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Four Principles That Helped Me Go From 0 to 56 Read Books a Year

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Simple mindset shifts I see not many readers following.

Source: Canva

Each January, people pledge it will be the year they will read many books. Each December, the majority wonders why they didn’t.

In 2016, I was among the millions of people who said they’d read many books — but I didn’t read a single one. Yet, in the years that followed, I gradually transformed from a reading-muffle into a book-binger.

How I went from 0 to +50 read books a year. (Source: Screenshot from Goodreads).

Books are the cheapest but most impactful way to gain more skills, meaning, joy, and contentment in your life. For an average of $9, you can receive years of someone’s wisdom, distilled to some hundred pages that can be read in a few hours.

Reading 50 books a year is way easier than you might think. You don’t need to compromise on sleep, relationships, or work. In fact, you can even elevate these aspects by reading more.

Caveat: Reading is often treated as an intellectual status symbol. The more books you read, the smarter you are thought to be. It’s tempting to focus on reading as many books as possible - but it comes at the cost of depth and enjoyment. This article doesn’t encourage you to speed up your reading practice. Instead, it's an inspiration to read more (and yet slow, joyful, and thoroughly).

1) Break Up With Your Perceived Hierarchy of Books

If you’re reading this, you likely grew up with a very narrow definition of knowledge.

The existing paradigm, also prevalent in schools, is left-brain centred. Logic, reasoning, and quantification are more respected than creative expression, imagination, or emotions.

We rate knowledge sources based on this binary scheme. Many people would agree that reading for knowledge is the best reason to open a book.

Of the 102 books Bill Gates recommended over eight years, 90 were non-fiction. And from the 19 books Warren Buffett recommended in 2019, 100% were non-fiction.

But this knowledge hierarchy comes with limits. Social critic Minna Salami wrote: “The idea that calculable reasoning is the only worthy way to explain reality through is one of the most dangerous ideas ever proposed.”

Books don’t exist in hierarchies. Non-fiction isn’t superior to fiction.

Again, Salami: “We need an approach to knowledge that synthesizes the imaginative and rational, the quantifiable and immeasurable, the intellectual and the emotional. Without feeling, knowledge becomes stale.”

Luckily, there are books that can make you feel and know.

When you read Tara Westover’s memoir, you’ll feel how it’s like to grow up in a Mormon family in off-grit Idaho. Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest novel helps you understand what it was like to break free from social expectations in the 1940s.

Through stories, you elevate your levels of empathy for people outside of your cultural community. You learn not only to see the world from the perspective of others but also to share their feelings of pain, fear, and joy.

What to do:

Expand your definition of ‘knowledge’ and break up with the fiction versus non-fiction hierarchy.

Pick the book that sparks your interest, and forget whether this book will make you ‘smarter’ in a traditional sense.

“….a good book can teach you about the world and about yourself. You learn more than how to read better; you also learn more about life. You become wiser. Not just more knowledgeable — books that provide nothing but information can produce that result. But wiser, in the sense that you are more deeply aware of the great and enduring truths of human life.”

― Mortimer J. Adler, How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading

2) Read Books You Love Until You Can’t Stop Reading Because You’re In Love With Books You Read

The first book I picked up for my reading goal in 2016 was Kahneman’s ‘Thinking Fast and Slow.’ It was on top of any bestseller list, and my university professors praised it.

Yet, whenever I read a page, I fell asleep. Ultimately, I stopped opening it altogether. Kahneman’s pamphlet became my ultimate reading killer.

I was too proud to stop. I wish I could’ve told my younger self to stop forcing yourself through books you don’t enjoy.

If your goal is to read more, quit the books that slow you down.

You might have to quit several books before you open a book you can’t stop thinking about.

What to do:

Knowing what you want to read is essential, but so is its inversion — knowing what you don’t want to read.

You’re the only person who can judge whether what you’re reading is best for you now. Read the genres you cherish, the content you enjoy, and the authors you admire.

Don’t feel guilty to start with the ‘bad stuff.’ A few hundred books in, you will become a more critical reader and anyway gravitate towards the good stuff.

Better to waste 9$ than 4 hours of your lifetime. Books aren’t created equal — millions aren’t worth your time.

As a rule of thumb, remember the following: If you don’t look forward to continuing reading the book that’s on your shelf, skip it.

“Books are tangible objects of myriad textures — aged, hardback, hand stitched and so on. They are mentally stimulating, therapeutic, and they potentially transform your deepest thought patterns. They affect you entirely.”

— Minna Salami

3) Make your phone your reading-ally

Desired behaviour isn’t solely tied to your willpower. Self-control and self-discipline depend on your environment, as Nobel-prize winner Thaler discovered.

Phones hijack your self-control: The red notification badges, Apple introduced with its Mac OS X years ago; the pull-to-refresh slot machine mechanisms that we refresh in unconscious hope of a quick dopamine shot; the infinite scrolling design, that in Nir Eyal’s words, is “the interaction design’s answer to our penchant for endlessly searching for novelty.”

The average person spends over four hours a day on their device. If you spent half the time reading, with a reading speed of 250 words per minute and an average book length of 90,000 words, you’d finish more than two books a week.

When it comes to grabbing your attention, books can’t compete with phones.

The equation is simple: The less time you spend on your phone, the more you’ll read.

Tristan Harris said: “Once you start understanding that your mind can be scheduled into having little thoughts or little blocks of time that you didn’t choose, wouldn’t we want to use that understanding and protect against the way that that happens?”

What to do:

Disable all notifications. Use airplane mode whenever possible. When you start reading, put your phone in a different room.

Keeping your phone away from your bed is one of the hardest habits to break. But the work is worth it. I replaced my phone with an alarm clock and stopped taking my phone to the bed two years ago. In bed, I can either sleep or read.

This is what will give you plenty of time.

Make reading the obvious choice. Put your book on the pillow when you make your bed in the morning. Thereby, reading in bed becomes your default option. Not having to use willpower will set you up for a regular reading habit.

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”

— Naval Ravikant

4) Have an Antilibrary

Do you ever feel guilty about the book staple you haven’t read? You shouldn’t — unread books increase your motivation and capacity to learn.

When you just read a few books in your life, you’re likely aware of what you don’t know. But once you’ve read through some hundred books, you tend to become ignorant.

You might be too confident, too sure, and less aware of the things you don’t know. That’s where antilibraries come into play.

The books you haven’t read (and will never read) assemble your antilibrary.

They represent unknowledge and are the best cure for overconfidence.

“You will never read all those books,” friends say when they look at my want-to-read list. The list grows by 2–3 books every day. They are right. Even if I continue reading 1–2 books a week, I will only get through some of them.

But that’s the point: My antilibrary is a constant reminder of what I don’t know. It helps me stay curious and humble.

Psychologist Adam Grant writes: “No matter how much brainpower you have if you lack the motivation to change your mind, you’ll miss many occasions to think again.”

When you’re convinced you know something, learning something new means you have to change your mind. The best motivator to continue reading your book is a long list of books you want to read after finishing.

What to do:

Don’t ever feel discouraged by the books you haven’t read. Instead, see them as a reminder to be humble and curious.

Whenever somebody recommends a book (and you should ask the people that inspire you the most for their top 3 book recommendations), add it to your reading list (if you haven’t one, check out Google Keep, Wunderlist, ToDoist, or Goodreads and settle on your favourite list).

“Read books are far less valuable than unread ones.”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

In Conclusion

Reading is liberating. Freedom means choosing from a set of options. The more options you have, the freer you are. And that’s where reading kicks in. It helps you explore options you never knew existed.

No therapy session, university lecture, or coaching session has had a bigger impact on my life than reading books. Books change your life; they change the way you think in unimaginable ways.

While each of the above principles can change how you read in one way or the other, they only serve as inspiration, and you certainly don’t need to implement every single one.

Choose one or two you like, but screw the rest. Only one person should define your reading journey — you.

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

7 Powerful Habits that Help You Become a Learner for Life

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Because lifelong learning is the most valuable skill you can build.

Created by the author via Canva.

Have you ever wondered how some people keep reinventing themselves while others seem to be stuck?

“The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner. You have to know how to learn anything you want to learn,” Naval Ravikant said.

But learning is much more than gaining a competitive advantage and making more money.

Continuous learning helps you make sense of yourself in the world, find belonging, and transcend yourself to a new level. It’s the ultimate ticket to a fulfilled and meaningful life.

Unfortunately, most people think they’re done with learning when they finish school.

True learning starts after you finish school. It’s when you follow your curiosity and interest that the wonders of learning start to emerge. Each of the following seven habits can help you become a better learner.

1) Read Books that Make You Want to Read More

Reading is the most powerful habit of becoming a lifelong learner. Here’s why:

  • Books give you access to the brightest brains. You can pick the brains of the smartest people on earth.
  • Reading helps you find new questions and discover unknown unknowns.
  • Reading is liberating. Freedom means choosing from a set of options. The more options you have, the freer you are. Reading helps you explore options you never knew existed.

If I had to name a single learning habit that transformed my life, it’d be reading. Books made me wealthy, transformed my sex life, expanded my worldview, and improved the way I work.

Start with the books you truly enjoy. When you love what you read, you will ultimately love to read.

Bad books are hard to read, while good books almost read themselves. Life is too short for bad books. Read the genres you love, the content you deeply enjoy, from authors you admire.

Start books quickly but also quit them fast if you don’t enjoy reading. There are too many excellent books on this planet. Once you quit a mediocre one, you can read a great one.

In case you’re struggling to make reading a habit borrow James Clear’s 2-minute-rule. Instead of trying to read 30 books, aim to read one page before bed every night. Reduce this habit into a 2-minute first step.

“It’s not about “educated” vs “un-educated.” It’s about “likes to read” and “doesn’t like to read.”

— Naval Ravikant

2) Reframe Your Questions

When you ask closed questions, you get limited answers. It’s easy to make the world black and white.

Whether you ask a colleague for feedback to advance your career or have your role model’s undivided attention — open-ended questions will help you get the most of it.

Great questions are designed to determine what the other person knows — not to show what you know.

If you don’t understand your counterpart’s answer clarify with “What makes you say that?” or “Why do you think that?”

Here are some great questions you can ask:

  • If we had spoken to you 10 years ago, what different views of the world and yourself would you have had?
  • What were the best and most worthy investments (money, time, energy, or different resources?
  • What advice would you give to a young person starting in (subject area)? Would you advise to specialize early or late?
  • Don’t: Do you think I could’ve done this better?
    Do: What could I have done better?
  • Don’t: Do you have feedback for me?
    Do: What feedback do you have for me?
    Even better: What’s one thing I could do better in that meeting?

Once you get in the habit of asking great questions, you’ll find yourself on the fast track to better learning.

“To ask the right question is harder than to answer it.”

— Georg Cantor

3) Stick Through With What You Start

Did you know less than half of the books that are bought for Kindle aren’t even opened? Or that data from Harvard University and MIT revealed only two to four percent of people who join online courses complete them?

The feeling you get when spending money on learning is rewarding. Yet, when you don’t follow through, it’s a waste of money. You’re tricking yourself into the illusion of knowledge.

Yet, it’s not your willpower that determines whether you finish an online course.

When you pick a course, you want to evaluate whether the curriculum design will help you achieve your desired outcome. Here are features to look out for:

  • Offering real-time feedback on learning progress.
  • Having assignments that are directly linked to your desired skill.
  • Including structured access to a fellow community.
  • Evidence-based learning design, e.g., deploying spaced repetition features and using testing as a tool.

“Free education is abundant, all over the Internet. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce.”

— Naval Ravikant

4) Embrace Being Wrong

The enemy of learning is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge — the things you think you know.

When you’re convinced to know something, learning something new means you have to change your mind, people who don’t want to change their minds keep stuck in the same place. Overcoming our egos is one of the big learning challenges.

And the antidote? It’s your willingness to change your mind. To admit when you’re wrong. To ask questions instead of pretending to know.

Changing your opinion when presented with evidence or arguments is one of the most valuable skills you can have in the 21st century.

Well-known psychologist Adam Grant writes in ‘Think Again’: “Intelligence is traditionally viewed as the ability to think and learn. Yet in a turbulent world, there’s another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn.”

The best antidote to ignorance are so-called anti-libraries: a collection of unread books.

“You will never read all those books,” friends say when they look at my want-to-read list. They’re right. The list grows by two books every day. Even though I read two books a week, I will only read very few of the list.

But that’s the point. My antilibrary is a constant reminder of what I don’t know. It helps me stay curious and humble.

If you want to learn something new, you first need the humility to see what you don’t know.

“The purpose of learning isn’t to affirm our beliefs; it’s to evolve our beliefs.” — Adam Grant

5) Start a Group with Likeminded Learners

In ‘Peak,’ author Anders Ericsson shares an interesting story about one of America’s first brilliant minds: Benjamin Franklin.

At age 21, Franklin gathered the smart people in his city to form a mutual improvement club. Each Friday evening, the club’s members brought an interesting conversation topic. Once every three months, the members wrote essays on the topics they discussed.

Anders Ericsson writes about the benefits: “One purpose of the club was to encourage the members to engage with the intellectual topics of the day. By creating the club Franklin not only ensured himself regular access to some of the most interesting people in the city, but he was giving himself extra motivation (as if he needed any) to delve into these topics himself.”

But you don’t need to be Benjamin Franklin to start a learning circle. Reach out to people that share your learning goal or join an existing group. Such a mastermind group can be a genius way to increase commitment and keep motivated.

Through regular collaboration, you form a community. You network with like-minded people from across the globe. As you follow the same learning goal, these relationships can be very powerful.

6) Create Your Own Version of The Material

Mere content consumption doesn’t lead to more knowledge. Human brains don’t work like recording devices. The words on the pages don’t magically stick to our memory.

Yet, people often overestimate the benefits of consuming things but underestimate the advantage you get from making things.

The key to effective learning isn’t to consume more information at an accelerating pace. The key is staying with what you learned and connecting and applying it to your life.

The authors of ‘Make it Stick’ compare learning with writing an essay. In the beginning, the first draft is unorganized and feels messy. Only after some consolidation and editing, things start to make sense and feel coherent.

Similarly, learning is at least a three-step process: encoding of information in your short-term memory, consolidating knowledge in the long-term memory and retrieving information when it’s needed.

To make the most of what you consume, you want to become a creator of newsletters, podcasts, blog posts, videos, or other learning material.

In December 2019, my partner and I started a podcast for the pure joy of learning. We labeled it “Zusammen Wachsen” (German for “Growing Together”) and recorded one episode a week about a topic we’re curious about.

For the past 81 weeks, this has been our ultimate learning engine.

Likewise, writing is one of the rare professions that give you a ticket to lifelong learning. When you’re typing your first posts, you can answer these meta-learning questions: “How does this relate to my life? In which situation will I make use of this knowledge? How does it connect to other insights I have on the topic?”

You can’t rephrase anything in your words if you don’t get it. By creating your own version, you become an effective learner and make new information stick.

7) Pick a Job that Helps You Learn Every Day

A few years ago, I became obsessed with starting at a tier-one consulting firm.

I studied to ace my exams, spent weeks practicing case studies, and admired consultants from afar. When I finally sat in the interview, there was just one problem: I realized I’d never want to work there.

Whenever I share this story, I hear similar anecdotes. So many people climb up the ladder only to realize it’s been leaning against the wrong wall.

Many work environments kill your love for learning. If you can, pick a job that provides you with the freedom to follow your curiosity. Ultimately, your job isn’t about what you do but about who you become on the way.

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

6 Habits Worth Building to Improve as a Knowledge Worker

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Deliberate practice will help you advance in your career.

Photo by fauxels from Pexels

To get better runners run, writers write, musicians play. So all knowledge workers need to do is know?

Quite the opposite is true. The things you think you know — the illusion of knowledge — are the biggest enemies of improvement.

When you’re convinced to know something, learning something new means you have to change your mind. But people don’t want to change their minds; a principle psychologists call cognitive laziness.

“We laugh at people who still use Windows 95, yet we still cling to opinions that we formed in 1995,” Adam Grant writes in Think Again. “We favor the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt.”

But if knowing is counterproductive to improve as somebody who gets paid for thinking, what is it then that makes you better? The following habits can help you improve as a knowledge worker.

Work and think through writing.

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman wasn’t a writer. Yet, he wrote — a lot. In an interview about his journals, a reporter asked: “And so this represents the record of the day-to-day work.” But Feynman rejects: “I actually did the work on the paper.”

The reporter doesn’t believe Feynman: “Well, the work was done in your head, but the record of it is still here.” But Feynman says: “You have to work on paper, and this is the paper. OK?”

Many people still don’t get what Feynman tried to explain to the reporter: Writing is working because it facilitates thinking. When you write, you tie yourself to your train of thought.

You’ll also get more creative. Research shows the best ideas will arise once you flow into the writing process. So the more you create, the more creative you become.

Don’t know where or how to start? Block time-slots in your calendar, use a journal or empty document, and answer one of these prompts:

  • Which problem needs to be solved? What do you know about it?
  • What are you not seeing right now?
  • Which idea can’t you stop thinking about?

Build a personal knowledge management system.

A personal knowledge management system (PKM) helps you seek, consume, capture, connect, and apply whatever is kept in your head. Well-implemented it’s the career booster.

While most PKMs are kept private, some thinkfluencers learn in public. My favorite examples include Andy Matuschak’s working notes library, Maggie Appleton’s Digital Garden, or Luhmann’s digitized slip box.

Luhmann was living proof for an effective system. During his life, he wrote 70 books and 500 scholarly articles. He said this was only possible because of his Zettelkasten, the German word for slip box.

For the past years, I experimented with various note-taking systems — outlining, sketchnoting, mind-mapping, Notion workflows, and BulletJournals — before I finally settled on Zettelkasten.

I’ve been using the Zettelkasten with Roam for three months, and I can already see how it’s improving my reading and thinking.

A Zettelkasten can work as an idea-generation machine. You discover related ideas that you hadn’t thought of in the first place. As your notes grow, you will start seeing patterns. These patterns can serve as the basis of your original work.

On each slip are either literature notes (your synthesis of other people’s ideas) or permanent notes (your original thought).

Writing permanent notes is tough. You have to distill the quintessence from your thoughts. That’s why it’s also a great metric for tracking your progress as a knowledge worker.

Seek constructive feedback, always.

Feedback is the fuel for improvement but getting feedback is tricky. Most people don’t like to get direct feedback. Whenever you ask, “What can I do to improve,” you’ll likely receive a polite but fluffy “you’re doing so well, there’s nothing I can think of.”

Jane Park shared a great trick in Forge. Instead of asking people to criticize you, ask them about your shared goal: “Can you help me make this better for us?”

Use proven reading principles.

Do you ever finish a non-fiction book and worry whether reading is a time-waster? If you feel like a book can’t help you improve, it’s likely because you don’t know about crucial reading principles.

Reading non-fiction takes anywhere from six to nine hours — a significant time investment. These hours aren’t wasted if you read for entertainment.

But if you carve out the hours from a busy day to read books like Thinking Fast and Slow, you’re likely looking for something more than joyful reading time.

To make reading effective, you need to factor in the two components of learning and memory: the learned information itself and the so-called retrieval cue that helps you find the material you learned.

Here’s how you can do it.

  1. Elaborate. Use your own words to explain what you read and connect it to things you already know. After reading an interesting sentence, scribble your thoughts on the book’s page or your note-taking app.
  2. Retrieve. You learn something not only when you connect it to what you already know (step one) but when you try to access it. So after finishing a book, map out a summary from your memory.
  3. Space out self-testing. The more time has gone since you read a book, the more difficult it is to recall it. But by revisiting your summaries once in a while, you likelier remember what you read.

“What I know for sure is that reading opens you up. It exposes you and gives you access to anything your mind can hold.”

— Oprah Winfrey

Teach to learn.

You learned something new, but you struggle to explain it to other people? You likely don’t know what you think you know. Mortimer Adler said: “The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks.”

So the best self-test to check whether you genuinely understood something is to explain and teach it to others — your co-workers, your family, your friends.

Pick the topic you want to remember, pretend you explain the content to a 12-year old (as simply as you can). Identify where you struggle to explain and fill your knowledge gaps by rechecking the original source.

Self-reflect and learn from experience.

After workshops, podcasts, public talks, interviews, I take a piece of paper and draw to columns: what went well and even better if. Then, I fill them with everything that comes to my mind.

We don’t have to be visibly active to learn. Progress starts with self-awareness. If we aren’t aware of a problem, we can’t improve. Here are two questions worth answering by Julie Zhuo, a former Facebook VP:

  • When you remember your last success, what were the traits that enabled you to succeed?
  • What are the three most common pieces of advice from your team or boss on who you can improve?

The key to managing yourself is understanding your strengths and weaknesses. And a great way to do this is by reflecting — the active decision to think about your past.

Or, as researchers put it: “Reflection is the intentional attempt to synthesize, abstract, and articulate the key lessons taught by experience.”

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This is Exactly How Reading 197 Books Improved My Life

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Naval Ravikant: “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”

Picture by Author.

Do you ever open a book and worry whether reading can really change your life?

If you feel like reading is a time-waster, it’s likely because you haven’t reaped the rewards yet. As Naval Ravikant once said:

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”

You don’t see the desired results within weeks. If you stop too early, you’ll never get where you want.

But once you read for years rather than weeks, you see it’s the shortcut to get where you want without trial and error. You simply borrow the brains of the greatest minds and apply their nuggets of wisdom.

Through the 197 books I read, I learned from some of the best thinkers. Here are three specific ways reading has improved my life.

1.) Automating Your Path to Financial Freedom

Financial literacy is inherited. If your parents aren’t smart about money, you don’t learn the essential investing principles unless you read.

Books taught me wealth isn’t about how much you make. It’s about how much you save. Don’t save what is left after spending but spend what is left after saving.

Your paycheck won’t make you rich. Your investments will. Ramit Sethi uses 50–60% for Fixed costs (rent, utilities, debt), 10% for Investments (401(k), Roth IRA, ETF saving plans), 5–10% for saving goals (vacations, gifts, emergency fund) and 20–35% for guilt-free spending money (dining, drinking, movies, clothes).

Reading made me set up my investment plan. Right now, I invest 25% of my income. From my paycheck, 15% go to ETFs, 7% to cryptocurrencies, and 3% in lower-risk assets like bonds. On top of this, I sometimes cherry-pick stocks. But stock-picking is gambling. Here’s why.

Risk and return are interrelated. If you want to invest successfully, you can’t eliminate risk. The money market rewards investors with interest in the risks they take.

Smart investing isn’t about avoiding risks. Instead, it’s about diversifying your risks. But with stock-picking, you’re betting on a single company.

Here’s another insight that altered my path to financial freedom: You’re never going to get rich by renting out your time.

Wealthy people built systems that make money independent from time. They sell products with no marginal cost of replication — things like books, media, movies, and code. You can multiply your returns without working more.

As Nicolas Cole says:

“The way that people build true wealth for themselves is they see money differently than everyone else. They don’t see it as something they ‘have.’ They see it as something they deploy, and use to build and grow from there.”

2.) Cutting Workdays from 11 Hours to Five Hours

I used to work long hours. I worked hard to get what I felt was a success in life, including building my own companies next to a purposeful 9–5 job, my Master’s degree, a handsome fiancé, a specific amount of workouts and books per week, a number on the scale.

I was on an eternal quest for the next achievement. I never paused.

But one book after another, my life changed. Eckhart Tolle made me redefine success. John Strelecky revealed my life priorities. Brené Brown transformed my inner voice. Cal Newport helped me build deep work habits.

My workdays averaged 11 hours. Now, they‘re down to 5. The time spent is less. But my focus is higher. The equation for knowledge work is as follows:

High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus)

The more hours your work, the harder it is to focus. Working 11 hours a day with zero focus leads to zero high-quality work. That’s why there’s a diminishing return on input working hours. Putting in more hours can worsen your results. And your life’s quality.

I get up around six. After an hour of meditation, yoga, journaling, and whatever feels good, I write for about three hours. Then I read and add notes to my Roamkasten. At 11, I workout. Then, I take a long lunch break with my partner. Only after lunch, I turn on my phone.

My afternoons vary. I go for a walk with a friend. I take a bath. I have another deep work session for one of my clients, record an interview or volunteer for my NGO. But whatever I do, I make sure my phone and computer are switched off at 8 PM.

I still have workdays where I work too much. But whenever I do, I keep Glennon Doyle words in mind:

“Hard work is important. So are play and non-productivity. My worth is not tied to my productivity but to my existence.”

3.) Learning How to Learn Anything You Want

Learning is the only meta-skill you need to master because all other meta-skills depend on your ability to learn.

If you know how to learn, picking up philosophy or graphic design, or coding is so much easier. If you don’t, learning new skills is a daunting path.

In the first years of my reading journey, I ignored learning. Whenever a conversation revolved around a book I read, I could never remember much. I thought forgetting is my personal flow. But it isn’t.

Forgetting is essential for learning. Spaced repetition, one of the most effective learning strategies, allows some forgetting to occur between sessions. Thereby it strengthens the cues and routes for faster retrieval.

We learn something when we try to access it at different times (spacing) and in distinct contexts (variation). We learn when we connect existing knowledge to what’s in front of us (elaboration) and when we recall what we learned (retrieval).

Here’s how to remember anything you want from books:

  • Elaboration. Think while you read. Pause to make notes on how and when you could use this new insight. How does it relate to anything you already know? Write it down.
  • Retrieval. After you finish a book, think about what you want to remember. Recall from your mind what you want to stick with you. Write it down in your favorite tool — a journal, GoodReads, Notion, or RoamResearch.
  • Variation. Share what you learned with your friends. Talk about your insights in a mastermind group or use the Feynman technique and teach it to somebody else.
  • Spacing. Browse through your old book notes. Look at the title and test yourself on what you remember. This process feels slow and frustrating, but that’s how meaningful learning works.

When I first learned about the process, I fear it’s a time waste. But it isn’t. In Sönke Ahrens words:

“Not learning from what we read because we don’t take the time to elaborate on it is the real waste of time”

Final Remarks

I could go on indefinitely because reading has also improved my life on so many levels (10-day fasts, slow sex, nose-breathing, psychedelic experiences, etc.). But I’ll stop for now and leave you with one powerful thought.

Reading is liberating. Freedom means choosing from a set of options. The more options you have, the freer you are. But most people don’t know about all their options. And that’s where reading kicks in. It helps you explore options you never knew existed.

“One cannot apply what one knows in a practical manner if one does not know anything to apply.”

— Robert Sternberg

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How You Can Make Reading an Ongoing Habit

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We make reading more serious than it needs to be.

Image by izoca from Pixabay

When you look at human history, the fundamental human problems are the same in all ages. No matter what problem we face, odds are someone has faced it before and written about it.

Carl Sagan states in ‘The Persistence of Memory’:

“Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.”

Through books, we can learn from citizens of distant epochs. The solution to every problem lies in some a book. That’s why reading is the key to a successful and happy life.

Over the last years, I transformed from reading two books a year to reading at least one book a week. If I can do this, you can too. These tiny shifts can help make reading a habit for life.

1) Buy the books you really want to read.

When I started reading, I followed celebrities reading recommendations and best-seller lists. If Charlie Munger, Melinda Gates, or the New York Times recommend a book, it’s a must-read for me.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

These lists are not where you want to start your reading journey. As Arthur Schopenhauer wrote in his essay on reading and books: “People read always only the newest instead of the best of all times.”

We shouldn’t read the book everyone talks about. Because the best person to judge whether you should read a is neither a billionaire nor a newspaper — it’s you.

“Read what you love until you love to read.”

— Naval Ravikant

How to do it:

Start with what sparks your interest. A few hundred books in, you will anyway gravitate towards the good stuff.

Depending on where you are in life right now and whether you want to read for fun or learning, ask yourself:

  • What are you most curious about right now?
  • Which life area (health, wealth, relationships, work) do you want to advance?
  • What’s a problem in life you really want to see solved?

Find ten-books that potentially satisfy your needs. Search for keywords or experts within the niche. Go to a bookstore and ask for timeless recommendations.

Then, scan through the book’s table of content. Read a few pages and see whether the words resonate with you. Buy three books that attract you the most.

Oh, and if a book doesn’t promise to deliver on your questions, quit it. There are too many great books waiting for you. Choose wisely, then, read thoroughly.

2) Create your ultimate reading environment.

“If we do not create and control our environment, our environment creates and controls us,“ Dr. Marshall Goldsmith wrote about triggers.

Desired behavior isn’t tied to our willpower. Instead, self-control and self-discipline depend much more on our environment, Nobel-prize winner Thaler discovered.

I bet if we compare a person who takes their phone to the bedroom with a person who doesn’t, the latter will almost always read more.

Resisting social media’s mechanisms is incredibly hard. You don’t want to be nudged to use your phone first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening.

Instead, you want to design your environment to make it work for you. As James Clear put it:

“You don’t have to be the victim of your environment. You can also be the architect of it.”

How to do it:

Keeping your phone away from your bed is one of the hardest habits to break. But the work is worth it.

I replaced my phone with an alarm clock and stopped taking my phone to the bed two years ago. Best-decision ever. In bed, I can either sleep or read.

As soon as you charge your phone outside of your bedroom, you have more time during the evenings and the mornings. Instead of newsfeeds, your environment invites you to read.

The less time you spend on your phone, the more you’ll read.

What also helped me is making reading obvious. I put my book on the pillow when I make my bed in the morning. Thereby, reading in bed becomes the default option. Not having to use willpower will set you up for a reading habit for life.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

3) Don’t eat the same dish for breakfast and dinner.

You don’t want to eat the same dish for breakfast and breakfast. Why would you read the same book in the morning and the evening?

Many people try to force themselves through a specific book at a specific time. Reading becomes joyless. Ultimately, they stop reading altogether.

Don’t feel like reading before you go to sleep? Chances are high it’s the wrong book on your bed table.

By reading different books simultaneously, you can take a break from whatever title you don’t want to read at that time. Books are patient. They’ll wait for you until you feel like picking them up again.

“Everyone I know is stuck on some book. I’m sure you’re stuck on some book right now. It’s page 332, you can’t go on any further but you know you should finish the book, so what do you do? You give up reading books for a while.”

— Naval Ravikant

Plus, reading different books at the same time can reveal unexpected connections between seemingly unrelated titles. As James Clear says: “The most useful insights are often found at the intersection of ideas.“

How to do it:

Start a new book before you finished the one you’re reading. Place your books in locations that remind you to read them at the right time.

Right now, I’m reading 12 books. In the morning, before journaling, I often read a page of ‘Meditations.’ The physical book is right next to my journal. I’ll dive into ‘How to Take Smart Notes’ right after writing to level up my reading practice. That’s why my Kindle is on my desk. ‘Leaders Eat Last’ lingers on my shelf since last May, but I’ll give it a second chance before I quit it. Before sleep, I want to dive into a new world, and I do this with a historical novel.

Don’t force yourself through a content-dense book before you start a new one. This slows down your reading practice and takes away any joy. Having different books for different situations will change the way you look at books.

4) Apply new knowledge to improve your life.

Reading lets, you borrow smart people’s brains. Yet, reading per se doesn’t make you a better person. You can read a book a week without changing at all.

If you only read but never act upon your new knowledge, reading can feel like a time-waster. Ratna Kusner said:

“Knowledge trapped in books neatly stacked is meaningless and powerless until applied for betterment of life.”

It’s about what and how you read that will improve your life’s quality and enhance your mind.

Social climber Dale Carnegie used to say knowledge isn’t power until it’s applied. And to apply what you read, you must take your reading game to the next level.

How to do it:

If you stumble upon useful advice in a book, act immediately. Put an item on your to-do list or place an action item on a specific spot.

By forming action items from your books, you’ll make the most out of any book. You’ll be able to apply knowledge from books to your life.

Don’t intend to read a specific number of books per year. Instead, take your time with the books that can transform your life. Reread them and act upon new knowledge.

When you witness how reading improves the way you go through life, you’ll gladly make reading a habit for life.

Final Thoughts

No matter who you are or what you do, reading can help you achieve your goals. But most of the time, we make reading more serious than it needs to be. Sometimes, tiny shifts can change the way we read.

  • Read the books you can’t stop thinking about.
  • In the bedroom, replace your phone with a book.
  • Be okay with reading different books at the same time.
  • Apply what you read to your life.

While each of these points can change how you read in one way or the other, they only serve as inspiration, and you certainly don’t need to implement every single one.

Choose one or two you like, but screw the rest. Only one person should define your reading journey — you.

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How Social Media Captivates Your Mind

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Have you ever wondered how much lifetime you spend on social media?

According to this meta-analysis, it’s around two hours every day. And while you might think two hours a day is reasonable, the time adds up. By the age of 50, you’ll have spent more than 4 entire years on LinkedIn, TikTok, Snapchat, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any social invention of the future.

“If you are not paying for the product, you are the product,” Jaron Lanier, a computer philosophy writer, said in a social media docudrama. In 2017, I co-founded a company against screen addiction and spent weeks researching addictive technology, persuasive design, and hooking mechanisms. And yet, Lanier’s words made me pause.

In our so-called attention economy, businesses make money by developing technology that attracts and retains attention for as long as possible. The more attention a social media platform can get from you, the more attractive its advertising space becomes, and the more it can charge its advertisers. We feel the platform is free to use, while we pay with our life’s limited attention.

This article is not going to teach you how to spend less time on your phone. Instead, it shows you the most common hooking mechanisms. Knowing them will help you identify platforms that use you as a product.

1) Red Notification Badges Alert Your Senses

20 years ago, Apple introduced with its Mac OS X the first version of the red notification badge — tiny, red, rounded, with numbers inside. Today, the red icon is almost everywhere. There are red dots next to the apps on your home screen and the horizontal toolbar of almost any social media platform.

When you see the red notification badge, you know there’s something you need to check: new activities, messages you need to reply to, people liking or commenting on your pictures, people who mentioned you, people that started following you, contact requests, or important announcements.

And the surprise factor behind the notification number makes these tiny red notification badges so powerful. You investigate because they could mean anything: a career-boosting email from your boss, a reminder for your hair dresser’s appointment today; a message from your crush; or a family member checking in with you.

This psychological strategy tells you that there’s information you want to know but requires you to click through to the site to find out more.

“Red is a trigger color,” design ethicist Tristan Harris said in an interview with the Guardian. “That’s why it is used as an alarm signal.” When you see such a badge, you need to click on it. It’s a visual form of screaming, shouting something like “hey, click on me; I’m important, you’re important.”

“I’ve met dots that existed only to inform me of the existence of other dots, new dots, dots with almost no meaning at all.”

— John Herrman in the New York Times

2) Pull-to-Refresh Works Like A Slot Machine

B.F. Skinner, a behavioral psychologist, experimented with mice on incentives and rewards in the 1950s. What he found led to a mechanism all social media platforms use: the intermittent variable reward.

Skinner discovered mice respond compulsively to random rewards. The mice would press a lever and sometimes got a small treat, other times a large treat, and other times nothing at all. Unlike the mice that received the same treat every time, the mice that received variable rewards pressed the lever compulsively.

Just like lab mice in Skinner’s box, we respond most voraciously to random rewards.

We crave predictability and struggle to find patterns, even when none exist. And that’s why we continue to pull-to-refresh. We don’t know when we’ll be rewarded. Most of the time, we won’t find anything noteworthy. But just like with gambling, we continue to refresh in the hope of a quick dopamine shot.

“You pull a lever and immediately receive either an enticing reward (a match, a prize!) or nothing.”

— Tristan Harris in one of his essays

3) There’s No End to Infinite Scrolling Design

As we’ve established, nothing holds our attention better than the unknown. And that’s why often find ourselves subconsciously scrolling through social media apps for entire hours. Translating scrolling time into scrolling distance, this report shows we scroll for more than 200 meters per day.

According to Nir Eyal, the author of two best-selling books on persuasive design, wrote in Psychology Today, “The infinite scroll is interaction design’s answer to our penchant for endlessly searching for novelty.”

One finger flick away, we continue searching in the uncertainty of what’s next. Using platforms that deploy infinite scrolls can feel like solving a mystery, looking for a final puzzle piece. And during the aimless search, we give away much of our lifetime.

“Time worth 200,000 human lifetimes are wasted on a daily basis due to our act of infinite scrolling.”

— Aza Raskin, creator of the infinite scroll in an interview

4) Push Notifications Recapture Your Attention

If you’ve watched the Social Dilemma of Netflix, you might remember the following scene: two friends talk to each other in a cafeteria. Then, one gets a notification and checks in with his phone. Shortly after, both friends stare at their screens and disengage with the physical world around them.

“If you disengage, you get peppered with little messages or bonus offers to get your attention and pull you back in.”

— Natasha Schüll, author of Addiction by Design.

Push notifications remind you to go back to a social platform. Something ‘exciting’ happened, something you shouldn’t miss. A friend posted a photo or tagged you in a story. You can’t help yourself but see it.

“The vast majority of push notifications are just distractions that pull us out of the moment,” Justin Rosenstein, the co-creator of the like button, said in an interview with Vice. “They get us hooked on pulling our phones out and getting lost in a quick hit of information that could wait for later, or doesn’t matter at all.”

For you, push notifications are disturbing. For the platforms using them, they’re a great tool. According to a report from analytics company Urban Airship, sending out weekly notifications doubles the app-retention on mobile operating systems.

5) Algorithmic Filtering Monetizes Your Mood

Have you ever wondered why you spend more time on your newsfeed than you intended to? Algorithmic filtering is the answer. Platforms like Facebook developed machine learning algorithms that study your behavior on the platform.

So-called ‘Text mining’ enables social media platforms to analyze your emotions. It’s common practice to record what you like and record how long you hover over a certain post. In this way, platforms do not only know what you’re interested in but also what mood you are in.

This 2019 study from two German Universities concluded Facebook has a great interest in studying your behavior as detailed as possible. At best, you only see interesting information in your ‘Newsfeed.’ Filtering information to maximize your engagement stops you from leaving the app.

6) Social Validation Makes You Want To Stay

One of the most prominent features of social reward mechanisms is the iconic ‘thumbs up.’ According to this 2019 study, a ‘like’ demonstrates positive social feedback on one’s own post or gives another person such feedback.

A group of neuroscientists investigated our brain’s responses to social validation. Instagram users were confronted with their own posted pictures. These pictures were manipulated by being presented either with many or few ‘Likes.’ When the participants saw more likes on their pictures, their brains showed greater activity in neural regions for reward processing, social cognition, and imitation. And that’s why we keep posting our pictures.

“We were not evolved to get social approval being dosed upon us every 5 minutes.”

— Chamath Palihapitiya, former Facebook Executive

With each tweet and post, we wonder how much social validation we’ll receive. This goes as far as quantifying our social influences with tools like Klout. And above all, it means we adapt our public behavior on the platforms to receive the maximum amount of recognition.

Final Thoughts

Persuasive design and addictive technology will continue to exist. There will always be tools competing for your attention. Yet, knowing the key mechanisms behind social media platforms can help you identify software that takes away your time. Watch out for:

  1. Notification Badges
  2. Pull-to-Refresh Triggers
  3. Infinite Scrolling
  4. Push Notifications
  5. Algorithmic Filtering
  6. Social Validation Cues

And whatever you do, charge your phone outside of your bedroom and keep Tristan Harris words in mind:

“Once you start understanding that your mind can be scheduled into having little thoughts or little blocks of time that you didn’t choose, wouldn’t we want to use that understanding and protect against the way that that happens?”

If You Only Build a Few Habits in 2022, Build These

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If you want to be your best self, here’s what you need to do.

Foto von Wallace Chuck von Pexels

How many new habits have you built this year?

Most people will answer this question with zero.

Because the majority stops learning once they leave formal education. They stick to outdated beliefs and trot along on their known life path.

And meanwhile, they complain. A lot.

They grumble about their lives. About working in jobs they don’t want, surrounded by people they don’t admire.

These people are so focused on their misery, and they forget one important truth: everybody can change.

We all deserve to live happy, healthy, and wealthy lives.

It’s in our hands whether we dare to step outside our known patterns and try something new. If you only build a few habits in 2020, build these.

1. Read One Book a Week

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all the time — none, zero. You’d be amazed at how much Warren reads — and at how much I read.”

— Charlie Munger (Warren Buffett’s Business Partner)

Most people stop reading books once they leave high school. They might still read a lot. But text messages, e-mails, and news won’t make you wiser.

There’s a reason why Bill Gates, the second richest man in the world, took entire “think weeks” while being Microsoft’s CEO. He would travel to a small cabin and spend one week there alone, reading and thinking.

Books give you access to the smartest people on our planet. You can borrow the brains from ancient philosophers to modern business leaders. And, you can apply a book’s insights to your life.

Most of us can’t afford the luxury of disconnecting from life for an entire think week. But we can integrate reading into our everyday life.

I read one book a week for almost three years now, and it has changed my life for the better. And so can reading improve your existence.

Read one book a week, and you’ll find yourself on the fast track to a happier, healthier, and wealthier life.

2. Spend Less Than 1 Hour a Day On Your Phone

“Technology is a great servant, but a terrible master.”

— Stephen Covey

Most people forget how to protect their time. They give away junks of their lives to social media and entertainment apps.

They are constantly reacting to what’s happening around them and let other people dictate their days. By following the agenda of others, they’ll never live up to their potential.

To become successful, you want to do things unsuccessful people don’t do. By bringing the time you spend on your phone down to less than one hour, you’ll be doing what 99% of people are not doing.

Spending less than one hour on your phone will drastically improve your life. You’ll be reclaiming your time and taking control of your life.

If I had to choose one habit to build, it’d be this one. You’ll have so much of your life back.

In your newly won free time, you can create any other new habit you want to bring to your life — from building meaningful relationships to accelerating your career path.

Decreasing your screen time is hard, I know. But if I, a former Instagram addict, can do it, you can make this shift too.

3. Say Please and Thank You

“Gratitude turns what we have into enough.”

— Melody Beattie

This one is tiny, yet so powerful. Brené Brown wrote in her book on vulnerability that scarcity is our culture’s version of post-traumatic stress.

Most people live in constant fear of not being or not having enough. They feel they’re unworthy and unconnected. They wander around in continuous anxiety.

They wake up and think about what’s lacking: sleep, time, money. Scarcity seems to be hardwired in our culture’s DNA.

It’s up to us whether we let scarcity ruin our days. To embrace the richness of life, we need to internalize the concept of gratitude.

The good thing is we don’t need to visualize gratitude to become a grateful person. All it takes is saying please and thank you.

By paying attention to small incidents in life, you’ll, step by step, bring more gratitude into your life.

4. Learn to Touch-Type

“Typing faster will change your life.” 
 — Niklas Göke

Even if you aren’t a writer, you’re a typer. You send e-mails and type search queries on a daily basis. And even though most people spend several hours a day in front of their computers, they work at a snail pace.

They waste hours of their lives because they navigate around their keyboard using three fingers, instead of all ten. And, most of the time ⌘+C/V is the only shortcut they know.

You might question whether such tiny actions will make a difference in your life. I promise they will.

You’ll bring a 3-second action down to a 1-second action. And because you repeat those actions hundreds of times each day, you’ll save hours a day.

Yes, learning touch typing will at first slow you down. But ultimately, you’ll get your time back. By learning to touch type, you’ll save hours a day. You’ll 10X your productivity while clearing up space for your free time.

I type 107 words per minute — can you beat me?

5. Reveal Your Vulnerable Side

Perfectionism is an illness of our society. And it’s terribly dull. In her book about imperfection Brené Brown, pinned down the core of perfectionism.

Reading the following lines, I felt she was talking right to my heart:

“Perfectionism is a defensive move. It’s the belief that if we do things perfectly and look perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgment, and shame. Perfectionism is a twenty-ton shield that we lug around, thinking it will protect us, when in fact it’s the thing that’s really preventing us from being seen.”

“Perfectionism is not self-improvement. Perfectionism is, at its core, about trying to earn approval.”

“Most perfectionists grew up being praised for achievement and performance (grades, manners, rule following, people pleasing, appearance, sports). Somewhere along the way, they adopted this dangerous and debilitating belief system: I am what I accomplish and how well I accomplish it. Please. Perform. Perfect.”

“Perfectionism is not the key to success. In fact, research shows that perfectionism hampers achievement.”

So let’s practice to share what we’re struggling with. Meaningful connections in relationships can only foster when you’re true to each other.

Let’s dare to be vulnerable. Yes, daring to be seen is risky, I know. We expose ourselves to external judgment. Yet, we can only experience the beauty and richness of life if we show up with all we got and let ourselves be seen.

6. Learn to Say No

“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”

— Warren Buffett

We all know focus leads to greater success. Yet, most people dilute their focus by saying yes when they should be saying no.

Whether we are driven by the fear of missing out or by the urge of pleasing others, saying yes too often weakens our personality.

Because the more often you say yes, the weaker your yes becomes. If you have 10 nuggets a day and say yes to 10 different things, you can give each thing one of your nuggets. If you only say yes to one thing, you can give it all of your have.

Nuggets are your time and energy. You only have a limited amount. And saying no is a skill you can learn, a habit you can build.

When delivered with respectfulness and tact, a “no” can be a fast track to a focused, better life.

7. Build Resilience

“Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”

— Nelson Mandela

2020 is a great year to practice resilience. With a global pandemic, we continue to have plenty of change in our lives.

Resilience is not about who we are, but about what we think. By using cognitive restructuring, we can reframe our thoughts about reality.

Resilience is not a fixed personality trait — as with most things in life, you can learn it through deliberate practice.

By training your mind to embrace the changes in life, you develop your muscle for overcoming obstacles. So let’s learn to persist in the face of struggle.

Pick What Resonates

You can live the life of your dreams.

And you’re capable of achieving a lot more than you think. By building these new habits, you can move one step closer to your best self.

All you need is to start with something.

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