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Do you feel like your days slip away between work meetings, heavy traffic, and accumulated exhaustion — leaving you with no energy to learn anything new? It's a frustration many people share. When our schedules are packed, we tend to reach for quick escapes, scrolling through Instagram, TikTok, or Netflix and losing valuable hours in a passive cycle.
Rodrigo Rendón, a Strategic Marketing specialist accustomed to the fast pace of Mexico City, faced this exact problem. He wanted to keep feeding his mind, but finding time to read an entire book felt nearly impossible. That's when he decided to change his approach and gave Headway a try.
If you're looking to build knowledge in productivity and leadership without disrupting your already packed routine, Headway offers summaries of the best nonfiction books in 15-minute formats you can read or listen to anywhere. Here's Rodrigo's story of how he reclaimed his lost time.
The Challenge of Finding Time in a Fast-Moving City
Time is our most precious resource — and, unfortunately, one of our most limited. This becomes especially clear in the relentless pace of Mexico City. Short commutes that stretch into hours, workdays that extend well past closing time just to meet deadlines. Making the most of our time is no longer optional; it's a necessity.
This is a feeling shared by virtually every professional in Mexico City. Between traffic, work commitments, personal life, and day-to-day responsibilities, finding time to build new habits or continue learning keeps getting harder.
For a long time, I believed that learning something new required large, dedicated blocks of time: sitting down to read a full book, completing a multi-hour course, or setting aside a significant chunk of my week for acquiring new knowledge. Finding space for any of that felt practically impossible.
And I think that's one of the biggest challenges we face today: it's not that we don't want to learn — it's that we can't figure out how to fit it into a routine that's already overflowing.
Learning in the Age of Limited Attention
We live in an era where access to information is virtually limitless. Books, podcasts, videos, courses, newsletters, and specialized content on any topic imaginable are all available at our fingertips.
But having access to information doesn't automatically mean consuming it. In fact, one of the scarcest resources today isn't knowledge — it's attention.
Every day we're up against hundreds of notifications, meetings, messages, and all kinds of stimulation. Even when we genuinely intend to take a course or finally watch that series someone recommended, we often end up putting it off because we simply can't find the right moment.
This has led more and more people to seek out learning formats that are flexible and adapted to their lifestyle.
This isn't about replacing traditional reading or claiming that a summary can fully substitute the experience of reading a complete work. It's about acknowledging a reality: more often than not, it's better to access the core ideas of a book than to never read it at all.
A New Player Called Headway
I was recently approached by Volodymyr Sereda to try out Headway — an app that offers nonfiction book summaries in short, accessible formats, available to read or listen to.
Before that, I had never heard of it. Even so, I decided to try it because the concept genuinely caught my attention. From my first days using the platform, two things stood out as especially valuable.
The first was the breadth of its catalog. I found titles covering productivity, personal development, habits, leadership, and well-being.
The second was the quality of the summaries. Before trying the app, I assumed this kind of format might feel too shallow or oversimplify an author's ideas. But the summaries manage to distill the most relevant concepts without losing context, making it easy to quickly grasp the key takeaways from each book.
Turning Dead Time into Opportunity
One of the things that struck me most was how much time we normally let slip by throughout the day.
In a city like Mexico City, long stretches spent commuting are a given — and most of the time, we fill them by scrolling through one of the dozens of apps and social media platforms at our disposal.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. I've always seen leisure and entertainment as important. But it did make me wonder whether some of that time could be used differently.
That's where I found Headway's greatest value.
Listening to or reading through different summaries during an hour-long commute is no small thing. I've learned how to build better habits and picked up new ideas about productivity, decision-making, and creativity that I probably wouldn't have sought out on my own without the app.
And I think that's precisely the point.
We often overestimate how much time it takes to learn something new, and underestimate the impact of small actions repeated consistently.
Productivity Beyond Work
When we talk about productivity, we tend to immediately link it to our professional lives. We think about being more efficient, completing more tasks, or improving our work performance. But I've come to believe that being more productive shouldn't mean filling every minute with activity — it should mean using our time better so we can dedicate space to what truly matters.
For me, learning new things has always been something I genuinely enjoy, but it kept getting pushed aside for lack of time.
That's why I found it so compelling to discover a tool that fit into my existing routine rather than demanding I completely restructure it.
Instead of searching for a free hour that almost never materialized, I could use moments that already existed within my day.
I Do Have Time!
There's something I've always told myself — and I'm sure many people can relate: "I'd love to read more, but I don't have time."
The truth is, we'll probably never have all the time we'd like. Work demands will keep coming. Traffic will keep being part of our routine. There will always be something pending. And of course, we can't neglect our social lives.
That's exactly why it's so important to find tools that adapt to our reality rather than to some ideal scenario we imagine. After trying Headway, I'll admit I've become a real fan of this kind of format.
Not because I think it replaces traditional books, but because it addresses a very specific need: allowing more people to keep learning while respecting their time and creating zero friction in their routines.
And in cities as dynamic as ours, that possibility is worth far more than we often realize.
Final Thoughts
The time we have will always feel like it isn't enough — even more so in a place like Mexico City. That's why, rather than waiting for days with fewer responsibilities, I've started appreciating tools that help me make better use of the pockets of time that already exist within my routine.
I'm not giving up on taking courses or expanding my knowledge to keep growing professionally. But platforms like Headway have shown me that continuing to learn doesn't have to consume a large chunk of my time or disrupt my daily routine.
Sometimes it's enough to take advantage of those small moments we usually let pass by.
Because in the end, personal growth doesn't depend solely on how much time we have available — it depends on how we choose to use it.
More Headway User Stories
If Rodrigo's experience resonated with you, discover how other professionals are transforming their routines:
The Impact of Microlearning on My Strategic Leadership Routine
How to Use Microlearning to Stay Motivated
How to Achieve Work-Life Balance with Microlearning
I Used Headway for 2 Months: An Honest Review from a Busy University Student
Stop Making Excuses and Start Learning Today
It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking we need hours of free time and complete silence to sit down and study. The truth is, waiting for the "perfect" moment only means our books keep gathering dust and our goals stay stuck.
The key to staying sharp isn't clearing your calendar — it's finding value in the small moments you already have.
That's exactly how Headway supports professionals and students who are always short on time. Instead of wasting forty minutes in traffic listening to the same songs or mindlessly scrolling social media, you can use that commute to absorb the key insights from a leadership book.
Headway adapts to you, delivering text and audio lessons designed to be consumed in just 15 minutes. Try it today and discover how those brief pockets of free time can drive your personal and professional growth.
Give your daily commute a positive spin and start learning with Headway.
