Hey, how's it going, guys?
So in today's video we're gonna talk about
how to read more books.
Now, maybe you've already seen my video
on how to generally increase your reading speeds.
If you haven't, you can check it out right there.
But maybe you have, and maybe you've integrated
some of those tips into your life, which have helped you
get your reading speeds higher and higher,
maybe even up to that generally accepted cap
of 400 to 500 words per minute.
And yet, you haven't filled in the other part
of the equation, which is building a consistent
reading habit.
So this video is all about how to do that,
and I've got seven specific tips that will help you
become a more consistent reader.
So in my experience, the most important thing
you can do to read more consistently is to have
a certain number of pages you're going to read
every single day, and to turn it into a habit.
I was actually out in Colorado a couple of weeks ago
on a ski trip with a few friends, and we were in the Airbnb
one day after skiing ended, and I remember
my friends Matt and Ben were talking about books
they'd read recently, and both of them are entrepreneurs
so they're really busy, just like me, and yet they had
all this time to read all these books, and I was asking
like, dude, how do you guys find so much time to read
when you feel like you've got all these things to do?
And Matt told me, dude, I just wake up every morning
and I have my coffee, and I read 25 pages.
And after four days that's 100 pages, after 40 days
it's 1,000 pages.
It really adds up over time, and it works better than goals
like saying I'm gonna read one book a month
or two books a month, because then it's really easy
to justify pushing all your reading off later into the month
because you've got a lot of work to do right now.
Moving onto tips two and three, I'm gonna group
these two together because they have to do with how
you schedule your reading time.
Now, personally I know the later that it gets in the day,
the less likely it is for me to read.
My motivation starts to wane and other things start
to take up my attention, so I try to schedule
my reading time very early in the morning.
But, tip number three here, I do it after exercise.
And that's because the book I'm reading right now,
which is called Spark: The Revolutionary New Science
of Exercise and the Brain, talks a lot about how
exercise primes your brain for learning.
Exercise balances the levels of chemicals in your brain
known as neurotransmitters, which in turn improve
your ability to pay attention and prime your brain
to more efficiently absorb and remember new information.
And I take advantage of this by going to the gym
first thing in the morning, and then doing my reading.
Now tip number four is to do whatever you can
to make the process of reading as enjoyable as possible
because from what I've learned about how motivation
is affected by the rewards of tasks, rewards can really
be split into two different categories.
Number one, the reward you get at the end of the task,
whatever the result of the task is, but number two,
the enjoyment you get from doing the task itself.
So personally I go to a coffee shop and I get a latte
and I read while I have those things with me
and that makes the process much more enjoyable
than trying to do it at home.
Moving along to tip number five, now if you've chosen
to read after exercise, your ability to pay attention
and inhibit distractions is at it's peak, but you do
wanna cut out as many distractions as possible
just to give yourself the best possible chance
for focusing on your reading until you're done.
So, for me that means turning my phone onto
do not disturb mode, and packing it away in this bag
here, everything goes in this bag and it goes down
by my feet.
Everything is off the table except for the book
when I'm reading so it's just focused interaction
with the book and nothing else.
Now, distractions are one of the biggest things
that can derail your ability to get your reading done,
but there are certainly others, so tip number six
is to anticipate and remove as many barriers
to your success as possible.
For me that means making sure my bag is packed
every single night before I go to bed, and making sure
the book is in there, and also making sure I have
everything I need, like my book flags for making notes
and highlights, and my headphones just in case
the coffee shop is noisy.
Basically, I want to anticipate anything that could give
my brain an excuse to not read, and cut it out.
And, finally, tip number seven is to externalize
your motivation, and sort of take the choice of reading
out of your hands by making yourself accountable
to somebody else.
Now I do this in a couple different ways.
Number one is I have told my roommate Martin,
who reads way more books than me, that if I do not read
25 pages a day every single day for at least the next
three months, I will pay him $100.
So if I skip even one day, I'm gonna lose out on a lot
of money.
And secondly, I have made a public page on my website
where I will be updating my progress every single day
in an embedded Google spreadsheet, so every day
I have to record how many pages I read,
and anybody can see that and call me out if I don't.
Now in last week's video we talked about why
it's a bad idea in general to tell people about your goals,
but I do think when you build accountability
into it, and you're talking to people about your progress,
rather than your big grand vision, it can actually be
much more motivating than if you kept it to yourself.
And I'd be curious to hear what your thoughts are on that.
Anyway, if you'd like to have a look at my progress
page, there'll be a link in the description down below,
and you can do this yourself even without being publicly
accountable by using a tool like Habitica or Coach.me.
There's lots of habit-tracking tools that can basically
get you the same result, but I have decided to be
publicly accountable about it.
Hopefully you enjoyed this video and found it helpful.
If you did, give it a like to support this channel,
and if you'd like to get new tips every single week
on being a more effective student, you can click
that big red subscribe button right down there.
I also wrote a book on how to earn better grades,
so if you'd like to get a free copy sent to your email
you can click the picture of the book.
And if you missed last week's video, we talked about why
in general it's a bad idea to tell people about your goals,
so check it out if you missed it.
You can check out the full article for this video
and get the link to my reading progress page
by clicking the orange button right there.
And, lastly, if you wanna connect, I'm on Instagram
and Twitter @TomFrankly, or you can leave
a comment down below.
Thanks for watching.