I was first a course in miracles listening to audio books while driving with my dad. His commute to work is only six minutes one way, yet he still listens to audio books almost every day because it is such a valuable habit to have. It may take quite a while to get through an audio book if your commute is only 6 minutes, but you will still get through it! Those 6 minutes add up.
I have been able to read so many books that I would not normally have had the time to read otherwise because of audio books. I would say over the past year I have probably read at least 20 audio books, with 4.5 hours in the car each working week. For example, I’m currently reading “Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath. I am also currently working on a presentation for technical conference in a couple of weeks, and as I was driving home one day recently I heard something that helped my presentation in exactly the way that I wanted.
They present a great idea: ask a question that gets the audience curious about the answer at the beginning of the presentation, and then lead them through the journey to the final answer at the end. This is a powerful method to keep the audience engaged and interested through the entire presentation, and after I used it in a practice run several people noted that it was a good approach. This is the kind of serendipitous improvement in your life that audio books can bring on a regular basis.
Another great feature of listening to audio books rather than the radio is that you don’t waste hours of your life listening to commercials. Radio commercials are in my opinion among the most obnoxious things a person can listen to, so by eliminating these from my life I would estimate I am approximately 23.5% less irritated with life in general.
Libraries are an awesome source of audio books. While they usually don’t have the best selection on the shelves, most libraries allow you to place an order online for a particular book and when it arrives they will hold it for you at the front desk to pick it up. At the same time, you may still want to check out what is on the shelves, especially if you’re not too picky.
I found some real gems by picking up some books I found when I walked in. And it doesn’t cost you anything if you get a book that you don’t like, just return it! There are a massive number of books online as well, both free and non-free. There are also a ton of podcasts and other audio shows out there, which are great as well, but I prefer audio books due to their higher quality (usually professionally edited and recorded) and deeper, more complete content. But I still mix it up with other audio content every once in a while.