reading is one of the habits that changed my life in so many aspect and allows me to learn from someone's decade of experience in just few hundred Pages the more that you read the more things you will know the more that you learn the more Places You'll Go I don't think I need to convince you how powerful reading it is everyone knows reading is good but to most people including myself a long time ago reading is like a task an assignment a mission and it's not quite enjoyable so in this this video I really want
to share some of the lesson I've learned along the way to become a better reader and how can actually make reading an enjoyable experience that you can consistently do in your life the first thing is forget about reading more books in the past I tried to set reading goals on how many books I should read a week a month a year I always wonder why some people can read so fast read a lot I know some people can read like 100 books a year and that is so difficult for me but now I found this
book reading challenges completing how many books a year a very silly thing and I don't recommend you to do this unless you really need it as your motivation the biggest reason is in Reading there is nothing to compete because everyone starts with a different level So reading is completely personal and it's very nonsense to set a realistic goal it works for others doesn't mean it works for you and it's actually hurting you more than doing good just because you read 100 books many books doesn't necessarily means you're a better thinker and what I found whenever
I force myself to read faster just for the sake of finishing the pages I'm not actually enjoying it and not focusing because all I want is to finish all the pages as quickly as possible and it's also hard for me to retain the information and got the time to think and absorb the knowledge from the book reading is a lifelong habit just like exercising having a healthy lifestyle and it shouldn't be view as a Tas or chore so to become a better reader I found forgetting this idea around how many books I need to finish
as the most important thing but rather how I can make it as my daily habit a fun fact to share with you is I used to carry a book with me as I was commuting having lunch when I was still working full-time in the corporate world so I can always get something to read and make the best use of my time so think about how you can incorporate reading in your day-to-day and make it a habit so nowadays I don't count how many books I read but rather how I put more efforts to keep the
consistency because then you're not feeling the pressure you're not competing you are not having a sense of deadline you read books just because you really want to learn and think and to grow yourself so it's the same as the Deep word concept I don't need to read long hours finishing a lot of books but I am having deep reading and quality reading time so I can immerse myself completely into to text and maximize comprehension and there is nothing to rush and to have this kind of focus and quality reading time I found having a comfortable
place and time when I'm not being distracted is very key because reading is actually a thinking process you are recalling your existing knowledge but at the same time you're absorbing something new for myself is usually in the evening I sadom rate in the morning because that time I Paradise out of deep working tases I enjoy reading on a coach is cozy find a place where it's highly accessible and you can enjoy reading not scrolling your phone and another thing is to read slowly whenever you need to and particularly for the passages that new to you
I know lots of people including myself in the past are so fascinated by fast reading techniques like scanning scheming and while these techniques are useful what I realize the only way to read faster while still able to comprehend information is to read a lot and ironically read a lot doesn't refer to just the amount of book you finish but actually the amount of quality reading that you have so you can train your brain to recognize simar themes and pattern faster and be more sensitive to the knowledge that you unfamiliar with so you need to have
more deep reading first before you can get the benefits from all those fast reading techniques just like you need to learn how to walk properly before before you can run does that make sense so when you read slowly you are giving your mind space to think and Rec call from what you have known and form a cognitive process but if you just skem through it while you actually unfamiliar with the topic you don't have any background information you don't have the time to process and you just try to mindlessly absorb every text that is in
front of you that is not helpful for example this book about leadership theory and practice for this chapter about suring leadership because I already got a general idea about what is serving leadership so I would just scan through the background and still able to recognizing anything that I don't know and then I will spend more time deep reading the characteristic sections another tip is always ask some question as you read or after to finish it to inspire your thinking what is the main idea or themes of this chapter are you able to summarize the key
takeaways in just a few key points and do you recognize anything that you did not know before how does it related to what you've known or past experience how could you apply to your real life and would have done something in a different way whether it's decision- making applying techniques or just a mindset change I also love highlighting some key points on the book or Sometimes using different color sticky tapes to book Mark some of the pages that I found inspiring where I can revisit again in the future occasionally I also take some notes on
my journal I'm a notebook frak but nowadays I rather just bookmark the pages and to revisit them so I found this is more effective but if you think writing comprehensive noes can help you to reinforce your memory then definitely do it another tip is to pick anything that you like any topic that interests you because again reading should be enjoyable and you're more likely to commit to reading when it is a fun activity to you read what you love until you love to read and I found reading is just like a reflection of your long
journey as well different life stages of you have different interest and also require different knowledge upgrade getting New Perspective so it's totally fine to pick anything that you like because most of the time this is what you exactly need for that stage of you like in my case I used to read lots of friction books or novels when I was a teenager like Harry Potter genun novel series but then I start to love reading more business book leadership books as I start my profession so an even better way is to First reflect where you are
at your journey right now what is missing in your current stage is it getting stuck at work or relationship is it learning a new skills or knowledge so you can have a more clear directions and go to find the books that can guide or inspire you personally I use notion to build my book list in the past I used the not pack on my iPhone but I just found notion is more convenient and allows me to add columns like the book category and this book list is really for me to book about all the books
I wish to read so make sure I always have book ideas ready whenever I finish a book and ready to move on there places and Tool I definitely recommend to get inspiration to build your book list the first one is a local library personally I love going to library it's just like treasure hunting and every time I found a bunch of books that I'm interested in most libraries also have the recommended book list to get inspiration even if you don't have any ideas just search for anything or pick any book that seem interesting to you
look through the abstract and chapes and see if you want to give it a try another place is the local bookstore I love going to the bookstore to be inspired by any new books popular books even secondhand books like this one good to great I actually got it from a frep store lots of time you will find some hidden gems also going to book Community sites like good reads or Amazon Marketplace for recommended books user reviews is also another good way to start if you don't have any ideas cautions though a book with lots of
good reviews isn't always a book that releases you so be more open to explore different places where you can access different books and start building your booklist another tool that I use is short form which I found very impressive that actually become their affiliate partner so short form gives me lots of great book summaries and commentaries for non-fiction books and helps me to understand the books ideas more effectively and this is particularly useful whenever I come across new books or any interesting books so I can Gras the idea faster when I'm designing whether to start
or not like this one million dooll weekend is pretty new and an interesting book to me then I'll just go to short form to with through the one p summary before I get the book for a deep dive another way I use it is when I want to quickly revisit the key themes concept from the books I've read like this one the Tipping Point so a great closet for business or psychology I can quickly retain the key ideas from the onepage summary and the full book guy and what I really like is that it's not
only give you detailed book summaries but also ask commentary examples potential bias or limitations and additional contexts related to the book ideas making it more than just book summaries there are different book categories business entrepreneurship self-improvement these are all my favorite and now you can get a free trial of unlimited access and get an additional 20% discount on any subscription through my special link I will include it below definitely try it out another tip is never get stuck on one single book but rather read multiple books that you enjoy all at once in the past
I forced myself to read a book from start to finish before I can move on to another book but I realize this make reading less enjoyable and actually is not not good for my thinking so now I always read multiple books at the same time probably around 3 to four no more than five but I think there's not a fixed limit to that it's completely personal so perhaps today I want to read a business strategy book and tomorrow I may continue another book that I have started perhaps a parenting book and I found this make
reading much more enjoyable because I can always depend on my mood for that day and a state of mind to pick the book that I feel like reading Al remember it's absolutely fine to drop a book whenever you don't find anything insightful or you're not being inspired by the book and you should just move on an example is a book that recently read called contagious it's a book about storytelling is recommended by most people but to be honest I'm not getting anything useful I would say it may be useful for someone who is new to
marketing but for me who has been working in the field for a long time I just can't get anything new whenever I feel bored I would try to go through the chapters again and see if I can jump to another chapter that may seem interesting to me and give it one more chance but if I confirm I'm not getting anything I would just drop it and start a new one a book is not for everyone sometimes you may find this too easy that you get nothing new or too difficult that you don't enjoy and that's
okay and never feel there is an obligation to read from start to finish because after all the most important thing is get yourself to to enjoy reading it should be fun it should be helping you to grow and be a better thinker otherwise it won't last so never feel pressure whenever you feel pressure to read is a very unhealthy signal and it means something goes wrong and don't just read the book content but also learn about the book author every time I start a new book I will learn the story backgrounds values what kind of
experience they had the purpose or motivation behind writing the book just like you're listening to a new song you also want to know more about the musicians and I found this way I can have a more complete understanding when I read the book and be inspired and this also helps me to evaluate the potential bias in the book content because every human is different sometimes you also need to judge if the view is healthy or not and surprisingly I found it also helps me to retain the book content better and be able to connect the
concepts from the book to the offer's experience the last thing I'm going to share is great book worth getting a copy and be visiting just like a good old friend you don't want to just meet them once in life but you really want to connect with them at certain points whenever you need them or you miss them and when you read the book again often times you will have a different experience because you have also grown you have gained new life experience and so you will have a new perspective when you revisiting the same book
again I hope you enjoy this video and realize that reading can be fun can be enjoyable and issue by Happ that you're willing to spend efforts on consistently if you want to be a better version of yourself also check out my other videos about different personal growth topics I'll see you next time
