How I Trained Myself to Listen at 4x Speed (and You Can Too)

Ever feel like you're drowning in a sea of information, struggling to keep your head above the rising tide of podcasts, audiobooks, and online courses? Me too. It's the paradox of the modern age: We're surrounded by more knowledge than ever before, yet starved for the time to consume it all.

So when I first heard some productivity guru preach about 2x-ing audiobooks, I was intrigued. Double the knowledge in half the time? Sign me up.

Then I actually tried it.

My brain felt like it was being force-fed information through a fire hose. It was like trying to stuff a week's worth of groceries into a single shopping bag – messy, overwhelming, and ultimately unsustainable. I figured, "Screw this, I'd rather actually understand what I'm listening to." The whole thing felt unsustainable, like trying to mainline information was going to leave me dumber.

But like a mosquito buzzing in my ear, the idea just wouldn't quit. This whole "bigger, better, faster" mantra is seductive, and a small part of me couldn’t shake the feeling that I was missing a trick. So, I dipped my toes into the sped-up world, cranking my podcasts to a brisk 1.5x. It was...fine. Better than a poke in the eye, but I still felt like I was sacrificing comprehension at the altar of efficiency.

The Climb to 3x

Time went by, and I didn't give much thought to my listening speed. I was talking to my friend about the topic. My friend, let’s call him 'The Machine' – a dude who treats his brain like a high-performance engine, constantly fine-tuning and pushing its limits. 

"Dude," he said, with that knowing grin that made me simultaneously want to punch him and steal his secrets, "I haven't listened to anything at normal speed in months. I'm all about that 3x."

Three. Times. The. Speed.

My initial reaction: He'd finally gone nuts. What's the point of blasting through content if you can't even process half of it?

But The Machine was relentless. This guy was a 3x speed listening evangelist. He'd casually drop these truth bombs about how much more he was learning, how much faster he was consuming books. It was like he'd unlocked a secret level of existence, and I was stuck playing on noob mode. He talked so passionate about it, it was hard to dismiss it as a productivity hack gone mad.

The seed of doubt had been planted in my head.

I'm not gonna lie, The Machine's obsession got to me. I had to see what all the fuss was about. So, I started small. I nudged that speed dial up to 2x. I installed a browser extension to watch YouTube videos faster.

The rule: No more 1x. It was time to reprogram my brain.

At first it was complete overload for my brain. But I told myself to be patient. This is to be expected. I have to relax into that feeling. And after a couple of weeks it got better. It got so much better that increased it to 2.1x then 2.2.x and after while I found myself cruising at 3x, barely breaking a sweat. My brain had adapted. It was like my auditory cortex had hit the gym, started doing cognitive reps, and was now ripped and ready for anything. 

I experimented to find my sweet spots: Podcasts were best at 2.5-3x, audiobooks around 2.8-3.1x, and YouTube was stuck at a measly 1.8-2x.

But 3x wasn't the end goal. It was just the beginning…

The Science of Sped-Up Listening (and Your Brain)

Turns out, The Machine was onto something. It all comes down to this beautiful little concept called the "skill-challenge sweet spot," a term coined by neuro-hacking badass Steven Kotler. It's that magical zone where you're pushing your abilities just enough to trigger deep engagement and growth, but not so much that you freak out and faceplant into a puddle of overwhelm.

You see, the human brain isn't built for endless comfort. It craves novelty, challenge, and a goddamn sense of accomplishment. Too easy, and your mind checks out, wandering off to ponder the existential dread of your grocery list – or, as Kotler would say, "ontological anxiety," that nagging fear of impotence and nonexistence. Too hard, and you're drowning in anxiety, convinced you're one misplaced comma away from utter failure.

But hit that sweet spot, and your brain lights up like a Christmas tree on cocaine. You enter flow state, that elusive mental space where time bends, distractions vanish, and you're firing on all cylinders. Kotler calls flow the "source code of intrinsic motivation" – the biological drive that pushes us to become better versions of ourselves. And he's not just blowing smoke up your ass. Decades of research have proven that flow amplifies motivation, learning, creativity, and pretty much every other aspect of peak performance.

That's the beauty of gradually cranking up the listening speed. You're essentially giving your brain a workout, forcing it to adapt and process information faster. At first, 2x felt like trying to drink from a firehose. I was struggling, my prefrontal cortex working overtime to keep up with the verbal deluge, the inner critic screaming, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, YOU IDIOT?!"

But with each incremental increase – 2.1x, 2.2x, 2.3x – my brain started to settle down. The initial discomfort, that feeling of being a complete moron, started to fade as my neural pathways rewired themselves to handle the increased load. My anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain that detects errors and helps us shift attention, was working overtime, finding those remote associations between words and ideas at warp speed. It was uncomfortable, for sure, but in that discomfort, my brain was expanding its capacity, getting stronger, better, faster.

And this, my friends, is exactly how you overcome the "habit of inferiority" that William James wrote about over a century ago. (Now, I know what you're thinking: Who the hell is William James, and what does some dead philosopher know about hacking my brain with audiobooks? Good question. Turns out, this James guy was a total badass. He was a pioneering psychologist, a philosopher, and basically the OG of self-improvement. He literally wrote the book on the topic – The Principles of Psychology, a masterpiece of mind-bending insights. And one of his biggest breakthroughs was this idea that most of us walk around with a fraction of the potential we could be tapping into. He called it the "habit of inferiority," this insidious tendency to underestimate our own abilities and settle for a life of comfortable mediocrity. But here's the kicker: James believed we could break free from this habit by consistently pushing past our comfort zones, by embracing challenges that force us to grow. And that, my friends, is where 4x listening comes in.) By pushing past that initial resistance, by leaning into the struggle, we discover those hidden reservoirs of energy and ability that most of us never even tap into.

The Unexpected Benefits (Beyond Speed)

Okay, so you can listen to more podcasts and blast through audiobooks like a coked-up cheetah on a sugar rush. That’s great. But you know what else? Speeding up my listening didn't just save time, it fundamentally changed how I experience and process information. It was like giving my brain a software upgrade, unlocking a whole new set of cognitive tools.

For starters, I actually became a more discerning reader. I used to slog through entire books out of some misplaced sense of obligation, even if they were boring me to tears. But at 3x speed, I could "sample" a book in a couple of hours, quickly deciding if it was worth my precious time. No more guilt-reading, no more mental masochism – just pure, unadulterated information efficiency.

Then came the weird stuff. One day, I’m sitting at my desk, trying to work, but this annoying, subtle noise keeps distracting me. At first, I thought it was the neighbors, but then I realized it was coming from my own damn apartment. It was a bottle of Kombucha, sitting in the other room, slowly releasing CO2 because I hadn’t screwed the cap on tight enough.

Seriously, I could hear the goddamn bubbles.

Now, maybe this was just a coincidence, but my hearing has noticeably improved since I started training my brain to process information faster. It’s like my auditory cortex went to the gym and came back with superhuman hearing.

But the real mind-blower? My Spanish. Now, before we go any further, let me just say that my Spanish skills were, to put it mildly, unimpressive. I once tried to order a ice cream in Barcelona and accidentally asked for a „ice cream on top of male genitals." (It wasn't pretty.) So when I tell you that 2.8x speed transformed my Spanish, understand that this wasn't just some minor improvement. It was a goddamn linguistic resurrection. It forced me to focus like a laser beam, tuning out distractions and absorbing vocabulary at warp speed. It was like my brain was finally speaking the language of immersion, of deep, focused engagement.

But here’s the real mindfuck: 4x listening isn’t just about speed. It’s about presence. It's about stripping away the distractions, silencing that inner monologue of bullshit, and becoming one with the goddamn information flow. It’s like mindfulness on a rocket ship.

Here's the weird thing about listening at 4x speed: There’s no time for your mind to wander off to daydream about unicorns and tax returns. You’re locked in, fully engaged, your attention honed to a razor’s edge. It's the kind of mindfulness that even a Zen master would envy.

How to Train for 4x Speed

So, you're ready to join the warp-speed club, to unlock the hidden potential of your auditory cortex? Good. Because, unlike what those ten-thousand-hour-rule-spouting gurus would have you believe, you don't need a decade of monastic dedication to become a listening ninja. You just need the right training regimen – and a healthy dose of "fuck it, let's do this" audacity.

First, a reality check: Going straight to 4x speed is like trying to bench press a small car on your first trip to the gym. Your brain will revolt, your ears will bleed, and you’ll probably end up curled up in the fetal position, sucking your thumb and humming the theme song to Barney.

Start slow, grasshopper. Think of it like climbing a mountain of auditory awesomeness. You wouldn't just teleport to the summit, would you? (Okay, bad example. Teleportation would be awesome.) But you get the point.

Here’s your training program:

1. Embrace Incremental Gains

Those 10,000-hour hacks will tell you to grind for a decade. Screw that. We're playing a different game. Micro-adjustments, that's the secret weapon. Crank up the speed by 0.1x at a time. Seriously, it's like magic. Your brain will adapt before it even realizes it’s being challenged. Audible is your friend here, with its built-in speed controls. For YouTube and other videos, download a browser plugin that lets you fine-tune the playback speed.

2. Find Your Sweet Spot

Different content types require different speeds. Podcasts tend to be less dense than audiobooks, so you can usually crank those up higher. Although the speakers might talk a bit faster, so you might want to play with the speed for each podcast/audiobook individually. YouTube, with its visual distractions, might need to stay below 2x (unless you’re one of those weirdos who likes to listen to videos with their eyes closed). Experiment, find what works for you, and don’t be afraid to adjust as you go.

3. Consistency is king

Treat your brain like a muscle you're training. You wouldn't skip leg day, would you? So don't skip speed day. Once you find a comfortable speed, stick with it. No cheating, no backsliding to that slow-mo 1x world. You’re rewiring your brain here, building new neural pathways. Think of it as a mental marathon, not a sprint. That is the power of conditioning. 

4. The 100x Challenge

Ready to kick things into overdrive? Pick one audiobook, preferably something you already enjoy, and listen to it at 3.5x speed, 100 times. It sounds insane, I know, but trust me. It’s like mainlining expertise. Your brain will start to process information faster and faster, making connections you never even noticed before. By the end, you’ll be a listening god, able to absorb knowledge like a sponge on steroids.

This isn’t some self-help bullshit. This is about forcing your brain to evolve, to operate at a level it never thought possible. It’s about escaping the comfortable mediocrity of the status quo and embracing the exhilarating discomfort of growth. So, crank up the speed, dive into the deep end, and let the information floodgates open.

Trust me, your brain will thank you for it.

I'm not saying that listening at 4x speed will turn you into Einstein, but it's probably how Elon Musk gets all his work done. And it’s not just about cramming more podcasts into your commute or speeding up your self-improvement audiobooks – it’s about unlocking a whole new level of cognitive function.

It’s about training your brain to process information faster, sharper, and with a level of presence that most of us can only dream of. It’s about breaking free from the limitations of your current listening habits and discovering the exhilarating world of warp-speed learning.

Don't be a passive consumer of this information. Use it. Become the 4x version of yourself. The world needs you firing on all cylinders. Push your limits. And tell me, what unexpected benefits do you discover along the way? Drop me a line, I’d love to hear about your journey to a faster, more focused mind.