How to Get a Book Read (Revised)
Wednesday, October 11, 2017 at 22:15 In March this year I wrote a piece on how to get a book read. Although the technique mentioned there proved reasonably successful, I’ve since been using one which seems to work better for me.
It’s very simple. Imagine you have a pile of books. Starting from the top of the pile, look at the books in turn until you come to one which you feel like reading now. Read it for as long as you want to, then put the book in top place on the pile.
The next time you feel like doing some reading, repeat the procedure. If you feel like reading the book at the top of the pile again, read it. If you don’t, look at books in turn until you come to one you feel like reading now. As before, replace the book at the top of the pile.
What I find usually happens is that I latch on to one book that I select most times. That is of course until I finish it. Then another book will take over pole position.
This can be applied to many situations other than a pile of books. Books on a shelf rather than in a pile work just as well of course. And so do books on Kindle, which automatically shows the last book you read at the head of the list. You can use it for movies, whether a pile of DVDs or streaming videos on Amazon or Netflix. Try it for magazines, particularly if you have to read them for professional purposes.
The above suggestions are not comprehensive. Use your imagination to think of other uses of the technique. Restaurants, walks, types of exercise? What else?
Reader Comments (20)
Yes, well spotted. And so was the article I recently wrote about The Panic List. I nearly said they were ways of using AF2, but decided it would take too long to explain what AF2 was for those who didn't already know (i.e. just about everyone) and there wasn't much point in doing so anyway.
You certainly can do it that way if you want to. Personally though I might have twenty or more books I want to read and to put them all on the long list would simply clutter things up.
Interesting though and looking forward to using this.
As for me, I keep "the pile" as online todo list, because it physicall it could be kindle, paper book, pdf or other doc on PC which is not yet on kindle and just names of recommended books by someone.
As a list of todo is 200+ books, I also move the book closer to the top (-25% of positions) as soon as someone whom I respect recommend it.
This way, my main project and most important tasks get the chance to be hammered every time through the list until they're finished - very like a book at the top of Mark's pile.
When I take a break from a project, I don't have to read through the whole of the list before I can work on it again (and maybe get distracted by something fun but non-essential early in the list which I persuade myself is standing out). I start with the tasks that I have been doing most recently, which will usually be the most important ones.
I was just about to point that out myself!
http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2009/6/27/autofocus-2-time-management-system-af2.html?SSScrollPosition=114
<< should I just enter "Read book" in the list, and just follow the process described in this post? >>
That's how I do it, yes. Regardless of what system I'm using to process the main list.
Yoyorast: yes you could do this with anything. Well perhaps it won’t be effective with certain things but you will never know unless you try, right? Did you have anything in mind?
It also helps to keep very few folders, and most of my files now begin their life in ~/Downloads, even files I create myself unless they clearly belong in an already-established project folder. Most don't become important enough to file anywhere special, so they stay in Downloads and rot until I delete a bunch off the bottom. The few that I need to keep more organized are easily dragged to a project folder once it becomes clear that I'm going to care about them. I keep only a few folders full of projects: Working, Reference, and Archive. Each sorts its own project folders likewise by modified date, and the items within the folders too. I can't believe how much time I used to waste organizing these folders and files, wondering what categories made the most sense, etc.
I have filed items on a shelf in my office this way too, and I love it. I simply file *EVERY* item in the top-left position. Most of the time, I took the item from the top shelf anyway, so as I reinsert it, it shifts the others along to the right into its former spot. Occasionally, the item was not from the top shelf, so I need to move an item off the end onto the next shelf. There is usually room for it to squish in, but even more occasionally I might need to move an item off the end of the 2nd shelf, etc. When the bottom shelf fills up, I remove at least half of its items and figure out what to do with them. That has happened maybe a few times in several years. It helps to keep small or oddly shaped items in magazine bins, and I allow myself to tuck things into spare room in one of these bins liberally to avoid forcing other things off the end. If I had a lot more things, I might set up a few shelves with very broad categories.
This also works pretty well for Outlook Tasks for some of Mark's methods.
The only difference is I call it "Projects" instead of "Working". LOL