one of the most powerful and proven life hacks is reading what if you're someone who struggles building a consistent reading habit or can't focus long enough to read or wishes they like to read but simply doesn't because schools strip The Joy from Reading from you well if any of those are the case there's hope and I know this because I used to be all of the above I went from being someone with learning disabilities who actively disliked reading to loving to read to writing my own book today I'm going to share five ways that I someone who has navigated lifelong ADHD learned how to fall in love with reading study suggests that over half of Americans read fewer than four books a year that doesn't really surprise me since I could have easily been one of those people had it not been for my father I grew up with really intense ADHD which made sitting still long enough to read really difficult especially the kind of books assigned at school which were often just tedious then to add insult to injury I'd have to write essays about these books and get tested on them so somehow School managed to make reading both boring and stressful at the same time fortunately I was blessed with a father who paid attention to what I was interested in and placed incredible books in my path some of which really blew my mind he never judged what I read as long as I was reading something it didn't matter if it was comic books or graphic novels both of which I still enjoy from time to time today one of my biggest reading obstacles was my self judgment I should want to read this book because it's important I should want to because it's a classic the truth is I won't read something that I don't want to read this brings me to rule number one read for pleasure to fall in love with reading you have to read about things you love feeling the pleasure of reading is critical if you want to make it part of your life who wants to do something in their free time that feels like homework reading should not feel like something you have to do it should feel like something that you get to do and the quick way to make that transition from one to the other is by reading things that feel like they're adding real value to your life which brings me to point number two read on purpose books are kind of an amazing technology if you think about it some brilliant person spent years if not Decades of their life studying something really deeply books allow us to package that understanding distill it and download it into our minds like Neo from The Matrix all for like under 25 bucks in this sense libraries and bookstores are kind of like time travel portals that allow us to access countless lessons from countless teachers throughout the world throughout history this of course poses another challenge to the aspiring reader what should I read There are easily hundreds if not thousands of books out there that could greatly improve the quality of your life right now they offer clear ways for us to have more money power friends ABS love even peace so which book should you choose next what helps me avoid some of this analysis paralysis is to take an honest look at my life and ask myself the following question what is most alive for me right now for example for the last year I have had low energy levels then long bouts of insomnia and a few other weird symptoms honestly it's been awful and after I did some research I discovered that many of these symptoms could be due to blood sugar levels so I found books on blood sugar and pick the one that excited me the most in this case the glucose Revolution written by the glucose goddess herself because she's funny and makes it accessible and breaks down science in a way where it's fun and easily digestible pun intended instead of being obligated to read I have a real purpose based on my lived experience when you read on purpose when you're trying to solve a personal challenge it makes the content far more relevant and engaging it also helps you realize how empowering books can be for me the best way to truly learn is by doing so I read books that support me in doing things more effectively more efficiently Simply Better which leads me to rule number three read and write when you start reading on purpose chances are you'll find information that's really useful to your life and a great way to remember that information is by writing it down unfortunately writing things down about what you read usually gets left at school cuz that's when you get tested on it note taking often gets replaced by highlighting and bookmarking which are fine but studies show that writing about what you read makes it much more likely for you to be able to remember that stuff for it to stick in your brain and retrieve it later when you need it which is the whole point of reading this information but in addition to taking notes with a t there's also the practice of making notes with an M I learned this distinction from The Nest Labs newsletter written by the wonderful anord LUN neuroscientist who just published a book called tiny experiments to learn more about her check out the link below note taking is about writing down information you don't want to forget a date a quote a factoid writing down increases recall note making on the other hand is about capturing new ideas or actions inspired by what you read for example with that book that I was reading it mentioned that glucose levels can affect your sleep quality in this case I will take a note by writing down the fact that glucose affects sleep now I want to know how so I will make a note questioning how glucose levels affect Sleep Quality exactly and when I followed up on that note I discovered that the stress hormone cortisol can be activated when blood sugar drops too low with this information from the note that I made I went out bought myself a continuous glucose monitor and started monitoring my glucose levels in my sleep lo and behold my glucose was crashing just before I woke up every night not entirely sure what to do with that information just yet but that's new information that I only found by making a note and my sleep has gotten better so so far so good both note taking and note making are valuable and my practice for each is to create a custom collection in my bullet Journal I simply flip to the next blank page give the page the title of the book and then I just start taking notes and this is for things I don't want to forget as well as actions that I want to take as well as ideas that I have so while I'm reading I'll have my notebook right next to the book and just simply write things down this a helps me commit things to memory much better as I mentioned before also my future self is usually grateful for this collection because he can come back and quickly get back up to speed be like oh yeah that's right especially when I'm writing a new essay or article or something then I just flip back to the collection and there are all these ideas waiting for me it's really useful I have a whole chapter about this process in my book The Journal method so check that out in the video description if that's something you want to learn more about it's a far more detailed explanation about how I actually make and take notes inside my notebook but taking and making notes is timec consuming doesn't this make reading even more difficult to do and more expensive to start not if you follow the next rule read ruthlessly what do I mean by read ruthlessly even after school I somehow managed to turn a lot of my reading into a chore how by trying to get through books I didn't like simply because I felt some misguided obligation to finish what I started often that looked like me trying to speedread through things which resulted in me remembering nothing or simply guiltily avoiding the book on my desk or next to my bed thereby not really reading at all unless it's for your studies or your jobs books shouldn't be hurried or endured if they feel like either I think it's better to Simply give up and move on there are so many great books out there that are a joy to read even when they're challenging and these books exist in every topic and genre possible but to find these books you have to read ruthlessly here are some tips how number one for physical books try the 50-page test another trick I learned from my father if a book is not resonating with me in 50 pages sometimes earlier it's out why because I know there's a good book out out there waiting for me and I just need to get to it so I want to spend as little time as possible with middling books so I can find them on a Kindle what I usually do or any e-reader is to download the sample which is usually long enough for me to get a sense of the book then for audio I will listen to a sample because the voice immediately makes or breaks this for me I don't care if it's the most interesting book in the world if I can deal with the narrator again this is not not about reading faster it's about finding more books that will help you lose track of time that's what we should be optimizing for this is true for both fiction as well as non-fiction a truly engaging book doesn't demand your patience if anything it challenges your discipline to tear yourself away from it and that's what led me to the next rule read regularly reading can often feel like an Indulgence maybe because it's such a quiet and subtle activity in an increasingly loud world we don't have a lot of quiet space left I know that if I don't schedule out time to read the noisier stuff will grab my attention so I have to be strategic and take time for it or create the conditions to read more here's some tips one way to do this is by blocking off time in your calendar to make it even more fun make reading a ritual read with a coffee or at the park or at the same time every Saturday morning if your life has a lot of distractions sit in your car and read for 30 minutes before you go to work or after work before returning to a busy home one simple hack is to make your phone less convenient and whatever you're reading on more convenient if it's a paperback book or a Kindle or a pocket e-reader like the books Palama which are reviewed here it's remarkable how much more regularly you will read when you reach towards your reading device over your phone that's why I like to keep them separate when you introduce technology that helps you read in these Lial spaces in your life chances of you reading become much higher rather than watching YouTube or scrolling on Instagram when the only thing you can do is read you will read more very simple in age of constant distraction taking a regular chunk of time to read can be a really grounding practice it's almost like a form of rebellion against all the default patterns that these big tech companies are programming into us for dollars right we just shut it all out to read for a while to connect with ourselves to deeply think about things that are meaningful to us okay and I also have one more bonus rule coach Steven Chandler once said this about reading once for information twice for transformation I love that quote but I keep misquoting this Rule and eventually I turned it into another one which is you read once for inspiration and twice for integration in either case when you run across a book that has a Major Impact on you chances are that you will get really excited and blast through the work it's unlikely however that that information will really sink in the first time so when you read it again especially now that you've read the whole thing and have much more context that information can become much more helpful and clear and most importantly actionable you can actually integrate this information into your life as opposed to just being inspired by it both are really important okay so these were my six rules to to become a better reader now if you want something new to read consider signing up for my Weekly Newsletter where I share my thoughts on mindful productivity and topics like this and generally how to write a better life thank you for taking the time and see you in the next one