How to Create a Reading System of Numerous Books Effortlessly?

Note: This article is based on a blog by a blogger named "Bruno," in which he talks about his personal experience in creating a book reading system.

Let me tell you first that CEOs read about forty books annually, whereas the average person reads less than ten books yearly. The income gap between the two is more than 400 times, but you can read as CEOs do with no problems. I initially didn't think it was possible, but after finishing 47 books in a year, I was sure about it.

You may already know this information but want to know how to apply it, so let's learn it firsthand.

Create a system for reading the book

Let's assume you decide it's time to take action because you know it will improve your life. The first day will go great, and the second day is okay, but on the third day, you will completely abandon it, and on the seventh, you may completely forget what you wanted to do.

Does this apply to you or anyone you know? Because we all function this way, it is only natural we rely on our quickly depleted will and immediately give up. Because relying solely on our willpower will not help us, we must establish specific systems that will cause them to pay more attention to the system than themselves or their own willpower.

Here's an example:

Imagine that you have a job. You have to get up at seven in the morning to go to work. You hate and even detest your work, but you still work because you must.

Imagine that you started your own business and must get up at seven in the morning to begin working but detest doing so. As a result, you turn off the alarm and go to sleep. You still have to get up early, but your business will still be around even if you wake up at nine, so you put off getting up.

To change this, you need a system. A simple system consists of three things:

• Simple day job.
• Tracking.
• Measurement.

You only need these three things to create any system, and here are the details for each of these elements:

1. Simple daily work

The Greek philosopher Aristotle says: "We are the essence of what we do repeatedly, so excellence is not work, but a habit."

The basis for establishing an effective system must be a procedure you practice every day, and we will take reading books as an example here. The goal of performing daily work is to turn work into a habit, and knowing that routines require repetition is not about getting a lot of work done in a short period but rather about doing a small amount of work, constantly and continuously, so the procedure must be smooth.

If you have to read for five hours a day, you won't even begin, but if you only read for thirty minutes each day, you won't even notice the time passing; instead, you'll find it smoother and gradually increase your reading time until eventually, it becomes part of your personality and something you do without thinking.

 

2. Tracking

Author Peter Drucker says: "What can be tracked can be implemented." The system should be easy to track. I constantly see people who make their strategies very complex and challenging to track who did not stick to them again after they created them, but when you follow what you do, you ensure that you are on the right track. You know how much work you did when you did it, how much it affected you, how much time you took, and so on.

So, we all love video games. We know when we have made progress because we see a tape that records our progress or that we have risen to a higher level, and companies have already begun to take advantage of this, so why not apply it to yourself?

3. Measurement

“What can be measured can be improved,” says Canadian writer Robin Sharma.

There are three ways to measure the process of reading books, and here are the questions you can ask:

• How many pages do I read per day?
• How many minutes a day do I spend reading books?
• Have I tried my best to read books today?

The first question measures the number of pages you read. I follow this when I read my books. I read at least 20 pages daily, while the second question counts the number of minutes you read daily. Keep this number low, between 30-60 minutes. Remember, you should pay attention to continuity, not the intensity of reading.

A scale of 1 to 10 should be used to rate the third question in your opinion. There are days when you may only be able to read five pages or for ten minutes due to your busy schedule, but since this was the best you could muster that day, you give yourself a score of 10.

You can read 100 pages or for 5 hours on other days, such as a holiday on which you have no obligations, yet you only give yourself a 9; it depends on your daily schedule.

My own system

I read at least 20 pages of a book every day, so I read about 7,300 pages a year, and since one book is an average of almost 200 pages, I read 37 books a year.

I started on December 20 and read my twentieth book on June 5. Once I created a system, it was easy to follow. I read a little slowly, so I usually need about 50 minutes to read 20 pages of the book, sometimes I read more, sometimes less, but here are the overall statistics after a year:

In 365 days, I read 9,273 pages; that's 47 books; that's 25.4 pages per day on average.

It was smooth, and you can do it, too. You only create and follow a system that will achieve your goal.