Last week a friend mentioned she had been listening to a podcast that deals with one of my myriad obsessions. In fact, she’s one of many friends who have been encouraging me to listen to podcasts for some time. Although I’m frequently intrigued by some of the podcasts they suggest, I had never before taken the step to listen to one. Heck, I didn’t even listen to a podcast that featured me. Basically, I lose focus and interest when I’m listening to something for large chunks of time. It’s the same reason I don’t listen to books on tape. (Yes, I realize books haven’t been on tape in years, but books on tape sounds better than audiobooks.)

Anyway, such is my obsession with the subject my friend referenced that I made a vow to listen to my first podcast.

Thus, I couldn’t wait to get home and finish my chores so I could download the podcast. Of course, this presented a problem. My friends listen to podcasts whilst exercising or driving. Even though I exercise and drive, but not at the same time, those options don’t work for me.

I thought I might be able to listen whilst writing, but that undertaking lasted for approximately two seconds. Then, I tried listening whilst reading. That lasted approximately three seconds.

That’s when I decided to quit multitasking and give the podcast my full attention. For the most part, that worked. As expected, I did lose focus a couple times and had to rewind, but my biggest problem was that I didn’t know where to put my eyes. I kept expecting a video to pop up on my screen and I kept thinking I should be doing something whilst listening.

So, I turned to my podcast-experienced friends for more advice and that’s how I learned that my bestie listens whilst cleaning. As it turns out, I had baking and housework to do this weekend, so I plugged my ear buds into the phone and set about downloading and listening.

There were some issues. For starters, I moved around a lot, which resulted in me repeatedly and accidentally yanking the ear buds out of the phone. I finally solved that problem, however, by placing the phone in my garments.

What’s more, one of the times the ear buds popped out, I overcorrected and pushed the wrong button on my phone, which resulted in the folks on the podcast sounding like the Chipmunks. I finished that episode in record time and was onto the next one when I finally figured out I was listening at double speed.

Overall, though, listening whilst cleaning house and baking worked for me. Not only did it help me learn oodles more about one of my myriad obsessions, it’s as if I cleaned at double speed.

This post originally appeared in the Appalachian News-Express.