I've mostly been able to solve this problem (unless I'm really frazzled and have a lot of other things on my mind) by adjusting the audiobook's playback speed.
Too slow and I'll be bored and my mind will wander a lot, and too fast and I'll miss chunks even with the smallest mind wandering. The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle.
For reading written material, I found a trick that worked for me in college, when I had mountains of assigned books to read. Whenever I noticed my mind wandering, I'd make an arbitrary mark (like a simple checkmark) on a piece of paper and immediately go back to reading. This kept my focus and I was able to barrel through a ton of reading.
Too slow and I'll be bored and my mind will wander a lot, and too fast and I'll miss chunks even with the smallest mind wandering. The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle.
For reading written material, I found a trick that worked for me in college, when I had mountains of assigned books to read. Whenever I noticed my mind wandering, I'd make an arbitrary mark (like a simple checkmark) on a piece of paper and immediately go back to reading. This kept my focus and I was able to barrel through a ton of reading.