Alex & Books 📚 Profile picture
Feb 19 1 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Cal Newport is one of the most popular non-fiction authors of our time.

He has a PhD from MIT, is a full-time professor, has written 8 books including "Deep Work", and reads 50+ books a year.

Here are 17 helpful reading tips from him:

1) If you wait until you have free time and are in the mood to read books, you'll do exactly zero hours of reading.

2) Schedule reading sessions like you schedule exercise. Add reading sessions to your calendar as you would with any other important activity.

3) Design a training program to build up your reading muscle: Start by reading for 10 minutes 5 days a week, then go up 5 minutes every week until you get to 30-40 minutes of reading a day.

4) Read books that you personally find interesting–don't just read what other people are reading or what's trending.

5) Take everything interesting off of your phone. Cal removed all social media apps on his phone so if he's ever bored or waiting around, he'll read a book on his phone.

6) Put rituals around reading that make it more enjoyable: If it's a Friday night, have a drink while you read. If it's a sunny day, read a book on your porch or backyard.

7) If you have less than 100 pages in a book, set aside a block of time today to work through it and finish it by tonight.

8) Read real books–avoid reading on a phone or iPad. Kindles are okay because you can't get distracted and browse the internet on them.

9) Read more challenging books–books with ideas that challenge you or with characters that push you into new psychological or emotional places.

10) Take your time when you read, go slow and seek to understand.

11) If you're reading a complicated book, use secondary sources to better understand what you're reading.

12) Sometimes you have to wait for the right time to read a specific book–one book Cal finished recently he bought 5 years ago.

13) Don't just read the book, take notes and extract information that's valuable.

14) Whenever you're bored, make picking up a book your default option instead of picking up your phone.

15) Buy more books–for $18 you can permanently change the way you understand the world and live your life.

16) If your bookshelf is full, follow the replacement rule: Remove your least favorite book and add your new book.

17) If you don't think you have time to read books, just look at your daily screen time.Image

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Alex & Books 📚

Alex & Books 📚 Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @AlexAndBooks_

Jul 24
If you want to become wealthy & well-known this book is for you.

Rory & AJ Vaden have helped 1,000+ people build their personal brand including Lewis Howes, Ed Mylett, and Amy Porterfield.

Here are 10 key lessons from their book: Image
1) It does you no good to be the "world's best-kept secret."

In order for someone to do business with you, they first have to know about you. Image
2) The goal of a personal brand is to simply find your uniqueness and exploit it in the service of others. Image
Read 12 tweets
Jul 22
Wealth isn’t a straight line, it’s a ladder.

At each level, how you earn, spend, and invest money changes dramatically.

Here are 10 key lessons from "The Wealth Ladder" by @dollarsanddata: Image
1) The 6 levels of wealth:

Level 1: Lower class ($0 - $10k)
Level 2: Working class ($10k - $100k)
Level 3: Middle class ($100k - $1M)
Level 4: Upper middle class ($1M - $10M)
Level 5: Upper class ($10M - $100M)
Level 6: The superrich ($100M+) Image
2) The percentage of adults in each level worldwide:

Level 1: 39.5%
Level 2: 43%
Level 3: 16%
Level 4: 1.4%
Level 5: 0.09%
Level 6: 0.0003% Image
Read 12 tweets
Jul 21
Every person has rights and the same is true for readers.

This book has sold 1M+ copies worldwide and taught countless people how to love reading.

Here are 7 key lessons from "The Rights of the Reader": Image
1) A well-chosen book saves you from everything, including yourself. Image
2) Reading is an act of resistance. Image
Read 9 tweets
Jul 9
10 Awesome Visual Book Summaries:

1) Atomic Habits by James Clear Image
2) "The First 20 Hours" by Josh Kaufman Image
3) "Mastery" by Robert Greene Image
Read 12 tweets
Jun 11
Are you constantly reading books, listening to podcasts, or watching videos, but feel stuck in life?

In today’s modern world, more information isn’t the answer–it’s what’s stopping you from becoming successful.

Here are 10 key lessons from "Lean Learning" by @PatFlynn: Image
1) Action without information is chaos, but information without action is a waste. Image
2) To solve most problems, you don't need to know everything about a given topic. Image
Read 12 tweets
Jun 3
This book is the ultimate guide to becoming a better reader.

It's sold 500,000+ copies and will teach you how to get more value out of every book you read.

Here are 10 key lessons from "How To Read A Book": Image
1) In tackling a difficult book for the first time, read it through without stopping. Image
2) Every book should be read no more slowly than it deserves, and no more quickly than you can read it. Image
Read 12 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(