You’d Be Surprised How Much Time You Have for Audiobooks
Most people want to read more than they do. The intention is there, but the time never seems to be. Audiobooks change that equation, because they fit into time you are already spending on something else: silence, the same podcast you have already half-heard, a playlist you stopped paying attention to three months ago, or the background hum of a kitchen appliance.
Audiobooks do not need your eyes or your hands. They need your ears and a bit of your attention. That opens up hours of your day that you might not have considered as reading time. Here are ten things that pair well with audiobooks, and a few tips for making each one work.
1. Walking
This is the easiest way to start. A 30-minute walk with an audiobook is one of the most pleasant things you can do for yourself, and if you walk regularly you will get through a surprising number of books without trying. Dogs help: a daily dog walk is basically a built-in audiobook habit. Fiction, memoir, and narrative non-fiction all work well here because the steady rhythm of walking lets your mind settle into the story.
2. Running
Audiobooks work surprisingly well for running, especially on longer, slower runs where you are not pushing for pace. The story gives you something to focus on other than how far you have left to go, and many runners find they run further with an audiobook than with music because they want to hear what happens next. Thrillers are particularly good for this. If you run in busy areas, consider bone conduction headphones so you can hear traffic and still follow the narrator.
3. At the gym
Weights, machines, stretching, warm-ups, cool-downs: all of these work with audiobooks. The exception is anything high-intensity where you are breathing too hard to concentrate (interval training, heavy sets). For those moments, switch to music and come back to the book when you are resting between sets or on the treadmill. Motivational non-fiction and biography tend to pair well with training.
4. Cooking
Cooking is ideal listening time because your hands are busy but your ears are free. A recipe you know well does not need much mental bandwidth, and even a new one only needs your full attention in short bursts. Audiobooks work better than podcasts here because you can pause and come back without losing the thread of a conversation. Comfort reads (cosy crime, memoir, food writing) are a natural fit.
5. Gardening
Weeding, mowing, planting, watering: gardening is repetitive enough that your mind is free to follow a story, but physical enough that you cannot read a book. Audiobooks fill that gap perfectly. If you spend an hour in the garden a few times a week, that is a book every fortnight just from time you were already using. Anything goes here, but nature writing and literary fiction feel especially right with soil under your fingernails.
6. Housework
Laundry, ironing, washing up, tidying, cleaning the bathroom: none of these are things you look forward to. An audiobook changes the calculation. The chore becomes the price of admission for the next chapter, and suddenly you are volunteering to do the hoovering because you need to find out what happens. This is one of the most common ways people discover audiobooks, and it works because housework demands almost nothing from your brain.
7. Commuting
We have written a full guide to audiobooks for commuters, but the short version: if you spend an hour a day travelling, that is 250 hours a year. With audiobooks, those hours become the most enjoyable part of your day rather than the most forgettable. Download before you leave (essential for tunnels and poor signal), and consider the listen-and-read x-book® format if you are on a train or bus and want to follow the text on screen.
8. Crafting and hobbies
Knitting, sewing, painting, model-building, jigsaw puzzles, woodworking: anything where your hands are occupied but your mind can wander is perfect for audiobooks. Crafting communities have known this for years, and it is one of the reasons audiobook listening skews so strongly towards people with hands-on hobbies. Long books work well here because the hobby gives you a reason to keep listening for hours.
9. Driving
Long drives and audiobooks are a classic pairing, but even short drives add up. A 20-minute school run twice a day is over three hours a week. A weekly supermarket trip is another hour. If you listen in the car whenever you are alone, you will be surprised how quickly you finish a book. Avoid anything too complex or emotionally intense for motorway driving (you need some attention on the road), but well-paced narrative non-fiction and lighter fiction work brilliantly.
10. Before bed
Many people find that an audiobook is a better way to wind down than a screen. Set a sleep timer (most apps have one), lie back, and let the narrator do the work. If you fall asleep, you can scrub back in the morning to find where you dropped off. Calm, reflective books work best here: memoir, travel writing, gentle literary fiction. Thrillers before bed are not recommended unless you want to be awake at 2am finding out who did it.
Getting more from your listening time
A few things that help, whatever you are doing:
Download your audiobooks before you start. Streaming depends on signal, and signal depends on where you are. If you are gardening, running, or driving through the countryside, you need the book on your device. On xigxag, every audiobook you buy can be downloaded and listened to offline.
Try the listen-and-read format. When you pause your activity and have a screen in front of you (on the train, in bed, on the sofa), xigxag’s x-book® format lets you see the text on screen as you listen, look up words, take notes, and search within the book. It is a different way of engaging with the same audiobook, and an increasing proportion of titles are available as x-books. Look for the purple x-book® ribbon or filter your search to find them.
Adjust the speed. If you are doing something that takes a bit of concentration (cooking a new recipe, navigating an unfamiliar route), slow the narrator down. If you are doing something mindless (ironing, washing up), speed them up. The xigxag app let you adjust in small increments.
Keep your queue stocked. The worst thing is finishing a book halfway through a run and having nothing queued up. On xigxag, there is no subscription, so you buy what you want when you want it. Prices start at £8.99, and the Listen for Less section always has titles from £3.99.
You already have the time. You just need the book. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk and start listening.
