🎧 Listen Up To Keep Up
Sunday Scoop #56 - A short issue to help you think about how you could best make use of your idle time.
Hey friends,
Personally, I spend up to 45 minutes a day walking to and from classes.
For many of you, especially for my friends in the UK, that amount can vary a lot, ranging anywhere from 20 minutes to 1 hour.
Even if we take the lower bound of 20 minutes a day and multiply that by 5 days a week, that comes out to 1 hour 40 minutes that you could use to potentially improve various aspects of your life.
In my case, I spend more than 5 hours a week commuting to classes. When I came across this realization, it was both thrilling and troubling.
It was exciting to find out that I can quite simply carve out 5 extra hours out of my week by simply finding a way to maximize the utility of these “spare time”. Yet, it was troubling that the realization dawned upon me so slowly.
I decided that the best use for my idle time was to listen to global financial news podcasts, something that I’ve been meaning to integrate into my information diet for quite some time now to no avail.
So, here are 3 podcast recommendations that you might enjoy on your commute to classes.
Podcast Recommendations
RobinHood Snacks (Financial News)
Recently, this has climbed to the top of my podcast list simply because it fits perfectly into the time it takes for me to get to class (i.e. ~ 20 minutes).
It stands out from other podcasts as it provides 3 digestible financial news of the day and its relevant analysis. The hosts are pretty outgoing and avoid using unnecessary jargons in their analysis. It lowers the barrier of entry significantly and makes you genuinely look forward to your next commute just so that you can listen to the next episode.
This podcast has my absolute highest recommendation for anyone who always “doesn’t have the time to keep up with the news”.
The Daily Show With Trevor Noah (General News)
Been on my top-listened Spotify podcast 2 years in a row (ever since I came across it). Enough said.
This one stands out more than RobinHood Snacks because Trevor Noah is, to me, one of the best hosts at the moment.
The only downside to it is that the daily episodes are slightly longer, at least 30 minutes each and it doesn’t quite hit right when you have the stop the podcast once you reach class.
However, I usually just listen to the “This Week’s Top Stories” episodes during one of my gym sessions. These episodes are about 35 minutes each and they compile all the highlights of the week.
Today, Explained (Deep Analysis of News)
While the first two podcasts focus on quantity of news provided in a fixed time, this one focuses on quality.
Every weekday, it narrows down one specific news and conducts a deep analysis on it so that you truly understand the reason behind why it happened, the unfolding of events on how it happened, and the repercussions now that it has happened.
I normally listen to this podcast on my walk back from class, ending my hectic day with a nice, thoughtful episode.
What Should I Listen To?
To figure out how to best use your idle time, just start from the first principles.
What do you desperately want to improve in? What are the things you know could improve your life, but you chuck it in your “someday” list?
Then, simply ask yourself how can you move one step closer towards it?
It could be health podcasts (Mind Pump), entrepreneurship podcasts (GaryVee) or even relationship and life podcasts (Table Talk)! Anything that you think could move the needle!
The fundamental idea is to collect ideas during your idle time so that you can put it into action and improve your life in various ways bit by bit.
With that said, I hope that this issue has provided you value in some way, shape or form. Listen up to keep up, and have a productive week ahead!
Jia Shing.