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One major benefit of audiobooks, as compared to physical books and eBooks, is multitasking.
Listening to your favorite title can turn repetitive and boring chores into enjoyable tasks. Audiobooks provide a nice distraction while doing mentally taxing tasks.
There is nothing wrong with having dedicated listening sessions but multitasking can help you accomplish more and increase your productivity.
This article shares 50 things to do while listening to audiobooks.
What to Do While Listening to Audiobooks – 50 Ideas
I recently asked audiobook enthusiasts on Reddit about things to do while listening to an audiobook and got an overwhelming response with over 180,000 views and 437 comments from multitaskers.

Here are 50 things to do while listening to audiobooks.
- Play mobile games: Playing video games is one of the most popular activities among multi-taskers. The most mentioned games include Subway Surfers, Tetris, Minecraft, Candy Crush, Solitaire, Bubble Pop, and Connect Animals. Check our list of mindless games to play while listening to audiobooks.
- Solve puzzles: Solving puzzles is an ideal activity to keep your brain sharp and stimulating. You can solve Sudoku, Jigsaw, Crosswords, Nanograms and other type of puzzles
- Coloring: Use the coloring books or use apps like Happy Color and Zen Color
- Drawing/ doodling
- Build legos
- Painting/ diamond painting
- Cleaning
- Cooking/ meal preps
- Wash dishes
- Fold laundry
- Mowing the lawn
- Driving and road trips
- Walk: Go out for walking, jogging, or running. Listen to your favorite title while using your treadmill. I recommend choosing headphones or earbuds for listening to audiobooks that have Transparency Mode for outdoor activities.
- Dog walking
- Gym sessions: Yoga, stretching and other exercises
- Hiking
- Riding bike
- Outdoor activities: Rock climbing, camping, fishing, fruit picking
- Play with pets
- Sew, knit, crochet
- Embroidery
- Getting ready: While doing makeup, nails or hair
- Shaving, brushing teeth, or flossing
- Shower
- Swimming [Yes, its possible]
- Household Chores: Mop, sweep, clean, vacuum
- Clear, wash, or detail your car
- Gardening/ yard work/shoveling snow
- Take up a new hobby: Photography, drawing, painting or knitting
- Woodwork
- Eating Meals
- When on mobile: Using apps or browsing the web, etc
- Home repair and renovation
- Iron clothes
- During repetitive jobs: Mail man, security officer, factory worker, sorting and packing jobs, driving, roofing, farming
- Shopping
- Baby-sitting/ supervising kids
- Decorating or rearranging a room
- Using social media/ checking emails
- Waiting for public transport
- Waiting at other places: Car dealership, doctor’s office, the airport, etc
- Daily commute
- Organizing/ sorting: Drawers, closets, working space, bookshelves, etc
- Decluttering: Free up the space by getting rid of extra stuff. Donate, sell, or just throw away.
- Read along: Immersion reading has many benefits. You can switch between reading and writing using Audible’s Whispersync for Voice feature.
- Organize your computer: Clean digital clutter that takes a toll on your productivity, clear emails, organize files into appropriate folders, and delete unwanted files
- Organize your mobile: Delete apps you do not use, delete photos/ videos to free up space, organize apps in folders
- Take notes: It is not easy to retain information from books. If you are listening to a self-development or productivity book, take note of important information for later use.
- Relax: With your favorite snack or drink or people watch at your favorite coffee shop with your favorite latte
- While trying to sleep: Make sure to use the sleep timer in your audiobook app
I hope you have some good ideas from this list of 50 things to do while listening to an audiobook.
Some listeners can easily lose focus when doing other things, while others prefer to relax and unwind while listening to an audiobook.
If multitasking is for you, pick anything from the above list to increase your productivity.