12 ms·

My process: - If I find the book is very daunting but also very valuable, I read it multiple times from start till end. First time without stopping for reading

My process: - If I find the book is very daunting but also very valuable, I read it multiple times from start till end. First time without stopping for reading references, then another pass for researching topics, references, etc. and then finally once more to read everything again with the newly acquired knowledge to find some things that I may have missed, things that I might have understood incorrectly and to improve retention. - I always keep notebook close by to note anything that comes to my mind. Some things are triggered by reading the book and some things are completely unrelated. I write them down so that they don't distract me from reading. - I have special place in my office where I put a book so that it is visible to me whatever I do. It serves as a constant reminder to get it finished. - When I was young I learned to speed read. When I grew up little more I unlearned. It impairs comprehension.

purplecats 6y ago
> I have special place in my office where I put a book so that it is visible to me whatever I do. It serves as a constant reminder to get it finished. Tangential but I do this with everything. I like very high levels of organization (blame my aspergers) and thus I found that my motivation to hide unnecessary things from view is pretty high. High enough that I place things in view as a reminder to get them done. An extra laptop on my desk -> I need to transfer the remaining files into my new laptop so that I can finally remove it from view. Book on my desk? Needs to be finished. Sticky note on my island? need to order groceries before I can remove it. I'd turned minimalism into a lifestyle/todo list. Same with the digital world.
- Denzhadanov 6y ago
  Great point. James Clear was talking about organizing an environment around us that would encourage certain behaviours.
brg 6y ago
One piece of advice I’ve found valuable is to write in books. On successive reference it has surprised me what I had thought first time through, and it doesn’t take me out of the book to make the note. It did take a while to get over the feeling of sacrilege of the book, but it has been useful.
- cgriswald 6y ago
  Let me first second (heh) your point about writing in books. In addition to it being a useful reference, it also aids me in the following two ways: First, I am far more likely to remember what I have written than what I read. So it's a great device for helping to cement the material in your mind. Second, it helps overcome a sort of inertia I have where if I'm not reading a book, there's a hurdle to picking it back up. If there's a note in the book sort of summarizing where I'm at, it not only removes that hurdle, but I have the subjective feeling that I'm back into it with a running start, rather than having to turn back a few pages to get back up to speed. > It did take a while to get over the feeling of sacrilege of the book, but it has been useful. I believe there's a section in Adler about this, and reading that passage was enough for me. I won't quote or paraphrase, because I'm not sure I'll represent their statements correctly, but I think that's the source of where I'm at with this now. And the change in my perspective was very rapid. My new perspective on this wasn't to see books as less sacred, but to understand that in order to honor that sacredness, I had to consume this book in a deeper, more meaningful way, and form a real relationship with the book in a way that's probably impossible without writing in the book. Not to be too cheesy, but there was also a bit of an "Aha!" moment for me watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. With regard to spoilers, the "half-blood prince" (HBP) had a real relationship with that book. It's positively scribbled in, and it made the book better presumably for HBP, but also for Potter who ends up possessing the book.

purplecats 6y ago

> I have special place in my office where I put a book so that it is visible to me whatever I do. It serves as a constant reminder to get it finished. Tangential but I do this with everything. I like very high levels of organization (blame my aspergers) and thus I found that my motivation to hide unnecessary things from view is pretty high. High enough that I place things in view as a reminder to get them done. An extra laptop on my desk -> I need to transfer the remaining files into my new laptop so that I can finally remove it from view. Book on my desk? Needs to be finished. Sticky note on my island? need to order groceries before I can remove it. I'd turned minimalism into a lifestyle/todo list. Same with the digital world.

Denzhadanov 6y ago
Great point. James Clear was talking about organizing an environment around us that would encourage certain behaviours.

brg 6y ago

One piece of advice I’ve found valuable is to write in books. On successive reference it has surprised me what I had thought first time through, and it doesn’t take me out of the book to make the note. It did take a while to get over the feeling of sacrilege of the book, but it has been useful.

cgriswald 6y ago
Let me first second (heh) your point about writing in books. In addition to it being a useful reference, it also aids me in the following two ways: First, I am far more likely to remember what I have written than what I read. So it's a great device for helping to cement the material in your mind. Second, it helps overcome a sort of inertia I have where if I'm not reading a book, there's a hurdle to picking it back up. If there's a note in the book sort of summarizing where I'm at, it not only removes that hurdle, but I have the subjective feeling that I'm back into it with a running start, rather than having to turn back a few pages to get back up to speed. > It did take a while to get over the feeling of sacrilege of the book, but it has been useful. I believe there's a section in Adler about this, and reading that passage was enough for me. I won't quote or paraphrase, because I'm not sure I'll represent their statements correctly, but I think that's the source of where I'm at with this now. And the change in my perspective was very rapid. My new perspective on this wasn't to see books as less sacred, but to understand that in order to honor that sacredness, I had to consume this book in a deeper, more meaningful way, and form a real relationship with the book in a way that's probably impossible without writing in the book. Not to be too cheesy, but there was also a bit of an "Aha!" moment for me watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. With regard to spoilers, the "half-blood prince" (HBP) had a real relationship with that book. It's positively scribbled in, and it made the book better presumably for HBP, but also for Potter who ends up possessing the book.