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Elithrion comments on Boring Advice Repository - Less Wrong
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Although this may not be for everyone, I'd recommend listening to audiobooks. The main advantage is that you can easily listen to them while walking or taking public transport, while cooking, while exercising, etc., which I personally find makes these activities a lot less boring.
I've also found that my personal rate of reading is faster with audiobooks (using RockBox with an mp3 player to speed up playback to 3-3.5x) than with normal reading, at something like ~450 words/min or ~1.3 pages/min. Most of the speed increase comes from me being really slow at reading normally due to getting distracted, focusing too much on thinking through one part, or just forgetting to read quickly, but still.
Podcasts as well, there's lots of good content and with an adjustable speed player (e.g. beyondpod) you can absorb it fast.
I've found the opposite. I will occasionally listen to audiobooks while driving or working out, but even with accelerated audio I read 2-3 times faster than audio can do.
Also, reading allows control of the pace. Certain sections are denser than others, and with a book you can slow down through those parts without losing pace on the filler.
I have listened to audiobooks for about a 6 months. Recently I started to spend less time on audiobooks and more time on thinking. Not much evidence is gathered, by so far thinking while walking seems more useful for me.
You listen to them at 3-3.5x while doing other things? How do you increase the speed, do you only increase the tempo? Do you change the pitch at all?
Yes, I find that that's about the current limit for me catching every word. I think it used to be a bit slower a year or two ago (~2.5x), but I'm not sure if maybe I just pushed less then. Mostly I have no trouble doing other non-group things while listening, except I can't do anything involving words (including daydream level thought chains) or anything overly mentally challenging (e.g. non-trivial math). (If I concentrate really really hard I can listen to something and read something at the same time while understanding both, especially at lower playback speeds, but I find myself unable to maintain this level of concentration for more than a few sentences.)
Not sure I understand what you mean by "tempo" (as opposed to speed). On the computer, I use VLC, which increases playback speed without shifting pitch. Walking around, I use a Sansa Fuze (not +, and v2) with Rockbox firmware installed. Rockbox lets me go up to 250% playback speed without pitch shifting, and then requires +1% pitch for every additional 2.5% speed thereafter. I actually find VLC less clear than my mp3 player at high speeds, although not sure if that's because pitch increases helps comprehension or because my sound card is worse than the player or something (I guess I should test it some time).
I second your advice and am curious what sources of material you consume this way.
Mostly p2p sources, to be honest, supplemented with LibriVox for public domain titles. I'd like to be able to buy more, since there are a lot that just aren't available by other means (especially less popular or newer books on more serious topics), but my current budget doesn't really allow for it.
You can take audible's free month then immediately cancel if that fits your morals.
(And if it doesn't... fix your morals!)
I've found myself totally unable to focus on audiobooks/podcasts for any length of time except while walking. Any advice for me and others like me?
I agree with tut that increasing speed might help. Sometimes if I listen at default speed, I find my attention drifting off mid-sentence just because it's going so slowly. (Conversely, at higher speed, when my attention does drift off briefly, I sometimes miss a full sentence or two and have to rewind slightly.)
If that doesn't work, I don't really have many other ideas. Maybe you could try other repetitive mechanical actions to see if they coexist well with audiobooks. For example, maybe cooking, drawing, or exercising might work (if you do any of those). In general, I find it easy to not miss anything in an audiobook so long as I'm simultaneously doing something that does not also involve words.
1 Listen while walking (ie if it's the only time it works, and if you walk often, then just use the opportunity when you have it)
2 Try listening at a higher speed when doing simpler things
I don't walk often; if I did it wouldn't be an issue. Also, I'm skeptical increased speed would help. If I'm not doing anything else while listening, my attention drifts away, which I don't think would be assisted by increasing the speed. The lack of related physical action is the main issue; I find it enormously difficult to not fidget away any focus I had.
Why do you want to use audiobooks? The usual reason is so that you can learn or enjoy a good story while you are doing other stuff. If that's the case for you, then do that stuff and your lack of physical motion is solved. If you have another reason, have you considered taking up walking just to enjoy your audiobooks and for exercise? How about knitting? Woodcarving? Keeping ones body occupied is not an unexplored problem.
As for speeding up, I was a lot more sceptic that it would help me concentrate on videos before I tried it.