Sometimes listening is hard bc you don't really care or the speaker's way of relaying content and presentation is very boring.

I think there’s often a gender difference here, picture the (very) stereo-typical “blabbering wife” scene.

When we’re driving, my girlfriend will often talk about her day, walking me through her thoughts and feelings, while I just want to zone out after work. We used to get annoyed at each other when I didn’t want to listen.

Eventually, we talked about it and realized what was going on. She needs to process her day out loud, and I need silence to decompress. So now I’ll just tell her, “I’m not really going to be listening fully right now,” and she’ll talk anyway. It’s become a routine, one I actually enjoy now, because there’s no pressure to keep up or respond perfectly.

Would it be better for her if I used this technique of active listening constantly? Sure. But it'd take a lot of effort from me that I just simply dont have driving home from work.