Listening improves with frequency, not with the length of a single sitting. A two-hour session on Sunday feels serious, but an ear that meets English for fifteen minutes every day adjusts far faster to the speed, the pauses, and the way words run into each other.
A routine you can actually keep is one short clip, heard three times. The first pass runs straight through and asks only for the general idea: who is talking, what about, and in what tone. Do not stop to look anything up yet.
The second pass runs with the transcript in front of you. This is where you find out what really went missing, which is usually not a difficult word but an ordinary one, said quickly and glued to its neighbour. On the third pass, take about thirty seconds of it and shadow the speaker as closely as you can, matching the speed and the stress.
Choosing a podcast is simpler than it looks: you should be able to follow the thread without the transcript while still losing a few words along the way. If you catch everything, the material is too easy; if you are lost after a minute, step down a level first. Two people talking about something you enjoy is usually easier to follow than a fast monologue.
Some weeks will feel like nothing is happening. That is normal, and it is not a reason to stop. Rather than adding minutes, change the speaker, change the accent, or go back to an old episode that once felt hard. That is usually the moment you notice how much you now catch without trying.