How to Get More out of the Books You Read
How to make your reading more active and productive.
Do you read books and soon forget what they said?
Are you reading to improve some skills, develop some new habits, or implement some new processes or systems in your professional or personal life?
Here are 14 ways you can get much more from your reading time.
Better Reading Practices
- Consume the book via multiple formats. If you read along as you listen to the book as an audiobook, it’s using multiple senses.
- Listen to the author’s podcast interviews, to find the back story of why the book was written.
- Pick a good time of the day to read. This varies from one person to the other.
- Read with deep attention, and turn off any distractions.
Read Interactively
- highlight key quotes and write them down. (Capture snippets and save them to a note-taking app)
- use worksheets if they come with the book. There may be an accompanying PDF which is usually worth printing.
- answer questions that the author suggests you ask yourself.
Share Insights
- follow the author on social media
- provide a 1 to 5 star rating for the book on Amazon
- write a review of the book — even create a video review for Amazon
- create social media posts about some transformation the book brought you
- write to the author, sharing your reviews
- create affiliate links for including in social media posts
- create a YouTube review video, explaining what difference the book has made to you.
If you see your reading as a transformational activity, you’ll get much more from the books you read.
If you’re looking for a system for keeping track of the books you’re reading, this video will help:
If you’d like to buy a book on Amazon, you could consider using my affiliate link:
https://amzn.to/3NTA5ZD
Connect with Anthony English
I’m a father of 7 children, and I share stories about productivity and building a side income. You can follow me here on Medium.
If you want to see some of my book review videos, check them out on my YouTube channel.
