Listening: A 10 Part Skill

This article had a lot of useful tips that would help me become a better  listener. Here's what I learned:
1. Although what you are listening to may be boring, we should "find an area of interest" by asking ourselves what information might be useful from the discussion and how we can use it to our benefit. I found it interesting they mentioned that every topic is interesting to an extent, it's just that people are disinterested in what does not appeal to them.
2. Good listeners should listen specifically for content, even though the delivery may not be up to par.
3. Rather than interrupting the speaker, we should wait until he or she is done talking to share our opinion or say.
4. Focus on the overall central idea rather than individual facts or statements, which may prevent us from really grasping the entire overall bigger picture.
5. Be flexible in note taking. Outline just enough and write down key words that will be sufficient enough to help us remember what the idea or point was. Everyone has a different style of presenting. Thus, we must learn to adapt to their styles in a way that will allow us to be most efficient.
6. Work at listening, not just by using our ears, but physically as well. We should maintain an upright posture, engage in eye contact, etc. to show the speakers that we are listening and interested.
7. Avoid distractions. Although distractions are sometimes inevitable, we must focus on listening and try our best to cancel out the loud noise or music playing.
8.  We must exercise our minds and be exposed to challenging material. It is common for people to get lost when they do not understand the material. It takes time to practice, but the outcome will be a lot more productive.
9. Be open-minded by open discussion with friends or family to prevent being automatically emotionally by a certain topic or phrase.
10. Pace your thought process. Often, when someone is talking, it may lead us to think of other thoughts in our head that when we go back to listening to the person, we lose track of what the person was just saying.