📚 A&B #165

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👋 Hey everyone,

My main focus has been working on the self-paced reading course (which I’m super excited to share more details about next month) so I haven’t been posting much new content on social media.

If you want to be the first to get notified about the course, enter your email here.

📚 Book Summary:

This week's book is “Rise of the Reader” by Nick Hutchison.

This book is written by my friend and fellow bookstagrammer BookThinkers. In it, he shares advice on how to spend more time reading, turn information into implementation, and much more.

Here are 3 lessons from the book:

📖

1) How To Easily Read 20+ Books A Year

One of the biggest reasons people say they don’t read books is because they can’t find the time.

But time isn’t found, we have all 24 hours in a day. Instead, try to replace time.

Aim to replace 15 minutes of social media scrolling in the morning and 15 minutes of watching Netflix in the evening with reading.

If you do, here’s what will happen:

• 15 minutes of reading = 10 pages

• 10 pages in the morning + 10 pages in the evening = 20 pages a day

• 20 pages x 5 days a week = 100 pages per week

• 100 pages per week x 52 weeks = 5,200 pages a year

• 5,200 pages ÷ 250 pages per book = 20 finishing books a year

And if you also spend time reading on the weekends, you’ll end up reading about 30 books a year.

So instead of trying to find time to read, find times to replace with reading.

📖

2) Stop Reading, Start Applying

Reading books is a wonderful activity, but you have to be careful with turning it into a form of productive procrastination.

There’s not much difference between a person who doesn’t read books and a person who does read books but doesn’t implement what they’ve learned.

Personal development books are like cookbooks. You can buy a cookbook and read the whole thing but a meal won’t magically appear in front of you.

It’s only when you start cooking the recipes that you will actually benefit from reading the book.

So this week, instead of spending time reading books, spend time applying what you’ve already learned.

Review your highlights or notes from the book you’re currently reading (or the most recent book you’ve finished) and pick one or two things you can implement to improve your life.

Reading books and implementing books are two different activities and should be treated as such. Spend more time doing the second this week before going back to the first.

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3) Ryan Holiday’s Hack For Quitting Books

Most people force themselves to finish every book they start, but that’s a terrible habit.

Life is too short to read bad or boring books. Instead, here’s a quitting framework from Ryan Holiday: Read the first (100 - Your Age) pages.

So if you’re 25, read 75 pages before deciding to quit the book.

The older you are, the more valuable your time becomes and you don’t want to spend it reading a book that isn’t entertaining or educating you.

If there’s a book you’ve been stuck on, apply this rule and if the book is not serving you, gift it, return it, or donate it.

✅ Actionable Advice:

1) Instead of trying to find time to read, find time to replace activities with reading:

• Replace 15 minutes of Instagram scrolling in the morning with reading.

• Replace 15 minutes of TikTok on the bus or train with reading.

• Replace 15 minutes of Netflix in the evening with reading.

2) Stop reading books this week and spend time applying them instead:

• Review your notes or highlights from the last book you’ve read and find one or two lessons you can apply to improve your life.

  • Don’t go back to reading a new book until you’ve taken action on the previous one.

3) Apply the 100 - Your Age rule to every new book:

• If you’re 20, read the first 80 pages of a book.

• If you’re 60, read the first 40 pages.

  • If the book is still bad or boring after that, quit it and pick up a new one.

📖 Reading Lesson:

I curated a list of the 10 best free Notion templates for readers.

These templates will help you:

• Organize your book notes

• Track your reading progress

• Achieve new reading goals

And much more.

Check out the document here.

💎 Weekly Gem:

YouTube Channel: Todd V Dating

Todd is the best dating/relationship coach I’ve found.

He isn’t a shady pick-up artist who manipulates or tricks girls into liking him. Instead, he breaks down dating and relationships into a science and step-by-step process that has worked for thousands of his students.

His content helped me create the best relationship I’ve ever had (coming up on 3 years with my amazing girlfriend).

I highly recommend his videos, start with these two:

• The 4 types of text & how to respond

• How to never run out of things to say

Thank you for your support, I'll see you next Sunday!

Read on,

Alex W.