I used to have a lengthy commute to work and back every day.
It used to take approx two hours sat in the car there and back every weekday. Although this has its obvious drawbacks, there is one real plus point in the fact that I could consume tons of content.
Audio content that is.
I would listen to an entire 5-6 hour duration audiobook within a week. Plus a healthy dose of podcasts covering all aspects of business and creativity and anything else that took my fancy on that particular day.
I was a Voracious Learning Machine!
Fast-forward to today, and my commute has radically reduced. It now takes approximately 10 minutes, bumbling down some country lanes (this is on the days when I actually go into work rather than WFH, which is fairly frequently, like much of the post-COVID world today). A short commute has its obvious plus points, although the capacity to consume a ton of audio content is not one of them!
So now I feel like I'm missing out. Like I have a ton of content that I can't consume. But I really want to.
My best opportunity now comes when I walk the dogs. But this is around 40 minutes to an hour per day, which pales into insignificance compared to my previous four hours commute (plus dog walk) per day.
So I try to sneak my earbuds in to snatch 10 minutes here and there when I'm doing chores around the house. Although this helps, the fact that I am dipping in and out doesn't really help with the flow of audiobooks and podcasts etc.
In a nutshell, it's not ideal.
All I can say is, thank God for 2x speed!
Photo by Filip Mroz on Unsplash