Listening is something we all do on a daily basis but we don’t recall many of the things we hear. For a student listening is probably the most useful skill to have, although Melissa Daimler claims it is overlooked and underdeveloped. In an article published by Harvard Business she gives tips for how to be a productive and active listener. For a student listening is important but to remember all the information we hear we need to take time out of our day. Because of all the things we hear instead of remembering everything we forget. If we reflect on what we have heard before starting something new it will retain more instead of cramming fact after fact and overwhelming our brain so that it can’t recall anything. Another way to actively listen is to not multitask, which is easier said than done. For a student it feels like we have a million and one assignments to do! If we concentrate on one thing at a time it can feel like we won’t have time to complete other assignments. In reality when we focus on one thing at a time we will spend less time having to review it on our own. Listening as simple as it seems proves to be a challenge for students and adults, we often go into autopilot when it comes to listening. Melissa uses her article to prove listening is one of our greatest tools if we can learn to listen right.
Megan Warhurst