daz on Nostr: Reading Hacks and Tips. We’ve started a 26xbooks for 2024 reading book club. DM me ...

Reading Hacks and Tips.

We’ve started a 26xbooks for 2024 reading book club. DM me for the telegram group link if you want to join.

Below are my reading hacks and tips I shared with the group.

Tip #1. Use devices.
There’s nothing more I like than a physical book but being a book Luddite can be a major barrier to increasing your reading.

Kindle has a synch feature that allows you to catch up on any kindle app on any device (provided your kindle has internet access)

I use this to take advantage of any delay or spare 5mins that presents itself on any given day.

Doctors appointment, read instead of Twitter.

Waiting in the car while wifey fetches the bread and milk? Read instead of doom scrolling Facebook reels.

You will read much more if it is easy to do so.

Tip #2. Practice.

Much like meditation or anything else worth doing. Actively practicing reading can be beneficial.

Set a dedicated time aside, I would recommend avoiding bed time though. The end of the day is the worst. You are tired, reading will fatigue your eyes and you will not be attentive.
Wake up 20-30mins earlier and read over your coffee before everyone starts their day.

Getting in the habit of practicing to read will ensure you not only increase your reading, but you will get much better and much more effective.

Effective reading is just as important for your own self-drive. If you are good at something you enjoy doing it.

Reading can work just the same.

Tip #3 - Avoid distractions.

Ever feel like you’ve read the same page 3 times? That’s because you aren’t really present.

Tying in from point 2. As you practice and get better at reading you will experience this less. But good practice means avoiding distractions.

Don’t keep your phone in the same room as your book.
As you read a hundred different thoughts get sparked as you draw connections between thoughts. It will remind you of a million things you should have, would have, could have done. Ignore them.

NEVER look at your phone, it’s a sure fire way of losing 20mins of reading time checking your Twitter notifications.

Do yourself a favour and remove the temptation, a phone in another room is an effort. A phone sitting next to you on the armchair is picked up before you even realise your doing it.

I am majorly guilty of this one.

Speed reading:::

Speed reading is a major skill. In my opinion there are tradeoffs with some of them, but there is an immense amount of value in some of these and they are worth exploring.

Speed reading tip #1.
Read the synopsis and read (I mean really read) the table of contents.

Reading the synopsis and the table of contents sets the tone for what you are about to learn. It allows your brain to start connecting the neural paths to past thought patterns and knowledge and can help with comprehension and retention.

Some even advocate for skipping chapters that you are already familiar with, though I don’t practice this myself. But this can be a great tip for someone studying at university level for instance or something new you want to learn but have a good understanding of the subject matter.

Speed reading tip 2.

Let your fingers do the walking.

Use your finger to move along the page to keep track of where you are.

Over the entire course of a whole book a substantial amount of time can be lost rereading the same line, especially with tired and lazy eyes.

Use your finger to underscore and keep track of where you are. Most speed readers use this technique.

Speed reading tip #3.

Reduce the margins.

A large amount of time can be wasted by actively reading every single word. Many speed readers allow the periphery of your vision to pick up the words at the margin.
A physical book is best to practice, find the rough average position of the first word and last word of each line, draw a margin down and while using your finger to trace don’t allow your vision to look beyond the margin. The periphery should pick it up.

As you practice then draw your margins 2 words in, and finally 3 (or even 4 if you are really good)

Again practice makes perfect here.

Speed reading tip #4

Turn off the inner monologue.

Try not to read in your head. Easier said than done and this is something I personally struggle with, especially when it comes to comprehension and retention. But you will only be able to read as quick as you can verbalise the words unless you can learn to switch it off.

I am terrible at this which leads me to the final and what I think is the most powerful reading hack.

Reading and speed reading hack #5

Outsource your inner monologue.

Your inner voice will slow you down immensely.

For me, I find it hard to switch it off while maintaining a high degree of comprehension and retention.

This is where we can really leverage technology.

I first discovered this while reading a book on market trading. I purchased the kindle version and at checkout noticed I could add the audible version for $3 more.

I listened to the audio book while I read it. BUT…you can speed up the narrator. You can increase the speed of the audiobook to multiple times. Doing this alone can make it hard to follow but when you listen to it quickly but READ it at THE SAME TIME 🤯🤯🤯
I read this 300 page book in about 2.5hrs with extremely high retention and in one sitting.
It was the first time I can recall reading a whole book in one solid session. I felt like Neo getting the king fu upgrade.
WARNING! This can be very addictive.

The trouble though with audio books is that they are narrated and I found that I was limited in the speed I could achieve dependent on the narrator and how articulate they were.

So, use a bot.

I use Voice Dream which is a paid app. It accepts any text and book file format (which you can find online for just about any book worth reading) import it into the app and you are off. The best part is that these robot voices are very articulate allowing you to push the speed beyond what you thought you could do.

Practice. Like anything, you need to practice this. Start slow. Push yourself just beyond comprehension and then dial it back. Do this for a few weeks and then increase it again, and again and before too long you will be listening at beyond 500 words per minute (I sit around 550-600 depending on the book ) and devour books.

But I find I absolutely must read it while I listen.


Reading hack #6

Listen to whitenoise.

I first discovered this hack while studying engineering with a newborn baby boy. He was a terrible sleeper and we read somewhere to put on whitenoise to help calm him.

Well it also calmed dad.

I was in my first year of a 7year studying slog while working full time..

But I noticed that I could really focus while listening to the white noise.
It was even more apparent when I put it on with headphones, and many years later came noise cancelling headphones.

Listening to white noise allows all outside distractions to disappear and for you to become fully present in the moment of reading and learning.

It’s something I still do to this day. Especially on planes or when I’m at work in the office.

I do this when I am not listening to the audio books, or reading for pleasure, or absorbing content that does not easily translate into audio like technical manuals, charts, data, engineering subject matter etc.

Hopefully some of you find these tips useful.