As you may have seen in previous year-in-reviews, I’ve been on a lifelong quest to read more because I think it’s one of the most efficient ways to acquire knowledge. Unfortunately, in the modern age it’s hasn’t been so easy. When I was growing up, it was mainly TV, then the early internet, and now it’s social media and all those addictive algorithmically optimized apps. At the same time, I’ve started a family and have a more demanding career so I simply have a lot less time to read (I’m talking minutes at a time, not hours anymore). Given all of these constraints, here’s what I’m currently doing, which I feel is a pretty productive workflow for me:
- Physical books are out, mobile devices are in: It took me a long time to embrace reading on a device, but it’s the one thing I have with me all the time. And the only way I can read now is sneaking in reading 15-30 mins at a time, so availability is key. Perfect is the enemy of good as they say.
- Reduce distractions on the mobile device: I’ve turned off most notifications (and all sound related ones) for a while now, and additionally I’ve installed the Opal app to set more precise screen time rules. Generally my rules are no “junk media” (e.g. social media, Hacker News, Reddit etc.) in the morning and before bed, and limit 30 mins on social media and 30 mins on games (mostly Go). I still allow YouTube, Netflix etc. anytime because I count them as long form video, which usually is not as much in contention with my reading time. The one danger here is that up until now I’ve been staying away from YouTube shorts (e.g. Tiktok) content but have recently been watching more as I’ve needed more distractions in the middle of the night while tending to a newborn. Going to try to cut this as soon as possible, shorts are just way too addictive.
- Buy e-books without hesitation: Generally, I’ve been pretty liberal with buying physical books because it’s usually worth it. However, I’ve been more stingy with e-books because I hadn’t fully embraced reading on a device. But now that I’m all-in on device reading, I basically will just immediately buy e-books if there’s a slight hint that I might find it interesting. If I really like the book, I’ll also buy a physical copy (for that warm fuzzy feeling). I’m at a place financially where I can indulge in this area, and I’m happy to pay more money if it helps me learn. I almost exclusively use the Kindle app, which I don’t have any complaints about, and buy everything from Amazon simply for the convenience.
- Read many books at once: I’ve kicked the habit of just reading one book at a time. The way I see it, it’s just like watching TV or YouTube, you don’t often just watch a single show or channel at a time. Sure, occasionally you might find something you want to binge, but most of the time the mind wanders, gets bored, and you need a break to regain that excitement you get from watching something for the first time. It’s the same with books: I often find I can easily blaze multiple chapters but slow down as the novelty effect wears off. Give it a few days to a couple of weeks though and that feeling of excitement is restored. This process also gives me more time to digest the material. Although I’d like to be the kind of person who can have a singular focus to read one thing non-stop, I’ve reflected enough to know that that’s not me. Better to work with my monkey brain than against it.
- Taking notes: I mentioned it before but I find it’s incredibly important to take notes while reading. It helps me digest and absorb the content better. As per this excellent methodology for learning something well, I mainly highlight key passages I find important, and then try to summarize it in my own words. The Kindle app has a good way to do it where I highlight a span of text and then attach a note to it. It’s a bit clunky on my phone but good enough is better than nothing at all.
- Reviewing notes: Up until recently, I’ve had a bunch of highlights that I’ve accumulated but didn’t do anything with afterwards (because I almost never go back to look at them). That’s changed though with the Readwise app where it sends a daily digest of highlights/notes that I read through every morning. It can easily import all your highlights from Kindle or any other numerous sources. I’m not serious about trying to study them, but it’s nice to review important ideas I’ve highlighted in the past periodically. Now that I have this review, I’ve found myself highlighting multiple paragraphs so that I’ll have the context when reading later. This is one of the nice benefits of a digital format where you don’t have the friction of having to physically highlight a lot of text.
- Send all other content to a reader app: Coincidentally, Readwise has recently launched a Reader app. I know there are others but since it comes with a Readwise subscription (in fact, the reason I signed up is because of the Reader app), I’ve found it perfect for my use-case. I can automatically forward all my email newsletters to the associated Reader email address so they show up in one list. For other media like web articles or PDFs, I can just send it to the Reader app from my mobile browser. The actual app has some nice features like auto AI generated summaries at the top, taking notes, converting PDF to text for mobile-friendly reading (which is decent enough), and asking AI about an article. The thing I like about it the most is that I have a one-stop-shop for all the things that I want to read (minus books). This allows me to pick and choose what to read based on my mood. Again, this is playing off my tendency to crave novelty, and the more I have conveniently located in one place, the more likely I’m going to find something that suits my mood. At the same time, having a dedicated app allows me to get into a deeper reading state vs. the web browser, and along with the PDF-to-text feature, I’ve probably deeply read more of these media types in the last month than I have in the last year. Having a single interface with these features also allows me to choose how fast I want to read it (e.g. fast skimming, AI summaries, or slow absorption). It’s a big win for me all around.
- AI for Directed Learning: As I mentioned in my latest year-in-review, I’ve been very impressed with how accessible LLMs have made knowledge. I’m now very regularly using them to ask questions about everything. Recent examples include the biological process of a prescription drug I’m on, detailed questions about government programs, and tips for dealing newborns to name a few. The nice thing is that I can chat back and forth with it to really drill down to a satisfactory answer, which is, well, satisfying versus a static wiki page. I’m mainly using ChatGPT out of habit since that’s the first one I signed up for, but I’m pretty sure other frontier ones are just as good. The other feature that I’m loving is OpenAI’s Deep Research mode, which can write a report up on random specific topics I have. It’s included in the $200/month plan but I’m sure that price will come down (or it’ll get better), and I’m happy to pay if it can actually improve my knowledge. I’ve found that it basically can generate a Wikipedia-level article on whatever topic I want. It’ll scour the web, and put together a coherent report (that’s a bit wordy). I then take this report and email it to my Reader email address to get it into my app. The only downside is that it’s only available on desktop right now, so I have to generate the answer and then manually copy and paste into an email. I’m really seeing a lot of value from AI to help me acquire knowledge and I feel like I’m mostly just limited by my curiosity (and time).
So that’s my basic reading workflow right now. The most recent changes have all happened in the last few months, which include my current paternity leave, so we’ll see how well they work when I’m back to work full-time (with two young kids at home). But as an example of how well it’s working: the Reader and Kindle app were 3rd and 6th most used app from last week. The other spots were all taken by video (YouTube #1, Apple TV #2, Netflix #5) or the browser (#4). The video apps are a bit anomalous because I’m at home mostly holding the baby so I spend a lot more time watching videos right now, but I’m amazed how high reading apps are on the list! I’m continually trying to improve my setup so if you have some ideas, feel free to drop me an email, I’d love to hear if you’ve found something that works for you.