Last year, like everyone else, I experimented with a lot of AI tools. Some stuck, many didn’t. But when I look back at what actually moved the needle for my productivity, the biggest win had surprisingly nothing to do with AI.
It was a tiny setting change.
If you’re someone who consumes a lot of informational audio or video content—podcasts, earnings calls, news briefings, interviews, audiobooks—this one tweak can quietly give you back hours every month.
The Simple Change
I updated my default playback speed to 1.25×.
That’s it.
No new app. No workflow overhaul. No learning curve.
At first, it felt slightly unnatural, the way most small optimizations do. But within a day or two, my brain adapted. In fact, going back to 1.0× started to feel… slow.
In many scenarios, especially with familiar topics or speakers, 1.5× is also perfectly usable without much loss in comprehension.
Why This Works Better Than You’d Expect
Most informational content isn’t dense. People pause, repeat themselves, emphasize points, or speak slower than necessary for clarity.
Playback speed simply compresses the dead space.
And because listening is often something we do during “in-between” moments (commutes, walks, chores, workouts), the time saved doesn’t feel dramatic day-to-day. But it compounds quietly.
The Math That Makes It Obvious
At 1.25× speed:
A 60-minute podcast becomes 48 minutes
You save 12 minutes per hour
Now zoom out.
If you consume just 1 hour of audio/video content per day:
- 12 minutes saved × 30 days = 6 hours a month
Six hours.
That’s almost an entire workday recovered every month from a single default setting change.
And that’s a conservative estimate. Many people easily consume more than an hour a day.
Where This Works Best (and Where It Doesn’t)
This works especially well for:
- Podcasts
- Earnings calls
- News
- Interviews
- Non-fiction audiobooks
- Long-form YouTube content
It’s less ideal for:
- Fiction audiobooks (where pacing matters)
- Music or Movies
- Content you’re emotionally savoring rather than learning from
The key distinction is information vs experience. Speed up the former. Let the latter breathe.
The Broader Point
We tend to overestimate the impact of big tools and underestimate the power of small defaults.
AI is powerful, but it’s also noisy. Small optimizations—especially ones that compound daily—often deliver more reliable returns with far less effort.
Productivity isn’t always about doing more things.
Sometimes it’s about doing the same things… slightly faster.
Try It for a Week
If you still aren’t convinced, try setting your default playback speed to 1.25× for a week. You can always go back.
But chances are, once your brain recalibrates, you won’t want to.
While sites like YouTube doesn’t allow you to set default playback speed, a great Chrome plugin I use for this purpose is Enhancer For YouTube. Try it, and thank me later!
Small tweak.
Compounding returns.
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