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Double Your Productivity: Absorb Information Twice as Fast

8 Comments

Topics: Business, Hacks, Video

how to download videos I’ve been noticing a trend lately: We buy or download all this great video content, but then we don’t actually watch it. Does this happen to you, too?

Most information products these days come with at least an hour of video training. And often, it’s fantastic–well worth the time investment. But, realistically, we’ll probably never sit down and actually watch it.

I’ve found a way to fix this–a technique so effective that I’ve now made my way through most video information products I’ve purchased in record time while still absorbing all the information. And, I want to share this with you–because if you can absorb video content faster, you can learn faster, and therefore spend more time on your business instead of watching videos!

This video shows you how to download videos to your hard drive, then watch them at double speed or more. You can accomplish this with three software tools that are all free and platform-independent. In other words, this works equally well for Mac, PC, and even Linux!

How to Double Your Productivity and Gain More Value from the Products You Buy (4-Minute Video)

[0:33] You need three essential tools to watch videos twice as fast. Here they are, along with download links:

Download the Firefox web browser.
Download Video Download Helper.
Download the VLC video player.

[1:27] Here’s how to download videos from pretty much any website.
[2:33] Hit Play on the video, then click the Video Download Helper icon to download the video.
[3:04] How to play a video in VLC.
[3:13] How to speed up any video in VLC.
[3:46] I usually run videos at 1.4x-1.9x, depending on how fast the speaker is talking.
[4:02] Bonus tip: Use this technique to load videos on your laptop and watch them on a plane with VLC. I do this all the time…I can typically roll through most of an info product in one flight.

How to Download TED Talks

Want to watch all those great TED talks without having to be online? You can download and speed them up, too.

Video Download Helper doesn’t work with TED talks, but that’s okay. TED talks include a “Download” button (see below image.)

how to download TED talks
Download TED talks from ted.com and then speed them up.

Click that button, then click “Download video to desktop (MP4)”. Then save the file and open it in VLC, and use the same speed-up trick I showed above.

Download and Speed Up Any Audio File

I use this same trick with audio files (interviews and podcasts) all the time. I use Winamp plus the Chronotron plugin to speed up audios while keeping the pitch the same. I typically run audios at 1.4x-1.6x.

Steve Pavlina also has an article on how to speed up any audio file.

Speed Up Any CD or DVD

If you have a CD or DVD that you’ve received as part of an information product, you can simply rip it to a .mp3 (audio) or .mp4 (video) using any one of several tools. (Handbrake is the most common one; it works on any platform.) Then use VLC to play it, just like above.

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Posted on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

  • http://www.ivanwalsh.com Ivan Walsh

    If you want to download YouTube files to your PC, try Saveid.com.

    I do this sometimes when I want to study how a vid was made and look at how it was constructed, eg from a technical pov.

  • david h smith

    There are a few on line video converters that won’t require yo uto change browsers- i’ve used zamzar.com, keepvid.com and a few others quite successfully, and many have bookmarklets to make it almost a ‘one click’ process.
    I also find it useful, wherever possible, to turn on subtitles when i’m watcing at increased speed. ted.com is great for this- you can click on the text in the sidebar to go back to any points that catch your interest or that you didn’t quite absorb the first time.

  • Ed G

    Windows Media Player (on Windows PCs natch) have a speedup function for MP3 (and I believe DVDs also), and as above you have to download the MP3 first.

  • http://kgshriram.wordpress.com kozhalmannam shriram

    Thanks for rubbing it in.

    I am on dial-up internet and a remote transcriptionist!

  • http://www.thinkbigthinkmoney.com/ Ken Siew

    This is simple yet powerful! I never thought about doing it :-) There you go, true entrepreneurial at heart.

  • http://www.robvandenborne.com Rob

    Hi Erica,

    I had the opportunity to meet you on the cruise with MF and I already spoke to you about your great effort to help people.
    Since the cruise I started following you and watch these tips on your blog.

    IT’S AMAZING EVERYTIME !

    How easy you come up with these ideas and tips, it is sooooooo GREAT!!!

    THANK YOU VERY MUCH and please keep the good work up!

    You are my guru!!

  • http://www.erica.biz/ Erica Douglass

    Thanks, everyone!

    It’s worth noting that sometimes I will do a marathon. For instance, yesterday I downloaded over 4GB (several hours) of content from an information product. I then spent 2 hours watching it–mostly at 1.8x–so nearly 4 hours of content.

    By the end, I was feeling tired. So I took a nap. I ended up sleeping for a couple hours and I dreamed about the info product, so that was my way of absorbing it into my subconscious.

    So–don’t be afraid to do marathons–especially when you don’t have anything to do. Then go take a nap so you absorb all that info. :)

    I do this about once a month or so. I am really careful with what products I buy so that I don’t get overloaded.

    -Erica

  • http://www.veronasitiweb.it veronasitiweb

    thanks,
    excellent tip! I also need sometimes to speed up watching boring and time-consuming videos that I need to see..
    Thanks!