Podcast Efficiency (aka Podficiency TM)

Look at that… in two days, I’ve invented two words…

Lawnficiency (Noun):  Mowing your lawn and doing yardwork in the most systematic and time-saving way possible

Podficiency (Noun): Listening to Podcasts and avoiding all the time-wasting pauses and slow talking

If you don’t read another word, just do this … put the App Pocket Casts on your phone and move all your Podcasting listening there and make sure you explore all the cool, time-saving features.

2024, for me, is gonna be about maximum efficiency in all areas of my life (the parts that are the must-do so I can spend more time on the wanna-do’s).

It’s like I’ve been telling my kids their entire lives…

Last things… first. First things …last.

This means, when looking at work, school work, chores, health …whatever. We should make a list and rank each activity from #1 (the thing you want to do immediately because it’s the most fun) to #10 or whatever number corresponds with the length of your to-do list. This Blog isn’t about that, but if your list is four things like these … tackle your overflowing work-Email Inbox and make a to-do list, go through the bills and see what’s due and when, and read a new book you just got from the library, exercise for half-hour … the list should be #1, exercise, #2, bills, #3, work-Email, and finally, #4 …read that book.

So, what is Podficiency and why Pocket Casts?

I love Podcasts. I listen to alot of Podcasts. Too many. Literally, too many. I have 27 I would like to listen to. Some self-help. Some comedy. Some? Just interesting. Obviously, every Podcast episode doesn’t interest me, but I would like to listen to more.

I wasted time by listening to some Podcasts on Apples “Podcast App”.  Some Podcasts I saved and listened to on Spotify. But then I also had iHeartRadio and Audacy where I had some. Oh, and sometimes YouTube Podcasts.

No more. I’m starting from scratch on Pocket Casts.

So how does Pocket Casts save time and allow me to more efficiently listen to Podcasts? First, a very clean interface that shows me only the image icons of my favorite shows and I can move those icons around so my humor, my self-help, and my interesting Podcasts are grouped together, sort of. But the BIG WIN with Pocket Casts is their time-trimming features.

Speed up to 1.1x, 1.2x, 1.3x, etc and “Trim Silence”

• Most listening apps have the standard 1 1/4, 1 1/2, 1 3/4 speed or 1.25x, 1.50x, and 1.75x. Great. But then everyone sounds like a chipmunk. Pocket Casts allows for a less chipmunky 1.1x or 1.2x and so on.
• Volume Boost …this highlights the midrange and the voices and sometimes, like when a car is passing by on your walk, this helps without having to raise the volume and damage your ear drums
• Trim Silences . . . this is the BEST PART. Podcast hosts and guests aren’t working from a tight script and there’s lots of “ummms” and awkward pauses while hosts or guests think of questions and answers and look at their notes to figure out what’s next. The “trim silence” very subtly cuts those pauses and a 38-minute Podcast episode at 1.2x and “time silence” turned on can be done in 32-minutes.
• Customizable forward-skip button. Ya know how your Podcast App has the ability to skip-back 15-seconds or forward 15-seconds? Well, this allows you to set the skip-forward to any amount of time. I set mine to 45-second skip-forward. I do sell ads for a living, so this is sacrilege and hypocrisy, but when I’ve heard ads for Me Undies and Better Help for the 1,000th time and I’ve already become customers of both …I can skip that ad. Or I can skip a political ad. Or I can skip and entire topic that doesn’t relate to me (menopause …skip-45, skip-45, skip-45-seconds aaaaaaand new topic).

NOTE:  It’s not that I do not appreciate and sympathize with menopause and it’s impact on women, but even if I became an expert, I’m pretty sure the women in my life do not want any advice on the topic from me, so I recently skipped an entire section of a Podcast where the guest was talking about menopause’s effect on cognitive ability in women. I’d be a dead man if I tried mansplaining to my wife why she forgot something or why she recently has been forgetful. Not that she has been forgetful. She’s amazing and her memory is perfect always. Always was. Always will be. Love you, honey.

That’s all I got. If you’re not using Pocket Casts, you might be wasting time and you could actually listen to more Podcasts in less time. Oh, yes, Pocket Casts will also tell you how much time you saved. This week? I saved 49-minutes of listening time and that doesn’t include the ads I skipped and the topics I skipped. 49-minutes is 1 or 2 more episodes of some other Podcasts.

Podcasts are great. Time is precious. Always be looking to improve and be more efficient with your time.