How to read 40 books per year
Last year I set myself the task to read 40 books. In general, it was possible, including such a mastodon book like “Atlas Shrugged”. At the same time I have a job, a family with 2 kids and my pet-project. In this article I will tell you how small life hacking helped me do all this.
The first and most important question is why. As I develop my educational project (here we are at Habré ), the task is to work out a lot of educational material. For example, in order to deal with statistics and probability theory so that it could be explained to any person, as they say, on fingers, I had to read a dozen of popular science books, including “Black Swan”, “Pleasure of X”, “Business Statistics "And" Big data "(in the end, this resulted in a webinar" Why in life we need a theory of probability " ).
Approximately assessing the amount of work and my strength, I concluded that you need to learn about 3 books a month. As a maximum task, this is rounded up to 40 books a year.
')
The first thing I did was a commitment (I’m not sure that there is a suitable word in Russian - this is “a commitment to myself” so as not to jump off and then not to say to myself “if I really wanted, I would have mastered a hundred books”. Swam, we know.)
Technically it is simple. On the goodreads.com website, you can mark the books you read and rate and review them (the site looks like something from the 90s, but it is good for our purposes). Recently, they added the “Reading challenge” feature, where you can indicate how many books you are going to read in a year - in the end, it will monitor how many books you are ahead of the plan or are lagging behind. Conveniently.
When the goal is ambitious, you begin to evaluate your time in a new way. In other words, it is possible to structure the New Year and May “holidays” in a new way. It so happened that we met the New Year in sobriety and peace, so for the first 3 days of the year I swallowed 5 small books of 150 pages each. The mood was serious.
Thus, one can always find unexpected hours or two for mastering a new material.
The next idea of restructuring time came after evaluating the way to work. Since now I live abroad and I get to work by bicycle, it takes half an hour a day to pedal to one side. It would be foolish not to use this time.
So I came to the idea of audio books. Sites of the sea - on the same YouTube there is a mass of well-read novels.
In such a simple way one can swallow up huge books, which read letter by letter lacked the spirit: the three-volume Atlas Shrugged His shoulders and the thousand-page Shantara.
It turned out that audiobooks are a whole cultural layer unknown to me. Actors recite books in their faces, sound engineers add sounds for the entourage - as a result a whole radio performance is obtained. As a result, due to such a creative approach to dubbing, listening to the “Billion years before the end of the world” by the Strugatskys, it was really creepy in some places. Recommend.
Another plus of listening to this kind of audiobooks, which is a little difficult for me to explain, is the development of auditory thinking. If earlier I thought with pictures like in the movies, now the picture seemed to be supplemented with another “degree of freedom”. I do not know if I explained it.
We all know the situation when there is nothing to do, so you pull out the phone and lazily flip through Facebook (or another website). In transport, on a pot or before bedtime. I noticed that Facebook accounts for 53% of all the energy expended by my phone (there is such a report on the iPhone).
Facebook made a strong effort to be hidden in some distant folder, and iBooks took its place on the main screen. I don’t like to read from such a small screen, but it’s better to read one simple book a month, rather than stupidly rewind 1.5 km of a facebook tape (I wonder how much energy mankind spends on it?).
PDF-previews of new books from kniga.biz.ua or Mann, Ivanov and Ferber are especially well read in this format.
Sometimes I see my facebook in a browser when funny links are dropped. Hundreds of unchecked alerts - a digital indicator of willpower.
First, there were many, very many books, and I focused on the number "40", so sometimes I read something for the soul purely for statistics, not for knowledge. Therefore, the next time it will be important to indicate which particular books should be read necessarily, and not just “40 pieces”. In addition, it is convenient to do it on the same site Goodreads.com - mark the necessary books as “Want to read”.
Secondly, at the end of the year, the fuse began to fade. We must promise yourself some tasty bonus at the end of the year.
I coped with the task by 92% - I read 37 books out of 40. How can I write this in my resume on LinkedIn - why not? It speaks of the mood for new knowledge, perseverance and will. It is always nice to set yourself a credit.
The first and most important question is why. As I develop my educational project (here we are at Habré ), the task is to work out a lot of educational material. For example, in order to deal with statistics and probability theory so that it could be explained to any person, as they say, on fingers, I had to read a dozen of popular science books, including “Black Swan”, “Pleasure of X”, “Business Statistics "And" Big data "(in the end, this resulted in a webinar" Why in life we need a theory of probability " ).Approximately assessing the amount of work and my strength, I concluded that you need to learn about 3 books a month. As a maximum task, this is rounded up to 40 books a year.
')
The boy said - the boy did
The first thing I did was a commitment (I’m not sure that there is a suitable word in Russian - this is “a commitment to myself” so as not to jump off and then not to say to myself “if I really wanted, I would have mastered a hundred books”. Swam, we know.)
Technically it is simple. On the goodreads.com website, you can mark the books you read and rate and review them (the site looks like something from the 90s, but it is good for our purposes). Recently, they added the “Reading challenge” feature, where you can indicate how many books you are going to read in a year - in the end, it will monitor how many books you are ahead of the plan or are lagging behind. Conveniently.
Time eaters
When the goal is ambitious, you begin to evaluate your time in a new way. In other words, it is possible to structure the New Year and May “holidays” in a new way. It so happened that we met the New Year in sobriety and peace, so for the first 3 days of the year I swallowed 5 small books of 150 pages each. The mood was serious.
Thus, one can always find unexpected hours or two for mastering a new material.
Big ear
The next idea of restructuring time came after evaluating the way to work. Since now I live abroad and I get to work by bicycle, it takes half an hour a day to pedal to one side. It would be foolish not to use this time.
So I came to the idea of audio books. Sites of the sea - on the same YouTube there is a mass of well-read novels.
In such a simple way one can swallow up huge books, which read letter by letter lacked the spirit: the three-volume Atlas Shrugged His shoulders and the thousand-page Shantara.
It turned out that audiobooks are a whole cultural layer unknown to me. Actors recite books in their faces, sound engineers add sounds for the entourage - as a result a whole radio performance is obtained. As a result, due to such a creative approach to dubbing, listening to the “Billion years before the end of the world” by the Strugatskys, it was really creepy in some places. Recommend.
Another plus of listening to this kind of audiobooks, which is a little difficult for me to explain, is the development of auditory thinking. If earlier I thought with pictures like in the movies, now the picture seemed to be supplemented with another “degree of freedom”. I do not know if I explained it.
Goodbye facebook
We all know the situation when there is nothing to do, so you pull out the phone and lazily flip through Facebook (or another website). In transport, on a pot or before bedtime. I noticed that Facebook accounts for 53% of all the energy expended by my phone (there is such a report on the iPhone).
Facebook made a strong effort to be hidden in some distant folder, and iBooks took its place on the main screen. I don’t like to read from such a small screen, but it’s better to read one simple book a month, rather than stupidly rewind 1.5 km of a facebook tape (I wonder how much energy mankind spends on it?).
PDF-previews of new books from kniga.biz.ua or Mann, Ivanov and Ferber are especially well read in this format.
Sometimes I see my facebook in a browser when funny links are dropped. Hundreds of unchecked alerts - a digital indicator of willpower.
What could be improved
First, there were many, very many books, and I focused on the number "40", so sometimes I read something for the soul purely for statistics, not for knowledge. Therefore, the next time it will be important to indicate which particular books should be read necessarily, and not just “40 pieces”. In addition, it is convenient to do it on the same site Goodreads.com - mark the necessary books as “Want to read”.
Secondly, at the end of the year, the fuse began to fade. We must promise yourself some tasty bonus at the end of the year.
Results
I coped with the task by 92% - I read 37 books out of 40. How can I write this in my resume on LinkedIn - why not? It speaks of the mood for new knowledge, perseverance and will. It is always nice to set yourself a credit.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/390811/
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