A System For Reading Effectively
When I was in middle school, we started each day with something called the morning forum.
All the students (and most of the teachers) gathered in the auditorium to hear announcements for the day.
At the end of the forum, the teachers gave out something they called “eyeball awards.” The prize was a round piece of chocolate in a wrapper that made the candy look like an eyeball.
The candy was a reward for students who made connections between classes on the previous day.
The announcement usually went something like this: “Jimmy commented in English class, while we were reading Fahrenheit 451, that the plot felt similar to the Nazi book burning he learned about in history class last month.”
I don’t think I ever received an eyeball award. I remember thinking at the time that I wasn’t very interested in the candy, and it always felt difficult to make connections, so I didn’t even try.
Fast forward 12 years, and I just shake my head at the stupidity of that thought.
The world is clearly interconnected, so picking up on connections across disciplines is a valuable skill.
The more books I read, the clearer this fact becomes. Not only do I find strong connections between wildly different books, but the more I read, the more I find myself making connections in other aspects of my life.
It’s almost like reading is strengthening a special muscle that makes connecting the dots easier…
Now, reading is one of my favorite activities. It’s how I do most of my learning. After spending years reading aimlessly, I finally nailed down an easy, repeatable process that allows me to get the most out of every book – and helps me build that connection making muscle.
Everyone is different in how they like to choose their books, read their books, and take notes on their books. This is my process – adapt it how you see fit.
Keep a list
I keep an Excel spreadsheet of all the books I’ve read, along with the books I want to read next. Any time I hear a good recommendation, I add it to the list.
This helps me in two ways:
When I’m at the bookstore, I’m buying with a purpose. I used to buy books haphazardly, picking whatever appealed to me off one of the tables in Barnes and Noble. It’s not that this is wrong. But I found I would have a lot of random books, some of which I wouldn’t read, and they didn’t follow any particular theme. With the list, I do a better job of buying and reading within a theme (right now it happens to be habits), and I find this more conducive to actually learning what I’m reading.
I never have to wonder what to read next. When I’m about to finish a book, I open my reading list and choose from a short list of the things I want to read next. Then I grab that book off my shelf and bring it with me. That way I can seamlessly start the next book when I finish the current one.
Here’s what my two tab tracker looks like:
Yes, I track the books I’ve read. No I don’t do it to brag about how many books I’ve read.
I’m not a fast reader at all.
While many self-improvement guys are big on speed reading, I prefer reading slowly, taking notes, absorbing what I’m reading, and enjoying the process.
I track what I’ve read for two main reasons:
Having a list of everything makes it much easier to give book recommendations. If somebody asks me for a book suggestion, or if I want to buy a book for someone, it’s easier to scroll back through the list rather than try to remember everything I’ve ever read. This makes my recommendations and book gifts more relevant, and I’m guaranteed not to forget possible gems.
Sometimes I forget about books I’ve read, so scrolling through the list will prompt me to go back and look at notes, which is helpful when I’m writing or about to face a life situation that would be better informed from a prior read (I referenced my notes for Never Split the Difference before negotiating on some rental properties).
This leads me to the next part of my process.
Taking Notes
My note taking process consists of two main parts. You may think it’s excessive, but it is crucial for absorbing as much information as possible.
Note taking in my phone
This might be a bad habit, but my phone goes pretty much everywhere with me.
One upside of that is I always have a useful note taking device in my pocket.
Whenever I start a new book, I make a new note in my phone. Any time I find a good quote, important idea, or passage I want to revisit, I jot it down in my notes app.
For most books, I have chapter headings in the notes. Some books – like fiction or biography – don’t lend themselves to clear, coherent notes as well as a typical non-fiction book. In those cases, I just write down good quotes or interesting passages.
I always record the page number when I write a quote.
The idea behind taking notes is that you’re writing down something important you may want to re-read or revisit in its full context.
Having the note without the page number doesn’t help you much in that respect.
Another feature I like about the notes app is the ability to take a scan. I often find entire paragraphs I want to record, and it’s much quicker to take a scan rather than re-type everything.
That being said, if it’s a paragraph I can easily summarize, I try to summarize it. The process of re-phrasing helps me to remember the idea.
The most valuable function of the notes app (and where it beats a notebook) is that it’s searchable.
Several times each week, I find myself remembering a quote but not its source or its entirety. When this happens, I just search what I remember in the notes app – and usually I find what I’m looking for.
When I’m done with the book, I have comprehensive notes at my fingertips. But that is just the beginning.
Transcribing the notes to a Word document
As I have time – ideally within a short period after reading the book – I transcribe the notes from my phone into a Word document.
I notice a few major benefits from this practice:
Typing the notes allows me to review the information again. Usually I do the typing after a few days have passed. Sometimes I forgot some of the lessons already. Often, I view the information differently the second time I see it. Either way – typing the notes reminds me of the things I found important and forces me to see them again.
Typing the notes for a second time also acts as a form of memorization.
Remember your fifth grade spelling assignments? The ones where you had to write your words five times each.
This is kind of the same thing. Repetition helps you remember.
As James Clear says in his book, Atomic Habits, verbalizing your actions makes you pay more attention to them. I find the same thing to be true in re-typing my notes.
Typing the notes helps organize them. The notes app has its limits in terms of formatting. A numbered list is pretty much all you can do. When I put the notes into Word, I put them in a neat outline with sub-bullets and lists, and I bold or italicize the most important things.
Having an organized, formatted version of the notes makes them visually appealing and easier to review in the future.
Since learning is the goal of reading, you want your information to be in an easy to study/learn format.
Typing the notes makes them shareable. Once my outline is done, I can email it to friends (which I often do when I recommend a book). I can also print a copy and stick it in a book I’m gifting.
Having shareable notes is valuable for two reasons:
If you’re giving them to somebody junior to you, it shows you took the time to understand the information. It reinforces the importance of the book much more than a simple, “Hey, you should read XYZ.” This will make the recipient more likely to actually read the book.
If you’re giving the notes to somebody senior to you, that person may be busy and not have time to read the book. You providing him with well organized, visually appealing notes might be helpful. He will see you providing value and may be more willing to help you in the future.
I used a printed copy of my notes on Extreme Ownership during my interview on the Man Overseas podcast. They provided good talking points for my book recommendation, and I could highlight them for ease of use.
I could come up with many more reasons to transcribe your notes into Word, but those three alone make the practice worth the time.
Write about what you've read
I understand this part of the process may not be for everyone. Most of you probably don’t write a blog nor do you have any interest in starting.
But you don’t need a blog to write about the books you’ve read.
Write an email to a friend or a co-worker summarizing the book.
Write a book review for Amazon.
Write a tweet or a Facebook post with a few of your favorite points or quotes.
Write your thoughts on the book in your journal.
The act of writing about what you’ve read – the act of ingesting information, processing that information, and synthesizing it in a written form – is valuable for understanding and remembering it.
Most of the ideas for my blog posts originate from something I’ve read. Here are just a few examples:
Whether or not you want to write publicly doesn’t matter. If you want to get the most value out of the books you read, you have to write about them.
Reading should be enjoyable. It should be something you look forward to, not something that feels like a chore.
But reading should be useful for more than just passing time.
Using a system to select, read, and study your books will result in a higher return on your investment (of both time and money).
It will also help you strengthen that connection making muscle – and maybe win some “eyeball awards” of your own.
