Reading Serial - How to read more

A lot of people's new year resolution is to read more. I did it before, didn't work for me. And my reading list became a never-ending list.

This year, I change the approach.

Find your motivator

If you heard of the "mental model" before, you would know that the mental model is how we understand the world. The more knowledge we have, there is a higher chance that we can build them into our mental model and understand this world, and everything around us, even ourselves better.

We can use the mental model in many practical ways, such as making a better decision, build a better relationship, get a better score at school. You can also use a mental model to prepare the AWS certificate exam.

To continuously build and adjust our mental model, we need to read a lot. 

Knowledge builds up, like compound interest. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are both learning machines. According to Warren, he spent 80% of his time reading and thinking.  

I always optimize for learning, so building a mental model could be a good motivator for me to read more.

Start to make it a habits

James Clear is the author of one of my favourite book "Atomic Habits".

Habits shape our lives, and even define who we are. In this book, James teaches people how to build a system for getting better every day, instead of obsessing with temporary success or failure. 

To read more, we need to build a system that can reinforce the reading habits, and try to improve it 1% every day.

Most of us read reactively, such as an interesting post online, or a shared link through Twitter. Those reading happens without a plan and focus.

To take a more proactive approach, instead of reading reactively, we need to have a plan with a schedule. The schedule doesn't need to be very detailed. Ideally, it leaves you with enough time and flexibility to make sure it happens every day. 

Build a master schedule for the most important thing

You can start to create a three-part scheduling system, and make reading part of your master schedule. The master schedule is to help you make sure you schedule the time for the most important things. Then you can add more details and turn it into monthly, weekly, even daily schedule.

After setup a schedule, and knowing you will have time to do it, the rest is to focus on your reading.  

Everyone has different learning and reading styles, and not any time of the day is suitable for reading. Understand your style, as well as when you're most efficient to read and learn and try to schedule that time for reading. 

Also, find somewhere that you can focus without any distractions. 

I found reading in 20 minutes, with a real focus, away from distraction, is much more efficient than reading a whole hour in an environment that I can't focus. 

Use mind map for note-taking

I got a habit of writing my test plan as a mindmap using xmind. A mindmap is also quite useful for me to learn, especially when I read new concepts for the first time. There are some online mindmap tools you can use as well.  

Long story short, instead of reading more, my new year resolution became building a reading habit that could last. 

Learning is a beautiful thing. Happy reading.