My 4 Step Framework for Learning With Audiobooks - Ali Abdaal
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If I Wanted to Be a Millionaire Before 30, I'd Do This : https://dai.ly/x931gzm
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How to Change your Life in a Year - 3 Simple Ideas : https://dai.ly/x933u78
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LearningTranscript
00:00Right, so over the last few years,
00:01I have listened to over 165 audiobooks
00:04and they've been a total game changer
00:06for how quickly I've been able to learn new stuff.
00:08So in this video, we're gonna go through my four-step method
00:10with eight tips that have helped me
00:11to learn from audiobooks more efficiently.
00:13Part one, listening to books versus reading books.
00:16Now, there's been some discussion on the internet
00:17about whether listening to audiobooks
00:19or reading physical books,
00:21like which of those counts as reading.
00:23Some people argue that it's actually not the same
00:24because, well, we're listening rather than reading
00:26and there's something special about reading a book,
00:28whether it's on Kindle or in other formats
00:29that counts as reading.
00:30Some people also say that, allegedly,
00:31we absorb information better when we're reading
00:33rather than when we're listening.
00:34My sense is that this whole reading versus listening debate
00:36kind of misses the point
00:37because, really, we shouldn't be thinking of audiobooks
00:39as being a substitute for physical books,
00:41but instead a way to complement our reading habit
00:43in other areas of our life.
00:44And the way I think of it is that there's broadly three ways
00:46in which audiobooks complement physical books.
00:48The first one is speed.
00:49Often, we can listen to things a lot faster
00:51than we can necessarily read those things.
00:53Like, we all have 10 times more books
00:54on our recommended or to-be-read shelves
00:56than we're ever gonna read in our lifetimes.
00:58And my feeling is that if an audiobook is 12 hours long
01:00and if I listen to it at three times speed,
01:02well, then it takes me four hours
01:03to listen to a 12-hour-long audiobook.
01:05I know, this is super controversial.
01:06We're gonna be talking more about the nuances
01:08around the speed listening further in the video.
01:10And people often ask, like,
01:11what do you actually gain from listening to an audiobook
01:13at double or triple speed?
01:14Which brings me on to point two
01:15of how audiobooks complement physical books,
01:17which is the idea of quick sampling.
01:19Now, listening to audiobooks is a great way
01:20of actually sampling a book
01:21before you decide to buy the physical version on Kindle
01:24or in paperback.
01:25If, after listening to some or all of the audiobook,
01:27you decide that you actually don't need
01:28or want to read the physical version,
01:29then suddenly you've saved time
01:30and you don't then have to read this physical book.
01:32Like, I went through my Audible
01:33and I've listened to 165 audiobooks,
01:35but of them, I've only bought and read the physical version
01:38of somewhere between 20 and 30.
01:39And thirdly, audiobooks complement physical books
01:41because they're a way of reducing friction.
01:43And the main way they do this
01:44is that they allow multitasking.
01:45Like, I've listened to so many audiobooks,
01:47like in my time at the gym and in my time commuting
01:49and driving and doing stuff around the house.
01:51And in all those cases, I'm listening to an audiobook
01:53where otherwise I would have been listening to music
01:55or nothing at all instead.
01:57Part two, my workflow for learning from audiobooks.
01:59So my workflow for learning from audiobooks
02:00is split up into four main steps.
02:02Step one is intention.
02:03Step two is selection.
02:05Step three is consumption.
02:06And step four is processing.
02:07All right, let's start with step one, intention.
02:09And really the idea here is like,
02:11what is the intention behind listening
02:12to this particular audiobook?
02:14Am I listening to the audiobook for pleasure
02:15or am I listening to the audiobook
02:17for some kind of efficient learning?
02:19Now, there's absolutely nothing wrong
02:20with listening to audiobooks for pleasure.
02:21I'd say around 50% of my audiobook listening time
02:23has been fiction rather than nonfiction.
02:25And I'm listening to the fiction or reading the fiction
02:27purely for pleasure.
02:28I'm not intending to learn anything
02:29or trying to be productive with my audiobook listening
02:32when I'm specifically intending to listen for pleasure.
02:34Honestly, it can be one of the greatest things in life
02:36like listening to an audiobook while driving
02:37or while lying on the sofa
02:38or even while playing PlayStation
02:40if you're really into that sort of
02:41dopamine hit multitasking method.
02:42And in this context, you can just do what works for you.
02:44Now, for me personally, again,
02:45this might be controversial to some people,
02:47but for me personally, I do find I enjoy fiction books more
02:50when I listen to them at two times speed
02:52rather than one time speed
02:53because I feel the one time speed narrations
02:55are just a bit too slow
02:56and the two times speed is like, okay, this feels decent.
02:57I'm getting all the value from the fiction.
02:59I'm able to comprehend all of it very, very easily
03:01and I'm still enjoying it along the way.
03:03And if you haven't yet started listening to audiobooks,
03:04I'd recommend starting with fiction rather than nonfiction.
03:07Nonfiction, to be honest, can be a little bit dry,
03:09but if you start with fiction,
03:10you know, something like Stardust by Neil Gaiman,
03:12where Neil Gaiman is an incredible narrator.
03:13He narrates the book so well, it's fantastic.
03:15Or the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson.
03:17There's all sorts of fantastic fiction audiobooks
03:19and it's a great gateway drug into the space.
03:21And then if you want, you can start going down
03:23the nonfiction route further down the line, if you like.
03:25By the way, quick thing,
03:26we've nearly hit 3 million subscribers
03:27on this YouTube channel, which is freaking insane.
03:29And so to commemorate that milestone,
03:31we're gonna be doing a massive giveaway
03:32and all the details for that
03:33are gonna be on my Instagram page.
03:35So that'll be linked in the video description
03:36if you wanna follow me on Instagram,
03:37that will give you all the details closer to the time.
03:40Yeah, back to the video.
03:41All right, so now assuming you wanna listen to nonfiction
03:43for the sake of learning,
03:44that brings us onto step two, which is selection.
03:46And really what we're trying to do here
03:47is to select the right book.
03:49And my philosophy here is having a very, very, very wide net,
03:52but a very narrow filter.
03:53So by wide net, I generally mean that my threshold
03:55for getting a book on Audible or getting an audio book
03:58is really, really low.
03:58And so anytime, almost anytime,
04:00I'll get a book recommendation from a friend
04:02or I'll see a YouTube video or a podcast
04:03or someone on Twitter who I follow
04:05recommends a particular book,
04:06I would just almost without thinking
04:07buy the audio book version of it
04:09because I know it's so easy for me
04:10to listen to that audio book
04:11and to at least get a sample of what the real book is like.
04:13And that helps me cast the net wide,
04:15but then there's a narrow filter beyond that.
04:16So usually at around the half an hour mark,
04:18half an hour into the book,
04:19that's when I decide, okay,
04:20is this book still continuing to be worth my time?
04:23Is this a book that I actually want to listen to
04:25all the way through or until I get bored,
04:27or do I just wanna abandon it completely right now?
04:29Now again, this might be controversial
04:30if you are the sort of person
04:31that thinks a book is a hallowed object
04:33and oh, an author has put in work into this book,
04:35therefore you are obligated to watch the whole thing.
04:37But it's like, you aren't obligated to watch a whole movie
04:39just because you started,
04:40you aren't obligated to read a whole article
04:42or even to watch this whole YouTube video
04:43just because you started.
04:45Equally, you are absolutely not obligated to read a book
04:47just because you bought it in physical book
04:49or Kindle or audio book format.
04:50And to be honest,
04:51now that I'm actually writing a book for myself,
04:52I know how much work goes into the introduction
04:55and the first two or three chapters initially
04:57compared to the rest of the book
04:59because every publisher knows that most readers
05:01don't really read beyond chapter three of a book.
05:03And so really in nonfiction,
05:04generally what the authors are doing
05:05is that they are front loading
05:06all of the really good stuff
05:08in the introduction of the first three chapters.
05:09And so if you don't get a lot of value
05:10out of the introduction and the first three chapters,
05:12you are probably not going to then get amazing value
05:15out of the rest of the book.
05:16And that's totally fine.
05:17Like that's not to say the book sucks,
05:19but it is to say that some books
05:20are just gonna land with us better
05:21at different parts of our life.
05:22So maybe you can come back to that book
05:23further down the line,
05:24or maybe it was more relevant to you in your past.
05:26And that's totally fine, nothing wrong with that.
05:28Right, so at this point, we've cast the net wide,
05:29we've got a narrow filter,
05:30and now we have an audio book
05:31that we're actually listening to all the way through,
05:33which brings us to step three, consumption.
05:35Now, having done this for the last few years
05:36and listened to over a hundred nonfiction audio books
05:38that I've genuinely learned stuff from,
05:40I've got four main tips to help you
05:41kind of learn more efficiently
05:43as you're consuming audio books.
05:44The first one is to actively choose
05:46the right kind of multitasking activity
05:48that you want to do.
05:49Most of us, when we're listening to audio books,
05:50we don't just sit there
05:51and just like listen to the whole audio book,
05:53we generally listen to it while we're doing something else.
05:56And the key thing here
05:56is that you want to choose a multitasking activity
05:58that you could do completely on autopilot.
06:00So for example, if that's like cleaning the house
06:02or doing the laundry or like, you know,
06:03driving to and from work,
06:04it's, you know, these things that we do so often
06:06that we don't really need to think about it,
06:08because as soon as you start doing anything
06:09even vaguely cognitively demanding,
06:11that is when the learning completely goes out the window
06:13because really we want the kind of learning part of our mind
06:16to be focused on the audio book
06:17rather than on how we're gonna get
06:19that crinkle out of our shirt.
06:20Tip number two is to fiddle with the speed
06:22to the point where it's fast enough,
06:23but also comfortable enough
06:25to be able to absorb the information
06:27and to learn it effectively.
06:28Now, this varies massively
06:29depending on A, the speed of the narrator
06:31and also depending on the complexity of the topic
06:33that you're trying to learn.
06:34Now, broadly, the nonfiction books I listen to
06:36fall into three categories.
06:38And like, depending on these three categories,
06:39that dictates generally what kind of speed
06:41I'm gonna be comfortable listening to the audio book at.
06:43The first one is kind of self-helpy type books,
06:46which I'm defining as, I am listening to this book
06:49because I'm hoping to gain principles or strategies
06:51and tools that I'm actually going to apply to my life.
06:54So this is generally things in the realm of pop psychology
06:56or productivity or business or leadership or management.
06:58The reason I'm reading these books
06:59is because I want to apply stuff from them.
07:01Now, these are the books
07:02that I normally start off listening to at 1.5 times speed.
07:05Basically for every single narrator,
07:06one time speed is just way too slow for me.
07:08Personally, your mileage may vary.
07:10So I always start off at 1.5.
07:11And if I feel that, okay, I'm getting the message
07:13and I can very comfortably keep up with this,
07:16then I switch to two times speed.
07:17Usually these sorts of books are written for clarity.
07:19So they're actually fairly simple to understand.
07:21They're not normally using really, really big fancy words.
07:23One of the exceptions to this is Happy by Derren Brown,
07:26which actually uses a lot of complicated words.
07:28It's a self-help book about stoicism and happiness,
07:30but it's really hard to listen to at 2X speed
07:32because it's just kind of complicated.
07:33So really it's about fiddling the speed
07:35and getting to a point where it's fast enough
07:37while still being comfortable to listen to.
07:38The second big area of nonfiction books
07:40I listen to for learning are general interest books.
07:42These are books that are about an interesting topic
07:44that I wanna learn more about,
07:45but I'm not necessarily interested
07:46in absorbing every single detail
07:48so that I can apply it to my life in some way.
07:50For example, recently I've been interested
07:51in the idea of globalization.
07:53So I came across a book called
07:54The Globalization Paradox, which is kind of interesting.
07:56And so again, I'm just trying to fiddle with the speed
07:58to make it comfortable, but I'm also not too annoyed
08:00if I don't catch absolutely every single word
08:03because what I'm trying to do is just get a general gist
08:04of, hey, let me explore this topic of globalization
08:07a little bit more.
08:08And so for a book like that,
08:09I was happy listening to it at 2.5X speed
08:11or potentially even three times speed,
08:13depending on the speed of the narrator.
08:14And finally, the third big category of nonfiction books
08:16that I listen to for learning are deep learning books
08:19where I'm like, okay, the reason I'm learning this
08:20is because I'm so interested in the topic
08:22that I want to actually absorb everything I can
08:25from this book and I want to potentially be able
08:27to explain it to friends further down the line.
08:28So right now for me, this is philosophy themed books.
08:31There's this philosopher called Alan Watts
08:32who I've recently discovered is absolutely sick,
08:34but I want to deep learn that kind of stuff.
08:36I want to really be able to understand
08:37and get into Alan Watts' mind
08:38and really understand his take on stuff.
08:40And therefore I actually start listening to those
08:41at one time speed and try and force myself
08:44to stay somewhere between one times and 1.5 times
08:47because I know that really as stuff happens slowly,
08:50even if it feels too slow for me,
08:51the deep learning is happening behind the scenes.
08:53And as I'm rehearsing the things
08:55that the author is saying in the audio book,
08:56as I'm thinking, actively thinking about what's being said,
08:59then it's just, I don't know, in my mind,
09:01forming more connections and helping me figure out,
09:03oh, okay, cool, I would explain it to my friend Jamie
09:06in this specific way.
09:07Right, tip number three for getting the most
09:09out of consuming audio books is to recognise
09:11when your mind starts to wander.
09:12This is always gonna happen.
09:13It's gonna vary depending on the book and the topic
09:15and the narrator and your mood and the speed of narration.
09:17But like, whenever I find my mind wandering
09:19and I think, oh, I'm, you know,
09:20the words are coming in one ear,
09:21but they're going out the other.
09:22I don't really know what I'm listening to.
09:24At that point, I either rewind back a few,
09:26kind of like a few minutes.
09:27So I'd be like, oh, okay, cool.
09:29And I get back into it.
09:29But if this happens more than once or twice,
09:31then I'll know, okay, cool.
09:32My mind is wandering right now.
09:33I'm not gonna continue to force myself
09:35to listen to this audio book.
09:36Instead, I'm gonna close the audio book,
09:38maybe pick up another fiction audio book instead,
09:40something like that.
09:40Potentially even listen to music,
09:41potentially even just be in silence with my own thoughts,
09:44because I know right now my mind is moving too fast
09:46to actually bother continuing
09:47to keep up with this audio book.
09:49And finally, tip number four for consuming audio books
09:51is guilt-free abandonment.
09:52And this is where, if I find my mind wandering
09:54more than once or twice in a listening session,
09:56and then the next day or the next week,
09:57I come back to the same audio book
09:59and I continue to find my mind wandering from it,
10:01usually I'm like, all right, cool.
10:02This audio book isn't doing it for me.
10:04It's not to say it's a bad audio book,
10:05but I'm just gonna completely abandon it
10:07without feeling guilty about it at all.
10:09And certainly in the past,
10:10I used to feel guilty about not finishing a book,
10:12not like abandoning a book,
10:13but to be honest, if it's not doing it for me,
10:15life is too short to be listening to books
10:16that I'm just sort of mind wandering
10:18and I'm not getting the full vibe out of
10:19at the end of the day.
10:20And really, this is an important point
10:21about learning from anything,
10:22whether it's books or textbooks or audio books
10:24or even lectures and videos and podcasts,
10:26like you can always abandon it
10:28once you feel you've gotten value out of it,
10:29or if you feel like you're not getting value out of it,
10:31rather than feeling like you have to force it.
10:33I'm not about forcing,
10:34I'm just about working with our natural ebb
10:36and flow of energy and working with a natural ebb
10:39and flow of interest, almost like a sine wave.
10:41All right, let's now move on to step four,
10:42which is the processing stage of learning from audio books.
10:45Now, a real downside of audio books
10:46is that it's genuinely very hard to take notes
10:48if you're trying to learn stuff from audio books.
10:50And honestly, I think this is one of the main reasons
10:51why people for learning often prefer reading
10:53rather than listening,
10:54because when you're reading,
10:55you can actually take notes
10:56and absorb stuff as you go along.
10:57But the key that I find to actually learning properly
10:59from audio books is to find a way to take notes
11:01during the process.
11:02Now, there's a few different ways that you can do this.
11:04You could potentially use the bookmarking function
11:06that's built into Audible.
11:07By the way, this is not sponsored by Audible.
11:09I wish it were, but it's not.
11:10You could use the bookmark function in Audible,
11:12and that saves that like 30-second period
11:14that you snippeted out.
11:15Some people I know find this helpful.
11:17I don't personally find it helpful
11:18because it's always way too much of a faff
11:19to actually revisit my bookmarks
11:21and re-listen to those bits.
11:22And then be like, oh, but like, you know,
11:24the real bit I wanted to bookmark
11:25was like a minute before rather than 30 seconds before.
11:27Now I have to go to the timestamp in the audio book.
11:29It's just a real nightmare.
11:30So I don't really find that particularly helpful myself.
11:32The second option, which is the one that I do,
11:33is to actually genuinely take your own notes
11:35while you're listening to the audio book.
11:36Now, there's basically two main ways that I do this.
11:38The first one is if I'm listening to an audio book
11:40in a place where I'm able to pause it and get out my phone,
11:43i.e. not when I'm driving,
11:44then I will pause the audio book, I'll get out my phone,
11:46and in Apple Notes, I have a book notes folder,
11:49and I'll just sort of write down a few things on my phone,
11:51a few bullet points from what I've taken away
11:53if I wanna take notes
11:54on a particular section of the audio book.
11:55Alternatively, if I can't get out my phone
11:57or can't be bothered to get out my phone
11:58and I still wanna take a note
11:59from something I've heard in the audio book,
12:01often what I will do is I'll open up the app Drafts
12:03on my Apple Watch,
12:04which allows me to dictate stuff like audio into my watch,
12:07which is what I can do while driving.
12:09So I'll say something like,
12:10hey, you know, just listening to Nine Lies About Work,
12:12I think it's chapter number four,
12:14and they're talking about blah, blah, blah,
12:15they're talking about have praise and feedback,
12:16blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
12:17so yeah, worth revisiting that bit.
12:19And then that will get saved to my Drafts inbox,
12:21which then syncs to, syncs across all my devices,
12:23my Mac, my iPhone, my iPad, again, not sponsored at all,
12:26I wish it were.
12:27But then whenever I want, whenever I can be bothered,
12:28whenever I feel like it,
12:29then I can go through my Drafts inbox and be like,
12:31all right, cool, so this was a note
12:32from Nine Lies About Work,
12:33let's just copy and paste that into my notes,
12:36my Apple Notes thingy for that particular book.
12:38But then beyond taking notes as I go along the book,
12:40if I really want to genuinely learn from the book
12:42and take more stuff from it,
12:43I will just buy the book in physical copy
12:45or in Kindle version.
12:46Generally, I prefer Kindle version
12:48because then you can highlight, you can synchronise,
12:50you can take notes on the computer,
12:51which is way quicker than taking notes by hand.
12:53But sometimes, you know, there are some books
12:54where it's just nice to have the physical copy of it
12:56and take notes in the margin.
12:58I don't do that very often,
12:59but it is nice to do very, very occasionally.
13:00And beyond buying the physical book
13:02or buying the version on Kindle,
13:03if I really want to continue
13:04to kind of get the most out of it,
13:05usually I'll turn it into an episode of Book Club,
13:07the series on this channel where we talk about books
13:09and I summarise books.
13:11And generally, the more I find,
13:12like I find I gain so much more from a book
13:14and I genuinely learn from it when I get to the point
13:16where I can actually explain it to someone else.
13:18And so for me, that involves basically
13:20either writing an email newsletter about it
13:22or writing a tweet thread about it
13:23or making a Book Club video where I summarise the book.
13:25Now, if you're interested in this specific workflow,
13:27this specific process that I use
13:28for taking notes from books,
13:29and you're a massive nerd like me,
13:31then you might like to check out my workflow series,
13:33which is available on Nebula.
13:34If you haven't heard by now,
13:35Nebula is an independent streaming platform
13:36that's built by me and a bunch of other creators.
13:38And on Nebula, we can put really niche stuff,
13:40like a very specific video about the workflow
13:42that I use from taking notes
13:43from like books and audiobooks and stuff,
13:45without having to worry about,
13:46is it mainstream enough to appeal to the YouTube algorithm?
13:48It's not trying to be a competitor to YouTube.
13:50It's literally just a place where we can put stuff
13:51where it might be useful to some people in our audience,
13:54but not necessarily to the whole crowd.
13:55And so on Nebula, I've got my exclusive workflow series,
13:57which talks about this kind of nerdy stuff.
14:00And I also have my old deep dive interview series.
14:02So back in lockdown, I did a bunch of remote interviews
14:04with really cool people around the internet.
14:06And while I've started a new podcast,
14:07the old episodes, the interviews I did a year ago,
14:10are still ridiculously valuable
14:12and only available on Nebula for you to listen to.
14:14If that sounds good,
14:14and you'd like to get access to this exclusive library
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14:18from a bunch of other creators
14:20that you might be familiar with,
14:21then the easiest way to sign up to Nebula
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14:26CuriosityStream is the world's leading
14:27documentary streaming subscription platform,
14:30and on CuriosityStream,
14:31they've got thousands of really high quality,
14:32high budget documentaries that you can watch
14:34at whatever pace you like.
14:35And because CuriosityStream love independent creators,
14:37they've partnered up with Nebula,
14:38and we've got a bundle deal,
14:39whereby for less than $15 a year,
14:41you can sign up to a whole one year subscription
14:43of CuriosityStream,
14:44and you will get free access to Nebula
14:46completely bundled with that.
14:47So less than $15 a year
14:49for incredible high quality, high budget documentaries,
14:51along with some of my exclusive content
14:53and exclusive content from a load of other creators
14:55you might be familiar with,
14:56like Thomas Frank and Legal Eagle
14:57and Tom Scott and Lindsay Ellis.
14:59To be honest, that makes this the single best deal
15:01in the streaming world, bar none.
15:02And so if that sounds up your street,
15:03then head over to curiositystream.com forward slash Ali.
15:06And if you sign up for an account on CuriosityStream,
15:08then you'll get your Nebula login details emailed to you,
15:10and it's gonna be fun and exciting.
15:12So thank you very much CuriosityStream
15:13for sponsoring this video,
15:14and thank you very much for watching.
15:15If you enjoyed this video,
15:16and you'd like to learn more
15:17about this idea of speed listening,
15:19check out this video over here,
15:20which talks specifically about
15:21how I got into speed listening
15:23and how you can get into it as well,
15:24along with a bunch of tips
15:25to help you listen to stuff faster
15:27if that kind of thing is up your street.
15:29Otherwise, have a great day,
15:30and I'll see you in the next video.
15:31Bye-bye.