The 5 Key Rules for Reading

Former President Harry Truman once said, "Not all readers become leaders, but all leaders must be readers." In a similar vein, General Jim "Mad Dog" Mattis wrote in his book, Call Sign Chaos, "If you haven't read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will become incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren't broad enough to sustain you."

I couldn't agree with them more. And while Truman and Mattis are distinguished figures, who have held positions that required them to sharpen their minds and quickly process information, reading should not be limited to government officials, military figures, or any other roles of such high esteem.

Reading expands our worldview and imagination. It gives us a refuge away from the pinging of the devices. It helps us better understand our times by studying the lives of who came before us. There are numerous physical and mental health benefits that come with reading too.

And it's not about what we read or how much we read, it's whether we choose to do it at all.

One of the main reasons for not reading is that we say we "don't have the time." But that's just an excuse. We can choose to make time if we really wanted to. As an example, here you are scrolling a device to read this newsletter. If we opened up the time usage in our smartphones, we'd see plenty of it spent on social media and entertainment apps. That time can be used for reading time instead.

If you know me personally or have followed me for some time on LinkedIn, you know that reading is one of my favorite things to do. It's a habit that I believe has always been in my blood but one that has also been carefully cultivated over time. Like any routine that we're trying to keep up, it's smart to set guidelines and structures for ourselves.

That's why I thought I'd share my five rules that I believe have led to the continuation and maximization of this habit:

1. Make designated time: Nearly every day before I go to bed, I put my phone off to the side and get into a book. I've now identified that as my reading time, so it comes natural to me. It helps me wind down for the day and get to sleep easier and I know that I'll have nothing better to distract me. For others, this might be better when you first get up or in the 30+ minutes when you're eating lunch.
2. Go deep, but also go wide: It's really important to get to the depth of a subject you're interested in. One great way to do this is by going to the citations of a book you like and then picking out those books to read next. But the challenge is that it's not always ideal or pleasurable to keep reading about the same topic over and over. Instead, I always encourage reading widely too. I have the genres I prefer (self-help, business, psychology), but I also love to get into history, science, biographies, and more. Reading deeply and widely allows us to be more well-rounded in learning a lot about a lot of subjects.
3. Slow down: There are tons of online courses and videos that sell "speed reading" as some great hack. But what's the rush? Books are one of life's great pleasures and literacy is a right that millions died for. If we're rushing through reading, we're not doing ourselves any favors. If an author presumably spent at least a year putting the book together, is skimming really going to help us? Probably not. The best readers are slow readers because they know there's ROI in processing the information like it was meant.
4. Prioritize information capture: A book is only as good as what we're able to remember from it. There's the passive act of reading and then there's the actual process of learning from reading. The latter is always optimal. Whether it's in-margin note-taking, journal writing, or talking with peers in a book club, it's smart to test ourselves that we're working to comprehend what we're reading to the fullest.
5. Don't be afraid to quit: There is no good reason to stick with a book if we're not enjoying it. It's one thing if a book is a difficult read but continues to pique our interest or have a quality worth pursuing. But another is reading just for the sake of reading. Life is too short for that. Author Nassim Nicholas Taleb talks about the concept of an "antilibrary," where he says that a collection of unread books says more about a person than the stack that has been read. The larger the unread collection, the wiser the reader. The choice to move onto the next title should be an empowering one.

I hope you found this useful to starting or improving a reading habit. Tell me, which book are you looking to pick up next?

Until next week, have a wonderful day.