We’re all time poor today, especially if you are juggling business ownership with family commitments. When the time squeeze is on, reading a book can slip way down your to-do list, and that’s understandable. I want to share with you ways to get all the good stuff from your business book without having to give it too much of your time.
“I’m not talking about audio books. Be honest, how much of that talking do you actually retain afterwards?”
In my previous life I was an academic. I spent years reading very dry and often boring journal articles and I learned how to get to the crux of a topic very quickly. Nowadays I apply these strategies when I read a good business book and I can fit reading into my busy schedule plus still enjoy the book. Best of all, I absorb all the good bits for my own learning.
Here’s how:
1. Never skip reading the table of contents
Nowadays good business book authors think about their readers and they segment their ideas into workable chunks. The table of contents is your road map. You can choose to leave the track and hit a later chapter first if it seems more immediately relevant to you. You might even skip chapters all together and read them on your next vacation. I give you permission to mix it up a bit.
2. Help your book to limber up
When new, books can be quite stiff and the pages will flip at their own discretion. Page control is frustrating time consuming and needs to be banished. Flex the spine of the book. Open it half-way and don’t be afraid to bend it backwards – like a gymnast doing a floor routine. This reduces unruly page turning, giving you total reader control.
3. Grab your pen, highlighter and sticky tabs
Books communicate with you. Those words on the page are talking to you. Talk back. Write summaries of the key points in the margins of the page. Highlight key ideas and themes.
“Use a liberal lashing of sticky tabs to tag the pages with the juiciest information.”
You don’t need to keep your book in pristine condition. That’s not the point! They are like their own mini note books that have a combination of the author’s ideas and your musings. It’s like keeping a diary of your conversation between the covers. If you grew up being told to look after your books I challenge you to write all over your next one and see how liberating it feels, not to mention helpful when it comes to remembering the contents.
4. Buy a second-hand book
The ultimate time saver! Let someone else do the work for you. If you buy a second-hand business book that is in fair condition, for example, there is a very good chance someone else has folded the corner of the critical pages, or, better still, highlighted all the good points. Yay! Their work will give you laser vision to target in on the key points throughout the book, saving you loads of time. Right – stop reading this blog post. Start reading your small business books.