities. 

For example, there are times during a usual day of my life when I either decide to walk to the train station to catch my train to work or walk to the shops. I find that time to be ideal for listening to books.

I mean it roughly takes me 30 minutes to walk down to the train station and that’s a lot of time to listen to a book!

For those of you who are unaware, every weekend I like to go on long cycle rides ranging anywhere from 20 miles up to 50 miles and above. Translate that to hours, depending on the length of the ride and book I’m listening to, it actually allows me to listen to an entire book!

Now, I know what you’re thinking, isn’t wearing earbuds dangerous while cycling? My answer to that is yes! But who said anything about me wearing earbuds? 

As of recently, I’ve been using the Soundpeats Run Free Lite air conduction headphones, which don’t actually block my ears allowing me to listen to traffic! You can check out my review here. Before that, I’ve been using the Aftershokz Trekz Air which works off Bone Conducting technology.

I basically went from listening to music with any task I would use my earbuds with to listening to audiobooks instead.

It Taught Me to Be More Productive and to Think Differently

I mainly tend to listen to books about productivity, business and personal development. I guess they help me to be more productive and to think differently.

With the help of audiobooks, I’ve learned many cool skills which truly help me in life. For example, the 2-minute rule which I picked up from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. It basically states “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do”. 

An example of where I use this rule is when I need to start learning towards my AWS exam, I open my notes. It takes less than 2 minutes to do and it motivates me to start learning.

I also use this outside of habits, for example, if a certain task takes under 2 minutes to do, I will do it now, but if it takes over 2 minutes, I will schedule a time to do it instead.

Reading and listening to productivity and personal development books has also taught me to think differently. For example, when planning out my day, I tend to eat that frog first. 

That may seem strange to some, but I don’t mean actually eating a frog, although I hear they’re actually meant to be really nice! 

I’m talking about a concept outlined in the book Eat That Frog by Brian Tracey. It basically refers to doing the biggest and ugliest task first and then doing all the smaller tasks after. Completing the biggest task first motivates you to do the smaller tasks after!

Engaging Narration

Sometimes, I find it better to listen to a book, especially if the author is reading it as you tend to get a better understanding of what the book is trying to say. 

You also have professional voice actors and narrators reading books which can bring stories to life.

I mean, a skilled narrator has the ability to infuse emotions, accents and unique character voices in a captivating way, something that books cannot do. 

I mean there will be some books that don’t sound great, but it doesn’t mean that all of them do. I’ve listened to some incredible narrators in the past, while there were some that sounded computer generated. 

Doesn’t mean the book is bad, and sometimes it’s good to read reviews before you download the book. There are times when a printed version is just better.

Learning on the Go

Another area where audiobooks have been extremely beneficial to me is education. Back in my university days, you would often find me listening to audiobooks about the subject I am studying.

It helped me build a better understanding of what I was studying and once again, it helped me learn to think differently.

The truth of the matter is that Audible has a huge variety of learning material, from language courses to history and even specialist topics such as software development.

The learning possibilities are endless, and best of all you can learn while doing other things such as commuting to work or doing your weekly shopping.

Conclusion

Audible has transformed my life in so many ways. It taught me to be more productive, it taught me new skills such as negotiation and the ability to influence people. I guess it’s just one of those things that you need to try for yourself to understand how beneficial it can be.

Thanks to Audible, I rediscovered my joy for books. I mean I finally found time to read people’s stories and advice which can be incredibly beneficial.

But it doesn’t have to end there, if you like fiction books or any other possible genre, there are tons of great stories to choose from!

This article isn’t sponsored by Audible, but if you want to support my work I am including my affiliate link. Amazon is offering a 30-day free trial to Audible at the time of writing this article, then it’s only £7.99 per month after. 

If you consider the princes of books these days, I think that that’s a bargain!