Before and After: how audiobooks changed the life of Denis Yablonsky

BEFORE

An interesting story happened to me three weeks ago. The day began as usual: I woke up at 8 am, drank delicious tea and read books.

At 11 I was already stomping to teach at the Academy, at 14 I interrupted for a seven-minute fruit lunch and returned to my studies. At 19 a short break - Dj Lvov called, we talked productively about business and life, 19:30 - I teach again.

At 22 - I'm going home, thinking about the first run of the season '13 (the last time I ran back in December in Barcelona). At 22:15 - the first run.

An hour later - a hot bath and blogging straight from it:). As a result: a 14-hour working day, a 7-minute lunch break, a jog, and I am full of strength and energy. And this is how my every day passed, well, except perhaps without running.

Running … Everything would be fine, but I always felt sorry to lose an hour, or even more, productive time for sports. I am aware of all the benefits that sports bring, but neither joint activities with friends (they are more distracting), nor music (and this is how it sounds 24 hours a day) helped them to overcome the boredom of practicing.

BOOK

Until that time, audiobooks could not find a place in my life: I lose concentration too quickly if I listen on the road, and at home and at the Academy I always read only paper editions.

The next day, armed with Nike Free Run 2 sneakers, an iPhone wrist case and the Nike Running program, I went for a second run (the first had all the elements except the audiobook - I just listened to the new Daft Punk album and met a young couple, who also running).

And this is what happened - I took the book "How to run a company" with me for a run - and caught the "load" from the abundance of important and useful information, which should definitely be perceived only from the pages of a real book.

Next time I have already prepared a new set of books, having thought in advance how they will "lie" on the run. Among them were books by Donald Trump, Rework and Sam Walton. And then the process went like clockwork. Donald Trump charges great during running and warm-up - 90 minutes fly by like an instant, and after four runs the book has already been listened to.

At this stage, I came up with the idea to create a community for people who want to “run smart”, where they could exchange useful and “run-in” audio materials - books, seminars, trainings, etc.

AFTER

For the first time in many years, I am looking forward to a new run, thinking over a plan, where else to run, what book or seminar to listen to, and most importantly, I share my findings and useful thoughts in the community. The latest find, for example, the book Rework, which I had previously read in print and listened with great pleasure while jogging.

By the way, my hobby for running has expanded my library with books that I never even knew about - Born to Run by Christopher McDougle, 800 Meters to the Marathon by Jack Daniels and Pose Running Method by Nikolai Romanov.

I want my positive experience of combining sports and training to be contagious and everyone who is already running starts running "wisely", and those who sit at home and read books - go in for sports without sacrificing knowledge!

P. S. Once again I am convinced of the power of concentration on an idea, when the whole world begins to help you in its implementation. For example, an old friend shared a nice collection of audiobooks, and Mikhail Ivanov talked about new products that have recently been released in audio format. These are not just coincidences - I like to know that the world always has something to please me with!

Denis Yablonsky,

From the publisher

Friends! In the comments to the previous post of the "BEFORE and AFTER" column, many people made a comment to us that the text turned out to be too advertising.

We agree with the criticism, but we don't know how to deal with it without rewriting history for the author. A person who writes a long post about a book that changed his life is obviously in love with her. And Denis, the author of this post, is no exception. He's a longtime fan of business books and our publishing house. This can be seen even from the photo section on his VKontakte page:)

Denis, thanks! =)

If you want to talk about how one of our books has changed something in your life, write to us at [email protected]. We will gladly publish this story in our section on LifeHacker.ru. Just please try not to over praise the publisher and the book. The fact that you were able to learn a lot from it is your merit. Many read the same and remain the same.

Cover photo: