How to Read a Book Before Tomorrow!

How to Read a Book Before Tomorrow!

Alright!

Time to buckle up.

If we are going to talk about how to read more books, then we are going to need to learn to speed read.

Ready. Set. Go!

Nah, I'm playing. You don't need to speed read to read more books!

In fact, speed reading is basically a guarantee to not learn anything at all! You'll forget everything in a matter of days, at most.

If you are wondering why reading books is so important, then check out Want to be a Millionaire? Then Read Like One!

However, what if I told you I could help you learn to read a book in one day?

Would you be interested in reading some more about that? Yeah? Perfect. Well, here we go.

Start with the Table of Contents

I bet most of you never read the table of contents unless it's to keep track of or find your spot in your book.

This process starts with the Table of Contents, though, because you need to reading every single word in it. You need to be able to understand the flow of the book, the chapters which immediately get you interested, and the chapter where you feel like you already know what the book is going to tell you.

What does this mean practically? Well, it means you have grabbed this book for a reason and are trying to learn and grow from it. More than likely, though, you already have some type of knowledge or understanding or interest about the book or else you probably wouldn't have picked it out.

So, the question becomes how much of this book do you truly need to read?

There are going to be chapters where you don't need to read any or all of its contents because you already have an understanding of what is going on.

Take notes about which chapters you want or need to read and mark them down somewhere. I like to circle the chapters I intend to read and then cross those circles out if it turns out I didn't need to read them after all.

Now, the next step is when we start to actually read. So grab something to take notes with and to take notes on!

Take Intense Notes

This is important to state before we start actually reading because taking notes with this method is maybe a little different from what you are used to when it comes to note taking.

What you need to know while you take notes, and you will be the entire time you are reading and then doing so again after reading and maybe even one more time (you'll see, I promise), is these notes need to be intense, in your own words, and written so you will clearly understand them or even memorize them.

You need to be detailed so YOU will understand what you are saying. No need to care about what anyone else will think about your notes.

You need to take notes which mean something to YOU. We tend to take notes as if someone else will read them. No. Who cares about everyone else? If you don't need to take a note about something because you already know or understand it but it is important to understand another point the author makes, then go ahead and only write down what you need to know or understand.

At no point should you use the author's own wording when you take notes. We have been taught to copy down exact phrases or quotes or underline/highlight sentences. Nope. Write it all down in your own words.

With note-taking out of the way, it's time to get reading!

First Paragraphs and Then Skip Around

For each chapter you have decided to read using the method above you absolutely need to start with the first paragraph.

The first paragraph is going to tell you a lot about what you are going to get out of the chapter. Read it in its entirety slowly and carefully. Maybe even read the second or third paragraphs if they are building toward the point of the chapter.

All the while, make sure you are taking intense notes.

After that, feel free to look at the headings, skip around between paragraphs, or even pick paragraphs at random to read. Take good notes while you do so.

The reason we do this is because, unfortunately, when it comes to writing books authors can't write with the assumption you already know how they are going to make their point. So they hold your hand all the way through to bring you right up to their main point.

This ends up creating a lot of fluff which helps guide towards a point without ever getting to the point until near the end. Sometimes, though, writers put their main point right at the beginning. If you have accepted their expertise in this field, then this may be enough for you and you don't even need to read the rest of the chapter or section!

The point of this exercise isn't to learn every single thing the author is teaching. It is to extract as many of the main points as possible without having to read all the connecting points in between. If those connecting points are important or needed for you, then please feel free to drop this process and dive into a good book!

I won't be mad if you enjoy the book enough to read it all the way through!

Either way, keep up this practice all the way until you have finished reading your book. If you do it right it could take as little as a half an hour or as long as several hours or even a couple of days. Hopefully, as you practice, it becomes more and more common to take less and less time to read an entire book!

Taking Notes Again

Now, just because you have read the book doesn't mean you have truly read and understood the book. For some people this is a case of too much information too quickly.

This step helps solidify everything you have read and forces you to learn it a second time. I highly recommend doing this step in the same day. Personally, I don't count a book as read using this process until I have completed all these steps.

You need to take out your notes again. If you took them electronically, then you need to grab a writing utensil and some paper. If you took them on paper, then you need to find an electronic device to write on.

What you are going to do is switch the way in which you take notes. Sometimes it is easier to use an electronic device to take quick notes, but it comes at the expense of committing our notes to memory. When we write down our notes we can be sloppy, so it is good to solidify then in our mind by putting them on something clean and easy to reference later on.

The big difference, though, is to redo your notes in your own words but different from how the author said them and how you wrote them the first time. Doing this locks the notes in your brain.

It may seem tedious but you will definitely remember what the book was about by the end. As a bonus, you will also have two sets of notes to review in the future if you decide to do so!

(Optional) Teach Someone

This step is completely optional depending on how in-depth you need or want to learn everything your book has to offer.

If you want to learn something, then teach it.

This is true of everything in life. If you want to learn as much as possible about something, then try to teach it. You will surprise yourself how much information you retain by trying to explain it to someone else.

This is a nice little bonus step to truly concrete everything you have learned and commit it to memory for the long haul.

You Read a Book in One Day!

Well, there you have it.

Nothing ground-breaking. Nothing overly complicated. No less work to read a book. Just putting all the effort into reading what is important and reading it well.

If you put this into practice, then I would love to hear about how it went for you. My contact information is below! I hope to hear from you soon!

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P.S. If you feel so inclined, there is a nifty way to leave a tip for me below! All of my tips help keep me being able to invest time into quality pieces of work for your eyes and brains to enjoy! If you consider and decide to leave a tip, then please know I appreciate it immensely! If you don't, then I still appreciate you immensely for reading!

I am a freelance writer with a background in Ministry and experience everywhere from technical document writing to copy writing to creative writing. I have interests and knowledge in Ministry, Marketing, Parenting, Leadership, and Technology. If you are looking for someone to work with and like what you see, then email me at [email protected] or check out my portfolio at dylmill.contently.com.