Wherein I Discover a System For My Podcast Listening Needs

I’m a book girl. Real paper and ink and binding and cover all fashioned together into a book I can hold in my hands. {E-books, if I have to, but my true love is the hard copies!} 

I tell you this to say, “I like to read.” I love stories and I love to watch a good movie and re-watch my favorite movies. 

But in the ebb and flow of life, curling up with a book is my thing, my hobby. 

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I’ll watch YouTube a bit. I’ll watch a how-to video when wanting to learn a skill. I’ll watch the Peterson Farm Bros parodies, look up favorite songs, and find amusement in Tim Hawkins or John Crist..
 
My son, on the other hand, loves audiobooks and YouTube. He’s been listening to audiobooks for over ten years. He has favorite YouTubers and he’s been learning to play the electric guitar by watching YouTube.

Where is all this book talk and audiobooks and Youtubing leading?

In a rabbit-trail way, it brings us to podcasts.

There are a LOT of podcasts out there, as well as a lot of awesome podcasts out there. I couldn’t seem to make podcast listening work  very well for me, though.

For starters, I still prefer reading a book versus listening to a podcast.

Yet, I did have some podcasts I wanted to listen to. 

I finally realized there were two main obstacles in my Podcast Listening Path.

No. 1 ~ Volume. My phone alone wasn’t loud enough to listen to a podcast while I washed dishes, or stirred up cookies or folded another relentless round of laundry. This was frustrating to me. I don’t want to listen to something when I feel I’m straining to hear and slowing my task, trying to catch what’s said. It wasn’t worth the trouble to me, so I quit trying.
 
No. 2 ~ Accessibility. As in, accessing the podcasts I wanted to hear as quickly as possible. I’m just lazy enough, I don’t want to have to go through two dozen steps. I’m also easily overwhelmed, so anything that starts to become too complicated is too much. I’d rather leave it. It isn’t worth the trouble. 

The thing was, I began to have a few podcasts I really did want to listen to occasionally.

“There has to be a solution,” I told my tired brain. “And there has to be a fairly easy one. Podcasts are quite popular and I’m quite sure I’m not the only person who loves ease and few steps.”

I noticed podcasters asking listeners to subscribe and that jogged my brain cells to bounce upon the idea of gathering your podcasts in one general place.

A best-comrade friend chats to me now and then about a favorite podcast or two or mentions an episode to me she’s recently listened to.

“Ah,” there was my answer.
Start with my people.

I’d ask her how she kept her podcasts organized.

She’s also a whiz at organizing, so I was betting she’d have a handy-dandy solution or suggestion.

Sure enough! She recommended an app. She told me she’d searched podcast apps, checked the ratings, tried a couple and found one that worked for her.

Brilliance! Why didn’t I think of this? I suppose because sometimes we just need a good friend to speak into our lives and send us down the right track!

With a few taps on my phone and a visit to the playstore, one download later and I was adding my podcast interests to Castbox. 

Now to hurdle the volume obstacle.

I remembered a portable speaker I’d purchased a couple of years ago. My son had been using it, but wasn’t anymore. I schlepped it back to my {loose} planner/pen/paper station in  my kitchen. Now, I could pull it out of the drawer, plug it in the phone port, step up the volume and hear as I moved about my tasks.

One further step to eliminate frustration and add ease was keeping a cable exclusively plugged into the speaker, so it was good to go.

Pull out. Plug in. Play.

 Easily accessible = CHECK

Volume = CHECK

I had now joined the ranks of Podcast Listeners. Do I get a shiny badge or anything?

{I’ve also had an AHA moment, when I realized I could bluetooth my phone and portable speaker, thus eliminating the need to plug in with a cable.} {Yes, I get stuck in routine.} {No, I don’t always think about what new option could be available.} Haha……….

Though books are still my besties, here’s the upside to podcasts for me.

No. 1 They help motivate me to do dull tasks. At least tasks, I find dull. It’s easier to attack the dirty kitchen and the towels hoping to have their edges folded and find themselves tucked into their cupboard homes.

No. 2 It’s easier to flop down to do my stretches or exercise when Emily P. Freeman speaks in her soothing voice or Ruth Soukup talks about crushing a goal.

No. 3 I can scrub the kitchen floor shiny clean as Sally Clarkson shares her gentle wisdom.

And so on and so forth…………………
🙂 🙂 🙂

 
I’m sure grateful for good friends to get me organized when needed.

I don’t always like noise.
Sometimes I want quiet.

I want to listen to the water flow into the kitchen sink and watch the dishsoap bubble up around my orange knitted dishcloth.

I want to listen to birds chirping outside the open screen.

Sometimes my brain wants to breathe and not process anymore information, no matter how encouraging or life-giving it is.

Sometimes soft music is the ticket and podcasts lay silently in neat little squares in my Castbox app. 

I’m thrilled to have implemented a solution, though.

For the days and the nagging chores, and the moments I need a bit more oomph and a nudge to make it all happen,
my podcasts are now quickly at my fingertips.

I’d love to hear your podcast organization system and a podcast or two you like to listen to!

P.S. friends……………speaking of books and writing and podcasts and Emily P. Freeman………….hope*writers has opened their doors to new members for a few days this week! If you’ve ever been interested in joining a community of writers, I recommend hope*writers! I’ve been a member of this community for a little over a year and I so appreciate the inspiration, information and encouragement with fellow writing people! Hope*writers is filled with members in all writing stage. To take a quiz showing where you are on the writing path, go here! For more information about hope*writers or to join in, go here! Email me any questions you may have! I’d love to chat!

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