I’m sure most of us have a bunch of books on our shelf or to-read list but never get to actually read them. I enjoy reading and always wanted to read more but somehow couldn’t get myself to read more than the 2-3 on my summer vacation.
Last year I read a great little productivity trick from Jerry Seinfeld. I tried it for two activities which just wouldn’t move to my daily routine: reading and (short) exercise. I don’t use this technique anymore but it did put both of these activities into my regular, almost-daily routine.
How I Read 1000% More Books Than Before
First of all – reading on a daily basis as recommended by Jerry. No matter if it’s just 15 minutes, I always read at least one chapter per day.
I also read at least two books at a time. This is one of the major lessons – if you get bored of one book just move to another. If you don’t like the book, drop it and start with a new one. There’s no use in reading something that you’re not enjoying.
You might think that you can’t keep track of that many books – and you can’t. That’s why I take notes for each book and gather them in Mac Notes (I use Kindle which allows you to easily highlight text). When I finish the book I also summarize the summary in a “tl;dr” (too long, didn’t read in geekspeak). This is the core of the book in 4-5 sentences.
I also read a non-business beside one or two business books.
Everything I read or want to read I keep track of with the free website Good Reads.
Going Forward
Twenty books per year is not really that much. But if you’re like I was, 10+ additional books can make a BIG difference – it did for me. Try it out and let me know how it goes!