As a small business owner, you have to be Jack of all trades, and master of many. Until you get to the point in your business where you can hire staff, you have to perform most functions. You know that to discover innovative ideas, you have to make ongoing learning a priority. The media often write about luminaries and publish the list of books that shaped their thinking and transformed their businesses. You can rush to buy the books with the expectation that you can do what they did. However, there are things nobody tells you about reading books.
You could be wasting a lot of time when reading nonfiction books. But, if you understand the concept of leadership reading, then you’re ahead of the game. Leadership reading is about reading to learn what you need to know. It’s just-in-time reading. I’ve talked to several professionals, and they read books cover-to-cover because they believe they'll miss out if they do otherwise. If you’re one of those people, there are a few points that I’d like to make.
Things Nobody Tells You About Reading Books: Why Reading a Nonfiction Book Cover-to-Cover is Unnecessary
Only a small percentage of the words on a page carries meaning.
- Educator Russell G. Stauffer says that only four to 11 percent of the text on a page carries meaning. In other words, 89 percent to 96 percent of the text provides context and supports the important information. How much context do you need to understand a book? Think about it for a minute, on the page of the nonfiction book you’re reading from, only one sentence is important.
Have you noticed how the number of pages in a book for a specific genre is roughly the same. Yes, there are exceptions to every situation. What I found out years ago is that publishers have word counts.
- And that’s not always a good thing. This forces some authors to suffer from verbal diarrhea. The resulting books end up being too repetitious, have way too many examples and case studies. Readers get frustrated and abandon the book because it’s filled with information that doesn’t contribute to their understanding of the text.
I mentioned the concept of leadership reading above. Very few books deserve your investment in time to read them from cover-to-cover.
- Remember, true leaders read to learn what they need to know. That means when they read nonfiction books, they’re looking for specific information. Perhaps to solve a problem, or to answer questions they may have. Once they find what they’re looking for, they move on to the next book. To follow their example, you have to embrace the 80/20 Rule. In this instance, you have to figure out which 20 percent of the text to read to understand 80 percent of it. The answer lies in learning how to effectively preview a book before reading it. You have to x-ray the book first.
Have you read?
How to Improve Learning – Remember What You Learn
Is Selective Reading Better Than Reading a Book Cover-to-Cover?
Things Nobody Tells You About Reading Books: Why Preparing Your Mind to Read is Important
The Curve of Forgetting
According to the Newsweek article, Truly Total Recall, written by BY Anna Kuchment on June 29, 2003
“In 1885 German philosopher Hermann Ebbinghaus showed that two thirds of what we learn vanishes from our brains within an hour.”
Since true leaders read to learn what they need to know, then they have to figure out how to remember what they learn. A part of that involves taking notes as you read, and reviewing your notes frequently. However, the process starts before that. It’s important to prepare your mind for reading, so you absorb more of what you read.
In the past, I taught course participants to do brain gym exercises like jumping jacks and marching band. And I still do that, but now I’ve incorporated technology into the mix. Before I start reading I do jumping jack exercises, start to listen to binaural beats audio, write down my one sentence purpose for reading the book, then preview the book to discover which 20 percent of the book I need to read. Listening to the binaural beats audio, I find myself in a state of flow. This is what athletes call being in the zone.
When you’re in the zone, you feel like you’re unstoppable. And you’re more attuned to the content of the book. It’s now easier for you to spot the important information and big ideas.
Conclusion: Things Nobody Tells You About Reading Books
Implementing the simple tips above will enable you to achieve your reading goals. It’s very freeing to realize that it’s possible to get the important points in a book without reading all of it. You’ll realize it’s unnecessary to read a non-fiction book cover-to-cover. Don’t let the fear of missing make you read information that’s irrelevant to you.
There are many excellent binaural beats audios available. If you need recommendations, please let me know. There are a few that I’ve been using, both paid and free.
Next Steps
The One Problem is just one way to learn from me. You can also join the Art of Learning membership site.
