reading

(A light post this week as I'm finishing up my first little ebook, "You did WHAT? 91 Tiny experiments for having fun and living a happier and healthier life")

A while back Mark Shead over at his smashing Productivity501 asked a bunch of productivity/personal development bloggers our thoughts on some favorite topics. He's just published the reading-related replies in Personal Development: Reading Habits. There are some fine ideas there, so check it out. Thanks Mark!

I thought I'd use this as an excuse to share the other answers I gave him, plus an update on my current reading workflow.

TOC:

• Reading Workflow Update
• What is your biggest challenge to productivity and how do you overcome it?
• Have you been able to outsource any of your work?
• How do you decide if a new technology is worth investing in or whether it is a waste of time?
  

One of the most popular topics here is reading efficiently, including How to read a lot of books in a short time and A reading workflow based on Leveen's "Little Guide". Using Leveen's terminology, I have a candidates library of at least 50 books (i.e., purchased and in my bookcase), and a pre-candidates list of around 600 (kept on Amazon, but it's not perfect). So I really want to read a lot (actually, to learn a lot), but the problem is my eyes are bigger than my stomach, and I've fallen behind. This is in spite of outsourcing voice note transcription [1].

While reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss (site, blog) I found myself playing with the idea of using personal outsourcing to fix a problem I have with my reading workflow. Short answer: It helped a lot.

The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Many of my subscribers are active readers and book lovers. My post How to read a lot of books in a short time is my most popular, and I've even had the pleasure of receiving surprise copies in the mail!

In October I asked your advice about using a digital voice recorder for transcription, primarily to smooth out my reading workflow (see How to read a lot of books in a short time). I bought one and I've been using it since mid-November. Following is a report on my experiences and recommendations.

WS-300M: A nice product

Reading "Meta" Thoughts

We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn. -- Peter F. Drucker

As part of my self-planned Master's Degree in Personal Productivity I've been reading non-fiction rather voraciously [1]. For example, I usually have 3-5 books going per week, with replacements arriving regularly [2]. The topics cover productivity, personal growth, consulting, networking, and creativity. However, a significant problem I've encountered is a certain "tyranny" of reading for education (rather than for entertainment), and it has threatened to turn the process into a form of aversion therapy.