The same thing happens in interpersonal communication. The average person can absorb information nearly four times faster than a speaker can talk.
Some listeners let their minds wander and then turn their attention back to the conversation.
But often, they don't return to the discussion in time to catch the next point. Before you can improve your listening skills, it is important to know the most common obstacles to listening. It takes energy and patience to actively listen to a message when you are offended, bored, or busy. A common error is to assume what the speaker is going to say and respond before he or she is done explaining. When the speaker is angry or accusatory, the natural tendency is to formulate responses instead of listening for the actual cause of the frustration, which may be revealed intermittently throughout the message.