chuckle how do you read books to prepare for podcasts how do you read a book to
extract maximum benefit any advice on keeping yourself focused and being
patient while reading books so this was a series of reoccurring questions that
were about kind of how I read and I'd grabbed three of them that were in there
so how do I prepare for a podcast it's actually a pretty in-depth situation so
first thing I do is I read the book as a reading the book I highlight anything
that I find to be interesting or informative to me or reinforce an idea
that I know or bring a new idea to bear so as I'm going through I'm just
highlighting everything and when I get done with and now just to just to say
when we're talking max benefit when I was in college and I would do that I
would once I got done with highlighting the areas that I found informative
important then I would make flashcards of the highlighted areas so I was like
double-locking the information because when you as soon as I make a flashcard
I've already got it 50 percent in my mind I read it I highlighted it it was
like 25 percent make a flashcard that's another 45 or 50 percent and so boom now
I got to do study the flashcard for that last 25 percent to lock in the knowledge
where when I go in to take the test I know 100 percent I know I'm gonna know
every answer on the on the quest when you recall like a thing you actually
recall what the flashcards yeah yes you know yes so that's what I would do this
is kind of a sidetrack when I was in college highlight and then
make flashcards of what I highlighted now for the podcast what I do is once I
once I read it and highlight it now I go back through and I look at the
highlights and now I start being selective of what is going to be in the
podcast and I actually circle the actual words I'm gonna read with a red pen that
I'm holding right here and that's what I do a circle and then I have little notes
that say next like when I circle a section and then I'll either have an
arrow that goes to another point or I'll have a little note that says go to page
49 and then there'll be a one of those little yellow sticky tabs
on page 49 boom there it is I can flip right there real quick so we don't have
to edit we don't have to there's a flow I can keep rolling and then on top of
those when I get to when I read something and I want to say something
about it I have little sticky notes that I put in
there either sticky notes I have the sticky tape stuff which is pretty legit
and I just rolled I roll that out I stick it on there and I say hey mention
you know experience I had here or what happened when I was doing this and so I
kind of make those notes and that way I can get it done and while I'm doing that
is when I have to figure out the chronology that I'm gonna read it
because I don't always read the notes from the book on the podcast in the same
order that they are in the book because sometimes it just doesn't make sense
sometimes there's some so at the same time I'm doing that I'm going back and
figuring out what direction I'm actually gonna read them so sometimes my
conclusion of the book is different than the author's conclusion I look yes so I
got to go back and say I got to go back pages or forward or whatever so that's
what I'm figuring out there as well so that's kind of what the podcast prep
looks like now how to stay focused in patience while reading books this is
really difficult I don't have a long attention span when I have a lot of
contention span it's only because I absolutely force myself to do it so what
I would prefer to do is to read in small chunks I want to do work for like an
hour at a time right when I'm writing I want to work for about an hour when I'm
reading I want to read for about an hour after that I want to get up and break
something or throw something or lift something or run somewhere you don't I
mean it's I have an hour of patience with me of course that's not enough time
you know especially when you're doing a podcast a week and you got to read a
whole book well guess what you gotta you got to read for longer you got to read
for two three hours at a pop I'll try and make it that I do an hour early in
the morning sometimes when I'm behind the curve I will read first thing in the
morning before I work out because I just want to get an hour
then I get to go and release right then I get done with the work I'll take a
shower now I'm gonna read for another 45 minutes okay good now I'll do something
else a little pre-lunch reading so and then
before I go to bed I'm doing another hour so there I just got four or five
hours in a day without having to sit down and do something for four or five
straight hours which bothers the hell out of me the other thing you can do and
I do this is I'll read multiple books at the same time which is which is an
interesting task tactic I don't know if everybody should do that or could do
that or would want to do that but sometimes one book gets boring but I
know I got to read so I guess I have two books three books all sitting there and
I'm reading them all at the same time and that makes them a little bit more
interesting and the last thing I would say about trying to be focused on an
impatient when you're reading books is to try to really understand what it is
that is happening in the book not just from a plot perspective but from a human
perspective what is that person going through what is that like for that
person what are they thinking and I'd get to a point where I'm so engaged I
feel like I'm becoming the offer I feel like I'm in the book sometimes when I'm
reading it so that is another good way to keep it engaging because if you're
seeing it from the outside and you're not really in it well then it's not it's
just not as engaging simply put if you get into it and you start thinking about
that person you go back you know do a little Wikipedia search on the author
and see who they are that gives you like a little insight yeah and that helps me
now I connect with them I know that they're from New Jersey I know that they
went to this college I know that they played soccer so now when I'm reading
about them I'm going oh yeah that must oh you know so I try and get a little
background on that person mm-hmm gives me a little bit more engagement saying
that's that that's my reading habits it's kind of advanced it and it makes
more sense I think that like how you say you want to put yourself in the guy's
head you know actively I'm gonna we put myself in the in the guy said
sometimes people are so good at writing where you that just happens naturally
but when you do when you do that it's like you can kind of get you get the
story of course but most of the time you when you do that all the time it's
lessons learn like what do you learn it's almost like when you're in your
head is in it like that all the lessons are just flying into your brain you know
yeah because it's almost like you're doing like you're you're going through
that war or that particular ambush or something like that and then you know
they talk about the mistakes and all that but you feel the mistake yeah and
also I have some experience with what they're talking about oh yeah and also
and I'm not saying I'm I'm telling you right now I don't have even close to the
experience of the books that I'm reading on this podcast these guys that were in
the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of the Bulge no nothing I did compared to
anything that they do but do I know what it's like to be waiting to go into a bad
situation do I know what it's like to be shot at do I know what it's like to you
know have guys getting wounded yeah I know what that's like so that's a little
connection to but I think you know everybody that's been in stressful
situations of any kind you can say oh what what must that feel like hey I know
what it's like when I was waiting to you know going for a job interview and I was
completely stressed out and that's what this guy must be feeling right here only
even worse so then you make that little mental connection a little mental leap
and you can look like you said you can then learn more from it yeah yeah which
is important yeah so if I'm going into this particular situation you know in a
book I'm reading it and I'm not as engaged as maybe I could be this guy
goes through X Y Z experience I'm looking at it from my opinion like well
I could handle that you know kind of thing but this guy is the type of guy
who that's maybe part of his weakness or something like that and vice versa where
you know like I don't know something about claustrophobia I might be like
dang but that cluster fool will be a part of
it part of the story isn't necessarily a huge part of the lesson that you're
trying to get from it you know so you might miss there might be some
disconnects there if you don't because they have a certain intention
and you have a certain intention so if your your the lesson lessons learned you
might miss some of those lessons just the feel for sure missing for sure I'm
not gonna get everything out of a book that's why when you that's why when you
get a really good book you read it multiple times and you can get more out
of it every single time that you read it no doubt about that one yes true