The reason you are not listening to what you want when the mood is because you don’t get there fast enough. Whether you know it or not, you are drowning in your listening options. Audio options abound. Often, the time you need to explore songs, podcasts, or audiobooks is what really keeps us from listening when we decide we want to listen to it.
I know I thought about putting on some soft, background music during the family dinner, but with only two or three minutes between the time I think about it and the time the timer is activated, I gave up. Making the perfect playlist isn’t hard, but it can take a while. The same goes for finding a new podcast or audiobook episode that can match your mood and a certain listening time. It’s not hard, it just takes time.
Take these steps now to set yourself up to listen faster in the future.
Create playlists for many moods
When it comes time to dance, cook, study or sleep, you want the music to be in the queue and ready.
Having playlists in a wide range of moods is key to quickly tracking your moments and not just starting the first playlist you find that matches your keyword search. The best way to do this is to add songs and albums to multiple playlists while adding them to your music library.
If a song doesn’t fit into an existing playlist, consider making a new one about how the song or time of day you want to hear in the future will make you feel.
Creating dozens of playlists is great for very specific moods, but we also recommend that you make a few very extensive ones. For example, making playlists called simply “Morning”, “Afternoon” and “Evening” is a way to always have a selection of songs ready. “Lying Down,” “Up and About,” and “Blood Pumping” is another way to broadly group the songs together and cover various listening moments that will arise in the future.
As you participate, get rid of redundant playlist names as well. If you have five lists all called “Good New Songs,” it will later create indecision and uncertainty. You can also use emoji in playlist titles to help you identify them more quickly.
Backup podcast episodes
The beauty of listening to podcasts is that there is one for every topic of interest. There are millions, from big-budget narratives to informal conversations between friends. The volume of content is fantastic, but it can also be a curse.
Personally, I enjoy listening to weekly tech news podcasts most of the time. The ones I listen to the most are usually between 45 and 90 minutes. This is the perfect length for my daily run and helps me kill two single-stone birds. There have been times when I didn’t have any new episodes available and in fact it kept me from running that day.
To combat this problem, I have kept a few episodes of programs that I have unsubscribed from. There are too many good podcasts and not enough time. From time to time, when I lose the battle with my listening queue, I will unsubscribe. It’s nothing personal, but it helps me keep my sanity.
But instead of deleting the programs I’ve unsubscribed from on my podcast player, I’ll keep a few episodes, so I always have one available to listen to, even if my regulars run out. during the week. The ones I keep as backups are evergreen episodes Revisionist history, Hidden brain, and the TED radio time.
Emergency sounds
There are times when you just need sound. Whether it’s an approaching deadline or just unexpected moments of stress, it sometimes helps to have background sound. Honestly, in these cases it doesn’t matter what the sound is, you just need to be one touch away.