Speed listening benefits

You can learn more effectively by optimizing your listening strategies. One of the best approaches is speed listening.

What makes speed listening so beneficial, and is there a platform that can help polish this skill?

The purpose of speed listening

Speed listening is a technique of listening to audio content faster to decrease the time needed to digest information. Anyone who does a lot of listening or reading but doesn’t have the time can gain from this skill.

Some of the most common groups who regularly use speed listening apps include professionals, students, podcast fans, and audiobook listeners.

Speed listening is practical because it relies on the innate capabilities of your brain. It can listen to and understand 210 words per 60 seconds, which is twice as quick as the normal speed of regular speech.

Therefore, listening to content twice as fast as the original is optimal for most speed listeners. This rate enables them to listen comfortably and retain information.

You could set your YouTube video, Amazon audiobooks, or other content at higher speeds, but it could reduce your retention. The narrators might start sounding like chipmunks, and some words lose their meaning.

The only way to achieve faster speeds is through practice.

How to speed listen using Speechify

You can use several platforms (e.g., Overcast or Spotify) for speed listening. However, the best option is text to speech through the Speechify app.

Once you upload your document to our platform, you can increase the speed of the spoken words with the Automatic Speed Ramping feature. You can find it from your Speed Controller, and it lets you raise the rate by a couple of words per minute every 500-100 words.

Here’s how to adjust the speed of any recording on Speechify:

• Open your Speechify app on Android, Apple, macOS, or Windows.
• Upload a document to your library.
• Press Play and tap the 1.0 icon in the lower-right part of the display.
• Increase the audio speed by pulling the slider up, making sure it’s not too fast. Pulling it in the opposite direction slows down the recording.
• Tap the Done button to select your rate, and you’re good to go.

The benefits of speed listening

There are many reasons you should take up speed reading and listening:

Intake of more content

Your attention span reduces by the day. As a result, you may find old movies boring due to their slow-paced nature. Likewise, you might not be a fan of cricket because it can take more than three or four days to declare the winner.

The same goes for reading books on Audible or other platforms. Novels with 500-600 hundred pages have lengthy intros and can get tedious pretty quickly.

You can move past this issue by increasing your reading speed. It allows you to process information in less time than an average person, keeping you motivated and eager to learn more.

Active listening

When you start using high playback speeds, you might struggle to keep up. Hence, you might need to rewind and repeat certain sections several times to understand them.

This doesn’t sound advantageous, but think about it – the only way to understand your accelerated content is to focus. Since the process requires undivided attention, you become better at concentrating on your tasks.

Moreover, learners can also improve their multitasking skills as they get used to speed listening from their preferred narrators. The brain learns to follow and comprehend the content more quickly through this hack, allowing them to take notes simultaneously.

More time for other content

You need to make calculated choices when you’re on a busy schedule. You should only do things you’re confident you’ll finish. Therefore, you don’t have the time to experiment and risk missing out on other activities.

You won’t have this problem with speed listening. It gives you ample extra time, enabling you to explore other types of content from your favorite bloggers, podcasters, and authors.

Tremendous sense of accomplishment

After each speed listening session, you’re more likely to feel a powerful sense of accomplishment. The reason is twofold:

• You’ve completed a task faster than with normal playback.
• You’ve developed an admirable skill of listening and comprehending quickly.

By checking individual items off your to-do list, your self-esteem grows. You also feel more productive because you’ve used the time available to be productive. Whether you listen to documentaries or other audio files, doing so at double speed will be invaluable.

How to improve your speed listening skills

There are many ways to optimize your speed listening skills. Besides ramping up the recording speed on Speechify, you can also listen to podcasts.

Here’s how this method works.

1. Find an episode and increase the speed to two-to-three times higher than normal.
2. Listen to it every day for a week while driving, washing dishes, and riding the bus.
3. Pick out phrases and words that are hard to understand. Look them up on your first run. If necessary, press the pause button and rewind the recording.

After a few days, you should be able to understand the words without any issues. You should also consider memorizing parts of the episode and try to speak them aloud. Look for differences between the speaker and yourself.

By the end of the week, you’ll understand a lot more than on your first day. Your ear will have adjusted to the episode.

Another great way to enhance your speed reading and listening skills is to simultaneously consume information from multiple sources.

This means you shouldn’t be listening only but also receiving information from another place.

To do so, you can watch English videos with subtitles. It allows you to read and listen to the words, making the content both understandable and memorable.

Just don’t forget to increase the reading speed on Speechify over time.

Let Speechify help you become a better listener with speed listening

Speechify is designed to facilitate your study by streamlining all essential skills. One of them is speed listening.

Using the platform, you can adjust the recording to the preferred rate, allowing you to digest the content fast. In addition, the system can highlight individual words to help you focus.

There are also numerous natural-sounding voices to choose from, as well as over 60 languages. Therefore, you can’t go wrong with Speechify if you want to make your workload much more manageable.