Yesterday I managed to listen to 7 hours of audio. This was done while I was working. I was in a place at work on my own, so in went my headphones and off I went. The hour of walking to and from work helped.
I’m OK with listening at home, but a 2-hour audio will take me 3 as I will pause to read something, etc.
I tend to listen to them nearly any time I can because I always feel the need to have multiple things going on. I listen to stuff on my 2 hour commute to uni, I listen to them in my longer breaks in between courses, I listen to them when I make myself food, when I clean, when I play games, vile I try to top my times at solving a Rubik’s cube and while studying (though for the last one only stuff I have already listened to). So basically any time I don’t already have the TV on in the backround or I’m not doing something like reading. ´
I almost always listen to them while on walks or while on longer car journeys, but sometimes while doing boring jobs around my house.
Normally on my way too and from work. I prefer listening on the app but I have a portable CD player for when I buy secondhand.
Occasionally get a couple of weird looks when I arrive at the office 
Do you arrive with the sound blasting out of your speakers?
EXTERMINATE! 
Normally I listen eithwr on a walk or run and when doing exercise, or when travelling to work on bus or train. I can almost never just listen sat at home unless it’s extremely gripping, of which I’ve found very few capable of, and that’s not saying they are bad, just that very few emgage my brain in such a way that instinctive fidgeting and drive to move about are able to be paused.
When I relisten to stories though they can be a bit more background noise and on when I’m cleaning or playing a game I don’t have to fully focus on.
im planning on starting on audio dramas next week when im moving in to my new flat. beyond that, probably gonnae end up splitting reading and audio dramas across my commuting time - i spend so much time on the train, its perfect for this. used to pace in circles around my garden to listen to podcasts though, so you could try that lol!
Well, a long time ago, when I used to get and listen to audios regularly, I would play them in the car on my way to and from work. That was about 1/2 hour each way, so generally, I would get through about a disc a day.
I had problems with that. For one thing, driving takes the primary focus. So if there was something I needed to pay attention to going on, I wouldn’t hear the story at all. Or if something else was particularly on my mind, I wouldn’t be particularly focused on the story.
In time, I realized that there were a lot of stories that I had played through, but really hadn’t absorbed. This became a massive problem when listening to Big Finish because they built a lot on what they had previously done, so characters would come back and I’d really have no idea who they were or what had happened previously. Eventually, I gave up listening to most thing. The last lingering scrap was listening to Jago & Lifefoot, which were a lot easier to hold onto in my head, thanks to the leads.
In the past, I dunno, 5 or 10 years, I have occasionally put on a story when doing menial stuff around the house. For example, putting on Ready Player One while painting a bedroom. That worked well. I’ve put on audios while playing solo boardgames. They’re fine as a background sound if that’s what I’m in the mood for, but I don’t really hear the story.
I’m just now trying again to listen to stuff in the car on days when I go to the office. With a ~2/5-hr journey each way, I can get through 2-4 stories in a day, depending whether they’re 1-disc or 2-disc tales. I’ve tried it once this week, and it worked well. I know the route well by now, and there are long stretches without any decisions, so maybe it’ll work better of I keep it up.
I listen in the car, or sometimes when I just wanna lay down and immerse myself. It’s much easier in the car though. If I miss something, I just hit the back 30 seconds button a few times on my phone.
I genuinely can’t listen if I’m really focused on something else, like work. I would listen doing dishes but the water running is too loud. Driving is the only exception
You run the water while washing the dishes?! Think of the environment!! 
I’ve got a daily - well, I try - Nordic walking routine. I put on my Apple AirPods in Transparency mode to avoid getting run over by cars, turn on an audiobook, and off I go.
That’s probably my biggest offense against the environment 
I had to Google “Nordic walking” because I’d never heard of it before! Now I know what you refer to, I just didn’t know the English term for it (in Finnish, it’s “sauvakävely” and in Swedish “stavgång”, which would translate to “stick walking”).
You just saved me from googling 
Same.
Never heard that one before 
Sounds about right. 
It became popular in Germany, I’d say, about 30 years ago (which reminds me: I really am getting old ). Nowadays, I think it’s in steep decline. I find it a good way to get going in the morning.
But now I’m curious: Is ‘Nordic Walking’ a term used in English, or is it just one of those English words we use in German with a different meaning?
Microsofts Copilot (as an LLM not to be trusted ), tells me: Yes, ‘Nordic Walking’ is a term used in English. It refers to a form of walking that involves the use of specially designed walking poles similar to ski poles. This activity is recognized as both a health-promoting physical activity and a sport, originating from Finland. It’s included in English dictionaries, such as the Cambridge English Dictionary and the Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, which provide definitions and usage examples. So, it’s indeed an established term in the English language
As I don’t trust LLMs and there are many words in dictionaries no one use: Do native English-speaking people actually know this term?
It’s not a term I’ve ever heard or used. OTOH, I doublechecked and it is in both those dictionaries, and I’m not much for sports. It’s also not uncommon for terms to be used in some areas and not in others.
Also, there’s a wikipedia article on it claiming the term was coined in 1999, so it’s recent enough of a term I might not have heard it anyways…
Nordic walking is a pretty recent “invention” and it’s not particularly popular even here in Finland despite us inventing the whole thing I don’t know anyone personally who goes for Nordic walks regularly. The fact that it’s called Nordic walking made me curious about it (why isn’t it called Finnish walking? Why are we crediting our lovely neighbours for our invention?). It’s also funny how it’s called that in German as well (I have studied German for many years at school but never came across the term in my studies either…).
It was really popular in Sweden about 10-15 years ago but now I barely see any Nordic walkers
