10 Tips for Reading More Books - Ali Abdaal
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00:00Hey friends, welcome back to the channel.
00:01So over the last 12 years,
00:02reading has added more value to my life
00:05than anything I've ever done or anyone I've met.
00:07So in this video, I wanna share 10 of my top tips
00:09for reading more consistently.
00:11And if you follow the tips in this video,
00:12then there's a high chance you might even be able
00:14to read 100 books a year.
00:15But obviously, I just wanna say upfront,
00:17it does not matter how many books
00:19you actually manage to read every year.
00:21100 is just an arbitrary number, just like anything else.
00:23What matters is that you are in fact reading
00:25and you are enjoying the process.
00:27Tip number one is one of my favorite quotes
00:29from investor and entrepreneur Naval Ravikant,
00:31where he says,
00:32"'Read what you love until you love to read.'"
00:35And this is an idea that's actually still pretty underrated.
00:37Like people who struggle to hit their reading goals
00:39often view reading as this like,
00:41this major thing that you have to optimize
00:43and you have to kind of read the difficult books
00:46or read the classics or like read Sapiens
00:48and try and like get through that for the 100th time.
00:50Why is life so hard?
00:51But it's kind of like with working out,
00:52the best workout is the workout that you are excited to do.
00:55Similarly, the best book is the one
00:57that you are excited to read in a given moment.
00:59Now, for me, what I really enjoy reading
01:00is paranormal romance, fantasy fiction,
01:02and trashy romance novels
01:04that you get like recommended on Goodreads.
01:06And these are great
01:06because it's a nice, easy thing that I can read.
01:08And so if I'm ever in a position
01:09where I've sort of lost the habit of reading every day,
01:12instead of trying to dive in
01:14with like a really challenging novel
01:15or a really challenging book
01:16that's gonna be pretty hard to read,
01:17it's not gonna be particularly exciting,
01:19I'll dive in with something really easy
01:20until I love the process again.
01:21And then as I'm going along,
01:22I'll be able to tackle the more challenging book.
01:24So if you want an action point from this video,
01:25then ask yourself, what is one book
01:27that I would be really excited to read right now
01:28and just go and read it.
01:29And in fact, I'd love to hear in the comments,
01:31what is that one book
01:32that you're most excited to read right now?
01:33All right, tip number two
01:34is that it's actually totally okay to quit books
01:36while you're in the middle of them.
01:37And reading has this weird thing,
01:38like we have this weird mindset around books
01:41that if I start a book, I then have to finish the book.
01:44And it's probably this thing
01:45that we've been told throughout school
01:46that reading feels like work and it feels like a chore.
01:49And if you start a book, then you have to finish it,
01:51otherwise you're like deficient in some way.
01:53But the way that I personally find more helpful
01:54to think about books is that a book
01:56is just another medium of content delivery.
01:59Like a YouTube video is a medium of content delivery,
02:02as is an email newsletter, as is a blog post, as is a movie.
02:04Now, if you're watching this video on YouTube
02:06and you stop getting value from it,
02:07you wouldn't think twice
02:08about just like picking another video.
02:09You wouldn't be thinking, oh my goodness, this is a video,
02:11it's an educational video,
02:12I have to watch it through to the end.
02:14You'd be thinking, oh, it's a video, I might try it.
02:16Maybe I vibe with it, maybe I don't.
02:17But either way, you're not like putting
02:19this major pressure on yourself to finish the video.
02:21But when it comes to books, we do this all the time.
02:22We put this pressure on ourselves
02:24to finish books that we've started.
02:25And so if we can get over that weirdness
02:27that we have around books,
02:28and start thinking that it's actually okay
02:30to quit books while you're in the middle of them.
02:32And so a tangible action point here is,
02:34what is one book that you are currently in the middle of
02:36that you've been struggling to read?
02:38And once you've identified what that book is,
02:39you just tell yourself
02:40that you are going to abandon reading it for now.
02:43That doesn't mean you're never gonna finish it,
02:44it just means you can always finish it later
02:46and you can always start a new book
02:47that you're a little bit more excited about.
02:49Because one of the premises of my whole philosophy
02:51on productivity, which is why my book
02:53is called Feel Good Productivity,
02:54is that really the secret to productivity and doing stuff
02:57is to find a way to enjoy the process.
02:59If you're having to struggle through a book,
03:01it's probably not the right book for you at this time.
03:03All right, tip number three is to always buy the book.
03:06Now, books is somewhere between $5 and $20.
03:09They're fairly cheap in the grand scheme of things.
03:11And even if you don't have that sort of money,
03:13you probably know ways to acquire books
03:15even without paying for them.
03:17Not that I'm kind of endorsing any of that stuff,
03:19but you know what I mean.
03:20Now, back in the day when I didn't have any money,
03:21my approach to book recommendations
03:23was that if I ever got a book recommendation,
03:24I would find a way to acquire the book.
03:26That might've meant borrowing it from the local library
03:28or finding some other ways to get access to books.
03:30But these days, my philosophy,
03:31now that I do have some disposable income,
03:33is that anytime someone recommends a book,
03:35I will just buy the book without even thinking about it.
03:37A book is such a small cost
03:40for such a stupid amount of work.
03:42This is my book.
03:43I've spent three and a half years working on this book.
03:44It's had literally thousands of hours of effort
03:46that's gone into it.
03:47It's had me, a researcher, an editor, another editor,
03:50another three editors going through the book,
03:52making sure everything is legit,
03:54a researcher to fact check
03:55absolutely everything we've talked about.
03:56There is a stupid amount of effort
03:58that goes into the production of a single book.
04:00And you can buy a book for somewhere between $5 and $20.
04:03And it's literally years of someone's life experience
04:06that's condensed into this thing
04:08that there's almost no other medium
04:10that gives you such a bang for your buck
04:12in terms of what you can learn
04:13and what you can get from a book.
04:14Which is why what I normally recommend
04:15is to lower your threshold for buying books.
04:17If you have the disposable income,
04:18just buy any book that you hear the recommendation of.
04:20If you don't, you can find a way to acquire it.
04:21And me personally, I can trace so many
04:23of my most life-changing decisions down to a single book.
04:27And so if you hear a book recommendation,
04:28you might as well just buy the book.
04:30Now, other than books,
04:30one other thing that I read on a regular basis
04:32happens to be a totally free email newsletter
04:34called Morning Brew
04:35who are very kindly sponsoring this video.
04:36Morning Brew is a completely free daily email newsletter
04:39designed for busy people and professionals
04:41that updates you on all of the interesting news
04:42in the worlds of business and finance and tech
04:44in just a few minutes.
04:45Now, I used to waste a lot of time
04:46scrolling on different apps and news services,
04:48but now I just read Morning Brew most mornings
04:50and that gives me basically everything I need to know
04:52in these worlds that I care about.
04:53It summarises the world's must-know news every day,
04:55but unlike traditional news, it's actually entertaining
04:57and it's written in a pretty engaging style
04:59that's fun and accessible
05:01and actually interesting for anyone to read.
05:02For example, Morning Brew is how I'm personally keeping up
05:04with all of the ridiculous stuff
05:06that's going on in the world of AI
05:07and seeing if there's anything I can incorporate from that
05:09into my own life and my own business.
05:10I'm also using it to stay up to date
05:11with social media trends and movements,
05:13which generally helps me think
05:14about the long-term future of my business.
05:15There are over 4 million professionals like you and me
05:17reading Morning Brew every single day
05:19and it is in fact totally free
05:21and takes less than 10 seconds to sign up,
05:23so you might as well.
05:23And if you fancy signing up,
05:24then do head over to morningbrewdaily.com forward slash Ali
05:27or hit the link in the video description
05:28and that will let you sign up completely for free
05:30and you'll also be supporting the channel along the way.
05:32So thank you so much Morning Brew for sponsoring this video.
05:34Tip number four is to read multiple books at once.
05:37Again, this speaks to that point around
05:38it's okay to quit books.
05:40Like sometimes you're just not in the mood
05:41for a certain type of book.
05:42I often have about eight or nine different books on the go.
05:44Some of them are fiction, some of them are nonfiction.
05:46Some of them are directly related to my work,
05:48some of them are completely unrelated to my work.
05:49And so to just give you an idea,
05:50I read for around half an hour at least every day
05:53and the books that I'm currently in the process of reading
05:54are Excellent Advice for Living by Kevin Kelly,
05:57Eight Dates by John and Julie Gottman,
05:59Kundalini Tantra, which is a spirituality book,
06:01Crucial Conversations, which is a book
06:02about how to have important conversations,
06:04the fantasy fiction book Light Lock by Alex Astor,
06:06the fantasy fiction book Battle Mage by Peter Flannery
06:08and finally One Blade of Grass,
06:10which is a Zen memoir by Henry Schucman
06:13that I'm sort of 20% through.
06:14So this is quite a lot of books
06:15and it's quite a lot of variety.
06:15There's a bit of self-help, a bit of spirituality,
06:17a bit of fiction and it's nice
06:18because it means that every evening
06:20when I'm on my Kindle just before bed,
06:22I can decide what do I feel like reading today
06:24and I'll just go wherever my energy takes me.
06:26But if I only had one book
06:27that I was focusing on at a given time,
06:29I would then feel a lot more of that friction
06:31where I'm like, I don't really feel like,
06:32I don't know, doing a spirituality book tonight.
06:34If I didn't have an alternative option,
06:36then I just wouldn't read and then I would lose the habit
06:38and then I would end up reading a lot less.
06:39Oh, also another fantastic way
06:41of getting through lots of books is by using Shortform.
06:44They're an insanely good book summary service,
06:46by far the best one I've ever used.
06:47And they have summaries from all of the best
06:49nonfiction books across loads of different genres.
06:51They'll be linked down in the video description
06:53if you wanna check them out.
06:54Tip number six is to listen to audiobooks.
06:56Audiobooks are absolutely freaking life-changing.
06:58You can now get audiobooks on Audible.
07:00You can also get them on Spotify with Spotify Premium.
07:02You can also get them on Speechify if you use Speechify.
07:04Like there's now lots and lots of ways
07:06of accessing audiobooks other than just Audible,
07:07which has been around for a very long time.
07:09But audiobooks are absolutely game-changing
07:11because it means that you can listen to books
07:12while you're on the go,
07:13while you're doing more interesting things.
07:14And one of the really nice things about listening to a book
07:16is that it's often easier to get through
07:18certain types of books when listening to them
07:20rather than when reading them.
07:21So for example, I'm currently listening
07:23to The Fellowship of the Ring,
07:24the first book in the Lord of the Rings series.
07:25I have tried reading that book tons and tons
07:27and tons of times over the years,
07:29but I've never quite been able to kind of battle through
07:31some of the heavier, denser descriptions.
07:33But having a really nice narrator reading it out to me
07:35makes me much more likely to get through it.
07:37Similarly, I tried reading Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
07:40for absolutely ages and never managed to get through it
07:42until I listened to it on Audible
07:43and then I got through the whole thing
07:44and I was like, damn, this is actually really good.
07:47And there are some books where listening to it
07:48is just so nice, but also obviously it means
07:50that you can do it while doing other things.
07:51One of my favorite things to do is to go on a walk
07:53while listening to an audiobook.
07:54So these days, as I'm getting in my 10,000 steps every day,
07:57I'm listening to the Lord of the Rings audiobook
07:58and it's absolutely sick.
07:59Similarly, back when I had a day job
08:01and I used to commute to work and back,
08:02I'd be driving an hour each way to work
08:04when I worked at the hospital.
08:05And I'd be listening to the Brandon Sanderson
08:07fantasy book series, the Mistborn series,
08:10the Stormlight Archive,
08:10the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.
08:12And these were just incredible long ass fantasy series
08:15and I'd be listening to them in the car
08:16and I'd get to work and I'd be like,
08:18oh, I don't want this to end.
08:19So if you haven't yet started reading audiobooks,
08:21I can wholeheartedly recommend.
08:22And in fact, I have narrated my own audiobook.
08:24And if you wanna sign up to a free trial of Audible,
08:26you get one free credit, you can use it to buy my book.
08:28If you want, it's free, might as well.
08:29Let's now move on to tip number six,
08:31which is to shape your environment.
08:32So right now I'm living a bit of a digital nomad here
08:35where I've got everything of mine in a suitcase
08:37and a backpack, which is why I don't really have
08:39any physical books on me.
08:40Although I do like to carry one or two physical books
08:42and so I have obviously mine,
08:43so I can show it off in videos like this
08:44and also this one, How to Change Your Life
08:46by Jay Comfrey and Damien Hughes,
08:48which is very nice so far.
08:49And so if you're a physical book kind of person,
08:50then shaping your environment
08:51means just having easy access to books.
08:53Like maybe you have a book on your bedside table
08:55or two or three, so that when you get into bed,
08:57you might as well reach for a book
08:59and read for a little bit.
09:00But it's not just your physical environment,
09:01it's also your digital environment.
09:03And so one thing that I find really useful to do
09:04is to design my iPhone home screens
09:06in a way that encourages me to read.
09:08And so on my home screen right now,
09:09I've got a calendar, I've got my habit tracker,
09:11I've got my to-do list app and I've got the Kindle app
09:13and I've also got the Readwise reader app.
09:15Both of these things are things that encourage me to read.
09:16And then on one of the other pages of my phone,
09:18I've got the Kindle widget and the Audible widget.
09:20And so one thing that I find super helpful
09:22is to just not have any social media apps visible
09:24on my home screen.
09:25So if I want to go on Instagram,
09:26I have to physically scroll down
09:27and type in Instagram for it to work.
09:28But the basic idea is that if you want to build
09:30any sort of habit, you wanna try and give yourself
09:32little nudges to do that habit and to remind yourself
09:35that, oh yeah, this is a thing I wanted to do.
09:36And if you wanna break any kind of bad habit,
09:38like for example, social media addiction
09:39or anything like that, you wanna make it
09:41a little bit harder for you to access those things.
09:43And so action point here might be that,
09:44can you pause this video right now
09:45and just add a couple of reading themed apps
09:47to your phone screen?
09:48Maybe it's a Kindle app, maybe it's a reader app,
09:50maybe it's a Spotify app for audiobooks, Audible,
09:52whatever that might be, there's a bunch of different apps
09:53to read for reading.
09:54But if you have those first thing on your home screen,
09:56then it's also helping you design your digital environment
09:58in a way that makes it a lot easier to read.
10:00Tip number seven, I've mentioned this a couple of times,
10:02but let me grab it.
10:04I can wholeheartedly recommend getting a Kindle.
10:06It's just freaking incredible.
10:07It's an incredible device.
10:08It's stupidly cheap.
10:09They're like, I don't know, 50 pounds, 60, $70
10:12on Amazon these days.
10:13You can get them cheaper if you have adverts
10:14on the front cover as well.
10:15I've been using a Kindle pretty much every day since 2008
10:18when the original Kindle came out.
10:19And it's been one of the, if not the single most impactful
10:23tech device I have ever bought.
10:25It's just amazing because like,
10:26it's so nice reading on a Kindle.
10:27It's not quite as nice as reading on paper,
10:29but they're so light, I can carry a Kindle everywhere I go.
10:32I do in fact carry a Kindle everywhere I go.
10:33And these days when I'm staying in different Airbnbs
10:36and hotels and stuff, I will always take my Kindle out
10:37and have it on my bedside table.
10:39Whereas my phone will be on charge
10:40all the way across the room,
10:41which means when I get into bed,
10:43I am not tempted to go on my phone.
10:44I'm in fact, the only thing I have access to
10:46is literally just my Kindle.
10:47And I can attribute the vast majority of books
10:49that I've been able to read while being busy
10:51and doing other things to the fact that I have a Kindle.
10:53And I also have the Kindle app on my phone
10:54so that I can read when I'm on the toilet
10:56and also when I'm on trains and buses and transport
10:58and taxis and all this sort of stuff
10:59where I wouldn't otherwise have my Kindle on me.
11:01So action point here is if you don't yet have a Kindle,
11:03consider buying one or some other kind of e-reader
11:05or like ask for it as a gift.
11:07You use a Kindle consistently,
11:08I can pretty much guarantee
11:09that it will completely change your life.
11:10All right, tip number eight
11:11is to consider gamifying your reading process
11:13using something like Goodreads.
11:15Now Goodreads is like a social network thing for readers.
11:17It's owned by Amazon, it's a bit janky,
11:19but it does mean that if you start reading books on Kindle,
11:21it will automatically add it to your Goodreads library.
11:23And it's just kind of fun
11:24to sort of set up reading challenges
11:26and see how many books can I read when I'm on Goodreads.
11:28It's kind of fun to review books as well
11:30and give them a star rating.
11:31And you can just keep track
11:32of every single book you've ever read.
11:33If you don't wanna use Goodreads,
11:34there's an app that I found recently called Sofa,
11:36which is a nice way to organize your downtime.
11:38That also lets you add books.
11:39The idea here is that
11:40if you can try and make it a little bit fun,
11:42turn it into a little bit of a game,
11:43when you finish a book, you give it a bit of a rating,
11:45you add it to your list
11:46and then you feel yourself making progress
11:48by reading more and more books.
11:49That's just another little nudge that we can use
11:50to help build that habit of reading.
11:52Tip number nine is to change your identity.
11:54This is something that James Clear talks a lot about
11:56in Atomic Habits,
11:57that if you do in fact want to build a habit
11:59that's particularly good for you,
12:00you wanna start on the level of identity.
12:03It's much easier to read more books
12:05if you identify as someone who reads a lot of books
12:07or if you identify as a reader,
12:09rather than if you have told yourself
12:12that you have the identity of someone who doesn't read
12:14or like, oh, I don't read books or I never read.
12:16It's like all of these things
12:17are disempowering things that you are saying to yourself.
12:19And so a fairly easy way of reading more books
12:21is to just shift into that identity.
12:23I'm someone who reads,
12:24I'm someone who makes time to read.
12:25And you'll find that if you have that identity,
12:27it becomes a lot easier to take the daily actions.
12:29And then finally, tip number 10
12:30is to genuinely stop caring about the numbers.
12:33I know this video, clickbait titles and all that crap,
12:35like 100 books a year, 50 books a year,
12:37a thousand books a year, whatever.
12:38No one gives a shit about how many number of books you read.
12:41It's kind of fun to make the number go up,
12:42especially if you're trying to build a habit initially,
12:44just like working out.
12:45It's kind of fun to see how many times
12:47can I actually get to the gym.
12:48But the main thing is that you wanna be reading,
12:50you wanna be enjoying the process of doing it,
12:52which is the entire thesis of my productivity philosophy.
12:55Productivity takes care of itself
12:56when you can find a way to enjoy the process.
12:59So again, it's not about the numbers.
13:00If you're reading nonfiction,
13:01it's far better to read just like maybe a handful of books
13:03in the year, or maybe even just one,
13:04maybe even half a book in the year,
13:06and to really absorb the insights and takeaways from it.
13:08Again, assuming you're reading for the sake of insight.
13:10But the most important thing
13:11is to not worry about the numbers so much
13:13and try your best to enjoy the process.
13:15So hopefully some of these tips will help you
13:16read a little bit more this year or next year.
13:18And if you're interested in trying to remember
13:20more of the things that you read,
13:21because you find that you read
13:22and then you forget whatever you've read,
13:23you might like to check out this video over here,
13:25which is all about how to remember
13:27basically everything you read.
13:28So thank you so much for watching
13:29and I'll see you in the next video.
13:30Bye-bye.