How to Make Reading more Fun & Effective

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Why is reading boring?

Reading a book, especially a non-fiction book can be boring and difficult. The most common excuse: that there is no time left for reading in our schedule.

But in reality, it is not that difficult and certainly not impossible. One just has to take the first step to pick up a book of choice, reading certain number of pages or for reading for some time every day till it becomes a habit.

Why is reading a good idea?

Our lives today have become demanding, tough and busier than ever. We all want to be fit and healthy and many of us also train hard for it. But often we miss nourishing our brains. Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

We all agree and know that successful people read a lot and read consistently. But unless we add value to our lives by learning new things, we cannot grow. And if not for learning and being successful, reading helps in addressing the modern age problems like stress, anxiety, depression, dementia, building confidence, decision making ultimately better quality of life.

If it’s of any inspiration, Elon Musk used to read for 10 hours each day and Bill Gates reads one new book every week!

Reading committedly has its benefits but they are realized in sometime, not overnight. To be able to do so, one must find ways to make reading effective and fun. But how?

We are sharing how to go about this from Jessica’s experience and will also share some very helpful tips.

How did Jessica transformed her life through reading books?

Like many of us, Jessica was not keen on to reading books earlier. Later, with encouragement from her mentor and husband she found her way through books and it transformed her life!

In the beginning she started with books as one of the ways to get away from the mundane stuff in life, getting into an imaginary world. After some time, she started reading more non fictional books on self-improvement, leadership etc. You may not like reading a book initially, but by believing that the book can help and reading with discipline till it becomes a habit will help, says Jessica.

Here are her tips from episode 5 of our talk series for how to make reading more fun and effective:

1) Select books on topics that you need to improve or work upon in your life – We all want to improve & grow and for doing that we need to work on our weaknesses or shortcomings. Jessica wanted to be more social, have meaningful relationships but she was shy and introvert in college. Reading books on improving communication helped her greatly. Her favorite on this topic is How to How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie. 

2) Create a routine and discipline for reading – Having and following a routine for reading every day is very important. You can either start or end your day with reading. Alternatively, you can also make a commitment to read certain number of pages every day or a book every week.

3) Find people and places that can suggest you helpful books – Having friends, mentors who can suggest new books, encourage reading, share insights is a great support system. You can join reading clubs, subscribes to blogs, pages with information on relevant books or just google.

4)Do active reading – Rather than just scanning the words, think about the insights and meanings. You can highlight some parts, write down notes or use any other means to actively engage with the book.

5)Creating actionable takeaways on ideas you would like to adopt and improve upon – track your progress. Jessica always writes down key learnings in her journal, things that she plans to adopt or practice. She also goes back to her journals for reviewing her progress. She also suggests sometimes re-reading a book for some fresh insights and tips.

Reading Recommendation from Jessica:

• What to say when you talk to yourself by Shad Helmstetter

• Start with why by Simon Sinek

• Developing the leader within you by John Maxwell

• No limits by John Maxwell

• How to influence people and win friends by Dale Carnegie

***Combine these tips together – when you pair some or all of these together your benefits compound***