How to Get More From Your Reading

6 Tips for Self-Help Addicts to Remember the Lessons, Put Them to Use, And Start Changing Your Life

Reading gets me into trouble.

I'm not talking about my only detention in middle school, which came from reading a novel instead of doing classwork. In 2022 I read 27 non-fiction books (~ 1 per 2 weeks). In the last few months, that's dropped to 1 every 7 weeks and I've seen a much bigger change.

Reading improperly can keep you from improving your life.

Read Selectively

Reading is my preferred way to procrastinate.

Don't let reading become a distraction from improving your life. Tim Ferris says that every thing you read should be something you will definitely use, right away, for something important.

Don't read things just to feel productive, make sure it's actually productive.

Read Slowly

One of my past problems has been Reading too fast.

This isn't about words per minute. I would read an idea and I would keep reading and that idea would get steamrolled by the next. If you move on too quickly and you don't take the time to process what you read, It won't have time to sink in.

Make space for the ideas you are trying to learn to actually make it into long-term memory.

Rewrite

I often like to think I understood something completely and move on too quickly.

The best test for understanding something is to rewrite it in your own words. This will show you which parts of the idea you understand and which you need to think about more. This not only clarifies this one idea in your head but also improves your ability to understand ideas in the future.

Rewriting is like lifting weights, the value comes from the effort you put in and it makes future understanding easier.

Reflect

Understanding an idea properly only helps if you can remember it when needed.

To help with that ask yourself 3 questions:

1. Which specific situations in my life can I apply this?

2. How will my future actions change in those situations?

3. In what situations would someone benefit from hearing the opposite?

Give yourself the right cues so self help books actually have a chance to help.

Reinforce through Action

Once you've set up proper cues, actually use what you've learned.

Plan a time and place to apply what you've learned. As soon as possible, no later than a week from now, actually do something different with what you've learned. If you cannot do this see tip \#1 again.

Anchor your knowledge in experience and it will become part of your identity.

Required Mindset

Take small steps, be patient with yourself.

I often find myself in the failure mode of setting my goals too high too fast. This brings failure and disappointment and shame. To build lasting change, start small and implement gradual changes.

Don't make future effort harder for yourself, be patient.