Save yourself a ticket and learn at the same time

Here is my method to learning while driving, a hands free approach

I do not alway drive, but when I do, I try to make the most of my time during my commute.  I am going to show you a cool trick on how you can learn while driving.  But first let me give you some overview of the situation.

Many states now have laws against texting or talking on your phone without using a hands free device. Some of the fines can even be greater than speeding tickets, and they even require you to take driver training courses in some states like New York.  So here is how you can avoid all that and use it your commute time as a learning experience.

Most modern cars have a bluetooth interface that lets you make and receive phone calls through your cars audio system.  This allows you to talk hands free.   What most people also do not know is that there is a bluetooth audio source option that lets you play other things through your cars stereo besides just a phone call.

You can play directions from your Waze app, or music from your Spotify app of just music on your phone in general.  But here is what I do to make the most of the time.   I listen to podcasts about something I am interested in.  If you have a iphone, you can search on itunes for podcasts, almost all of them are free.   If you have an android phone, you can also listen to them for free by finding them online.  Most of them are in mp3 format, so you can just download and play through your cars speakers.  In some cases, you can also stream it live if you happen to have a good signal.

What I personally did was buy an app for $3.99 called Pocket Casts.  For me, I listen to podcasts every day, so extra listening features was worth it.  Most default listening programs for mp3 do not let you jump back in case you missed something they said.  The pocket casts app has these buttons to jump back 10 seconds or forward 30 seconds.

My second favorite feature about this app is the discover function.  You can search for different podcasts and then download episodes over your home wifi so you can save on your data plan.  Pocket casts remembers where you left off on your last episode in case you get to your destination before the episode is over.

But you will need to have a hands free option if you are going to use this method to learn.   I personally do not like the window mount phone holders because you have to reach too far, and its too far away if your using Waze or Google Maps for gps directions.

I prefer the phone mounts like this best seller by Aikema that I picked up that mounts to your cars vent.  It is much closer and it is less of a distraction in your field of vision.   Well that’s my little trick to learning.   I hope you enjoy it.

One last thing, if your car does not have a bluetooth feature, you can still use this method, just put the phone in speaker mode and turn up the volume.

Checkout my post on how to make strong coffee with the full immersion method if you really love drinking coffee.