At any given point in time, I am reading minimum 2 books. Since yesterday was World Book Day, let me take this as an opportunity to share how I read/take notes from books.

Here is what I do at the start:

• Set goals: Determine what you hope to gain from the book and how it aligns with your personal or professional growth.

  Here is how do do it: Take a quick look at the reviews or author’s recent podcast interviews will give you a good idea in terms of what to expect from the book.

• Skim through the book: Preview the table of contents, introduction, and conclusion to get a sense of the book's structure and main ideas.

• Create a reading schedule: Allocate specific times for reading to maintain consistency and progress (for e.g. I tend to keep the longer reads towards my sleep schedule (helps 💤 faster).

2 things to remember when starting a (non-fiction) book

• 70% of books are better off as a blogpost or even a set of email newsletters (I just made the number, but I hope you get the point).
  
  Plug: this is where subscribing to this newsletter helps :)

• Most non-fiction books tend to repeat 3-4 ideas across the book. If you think you have gotten a good grasp of the topic in the first few chapters, feel free to skim and skip the rest.

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  It’s just FINE! You don’t need to finish everything you start. But if you are leaving most of the books unfinished, just revisit your choices and your reading technique.

How do I take notes?

I don’t.

I have automated the process. Here is the secret 🤫