Consuming less is more

Something that has become popularized over the last few years, oddly, is reading books.

People have become information junkies and many of the intelligent and disciplined information junkies have adopted rigorous reading practices.

I see this as being highly beneficial, but there's one thing that many of these readers are doing that I feel could be improved:

The common notion is "how many books do you read per year?"

I hear people talking like this all the time... In terms of how many books they read per week or per year and how they read oh so many pages today!

Fantastic. It's great that you're reading a lot. That takes A LOT of discipline.

I (and I know of many other high-level performers who do this) find it more beneficial to read slower.

I find it more beneficial to keep a notebook or keep an evernote tab open while I read and when I read a sentence or paragraph or chapter that I really resonate with, I put the book down and I go to my Evernote note and I write about it.

I basically rewrite the idea in my own words (sometimes I quote the author and paste it in my notes, the benefit of reading on the cloud!) and then below it I write my thoughts about that idea...

It's pretty simple.

I've found the impact to be extremely profound.. Many people don't realize just how profound it can be to read slower and REALLY digest an idea before moving on to the next.

Yes, it's going to take a lot longer to read books... but what are you in a rush for? The books aren't going anywhere...

Learning 1 thing deeply is more valuable than learning 100 things at the surface level.