00:00:00In this video, we're going over 10 rules that if you apply,
00:00:03it will drastically increase the number of books
00:00:05that you are able to read this year.
00:00:07All right, so let's start with rule number one.
00:00:08Now, what a lot of people do is that they will say
00:00:10something like, "I don't have time to read."
00:00:12And yet, if you look at the screen time,
00:00:14they will have hours and hours on Instagram,
00:00:15on TikTok, on YouTube, that kind of thing.
00:00:17Now, I used to struggle with this, but for me,
00:00:18the single biggest thing that helped was
00:00:20what I call rule number one, which is the pillow rule,
00:00:23where basically the rule is that you should always have
00:00:26a Kindle or a book on your bedside table,
00:00:28and you should always charge your phone
00:00:30outside of your bedroom.
00:00:31This means that in the evening,
00:00:32when it's time to get into bed,
00:00:34the only device that you have access to
00:00:36is a book or a Kindle.
00:00:37I personally like the Kindle because the light means
00:00:39that I don't need to have like a reading light or whatever.
00:00:41And if your phone is being charged in a different room,
00:00:43it means you just remove all of this temptation
00:00:45to spend time on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit,
00:00:47whatever you're into.
00:00:48And really, this rule is all about
00:00:49physical environment design.
00:00:51If you design your environment in a way
00:00:53that nudges you towards the habits
00:00:54that you actually want to go towards
00:00:56and nudges you away from the stuff you don't want to do,
00:00:59life becomes a lot easier
00:01:00and you don't need to rely on willpower.
00:01:01For me, this has been the single most meaningful rule
00:01:03that has made the most amount of difference
00:01:05in terms of how many books I can read every year.
00:01:07Oh, by the way, quick announcement.
00:01:08On Saturday, the 4th of April,
00:01:09I'm gonna be hosting my usual,
00:01:10completely free quarterly reflection workshop,
00:01:12The Spring Reset.
00:01:13The idea is that this is a totally free workshop.
00:01:15There's a link down below to register if you'd like.
00:01:17And I will be hosting it and me and hopefully you
00:01:19and several thousand people from all around the world,
00:01:21we're gonna get together on a Zoom workshop.
00:01:22Together, we're gonna be reflecting
00:01:24on how 2026 has gone so far,
00:01:25and we're gonna be setting some goals for the next 90 days.
00:01:28It's The Spring Reset.
00:01:29It's gonna be fun.
00:01:30It's gonna be vibe-y.
00:01:31There's more details linked down below
00:01:32if you would like to join.
00:01:33And I will hopefully see you on Saturday, the 4th of April.
00:01:36Okay, so let's move on to rule number two.
00:01:37Now, here's the thing.
00:01:38When you pick up your phone,
00:01:39there is a certain amount of muscle memory you have
00:01:42that will cause your thumb to probably go on the apps
00:01:45that you have logged the most screen time on.
00:01:47If you're anything like most people,
00:01:48it will probably be something like YouTube or Instagram
00:01:50or TikTok or whatever.
00:01:51And that stuff is so ingrained into us
00:01:52is that it becomes almost habitual.
00:01:54Like before you even realise it,
00:01:56you've opened a social media app
00:01:57and you're starting to scroll vertical videos.
00:01:58The best trick I have found for this personally
00:02:00is to remove the social media apps from my home screen.
00:02:03Some people go the full hog
00:02:04and like uninstall them from their phones altogether.
00:02:07I don't personally do that because various reasons,
00:02:09but what I do do, do do, lol,
00:02:10is that the very first app that I see on my home screen
00:02:12is the Kindle app.
00:02:13On my home screen, I also have Momentum,
00:02:14which is a habit tracker.
00:02:15I've got Day One, which is a journaling app.
00:02:17I've got the Waking Up app, which is a meditation app.
00:02:19I've got Voicepal, which is like a ghostwriter type app.
00:02:21I've got my calendar.
00:02:22I've got my to-do list.
00:02:23And so when I open up my phone, when I'm on the toilet
00:02:25or when I'm on public transport,
00:02:26or when I'm like waiting in line for something,
00:02:28the first app that my eyes are drawn to is the Kindle app.
00:02:31And that means that that is usually the first app
00:02:32that I open when I'm on my phone.
00:02:33On one of my other phone screens,
00:02:35I also have the Kindle widget and the Audible widget
00:02:37that shows like the book
00:02:38that I'm currently reading on Kindle,
00:02:39in this case, the personal MBA by Josh Kaufman,
00:02:41and the book that I'm currently listening to on Audible,
00:02:43in this case, Dark Age by Pierce Brown.
00:02:45So the rule here is to design your digital environment
00:02:47in a way that favours reading.
00:02:49Make it harder for yourself to access the social media apps
00:02:51that would otherwise take your attention away from reading.
00:02:53And what we're trying to do is to make reading
00:02:55the default thing that we do when we open up our phones
00:02:57rather than scrolling.
00:02:59All right, let's move on to rule number three.
00:03:00Now, the issue that a lot of people have
00:03:01is that they will say that they don't have the time
00:03:03for reading.
00:03:04And when you say that, you kind of imagine
00:03:05that like in order to have the time for reading,
00:03:07you have to be able to sit down on a leather armchair
00:03:09and you have to get a book out
00:03:10and you have to have a whole hour of uninterrupted time.
00:03:12Most of us probably don't have hours
00:03:14of uninterrupted time every day.
00:03:15So the rule here that I follow to solve this problem
00:03:17is the multitasking rule,
00:03:19which is basically that when my hands are busy
00:03:21doing something that is mind numbing or like menial,
00:03:24I have my AirPods in and I'm usually listening
00:03:26to some kind of audio book.
00:03:27That's not to say that you should always fill your ears
00:03:29with chattering at all times.
00:03:31And of course there is value in like, you know,
00:03:32mindfully washing the dishes or mindfully
00:03:34just being on the toilet without listening to anything
00:03:36or mindfully taking a walk in the park
00:03:38and all that kind of stuff.
00:03:39But if you want to read more books,
00:03:40it's actually very, very helpful
00:03:41to be listening to audio books.
00:03:43Back in the day when I had a real job
00:03:44and I would commute an hour back and forth from work
00:03:46to the hospital every single day,
00:03:47I'd be listening to audio books,
00:03:48usually at 1.5 to 2.5 X speed,
00:03:51depending on the speed of the narrator.
00:03:52And so through that, there's two hours of commuting.
00:03:54Every single day, I got through so many books.
00:03:56Some of them were business books.
00:03:57Some of them were like personal development books.
00:03:59Most of them were fantasy fiction books by Brandon Sanderson.
00:04:01So if you follow this habit, if you follow this rule,
00:04:03you will create 30 to 60 minutes a day at least
00:04:06of reading time completely out of thin air
00:04:08that was otherwise spent either listening to music
00:04:10or not listening to anything at all,
00:04:11or maybe just like having like YouTube on in the background
00:04:13while you're like doing the dishes or something.
00:04:15You could totally replace all of that time
00:04:16by listening to audio books
00:04:18and it would probably have a bigger impact on your life.
00:04:20By the way, if you wanna read harder books
00:04:21or just level up your reading in general,
00:04:23or you wanna be more discerning
00:04:24about which books you actually spend time on
00:04:26without worrying that you're wasting hours on the wrong book,
00:04:29then one thing that really helps with all of these things
00:04:31is ShortForm who are very kindly sponsoring this video.
00:04:33Now ShortForm is basically like having
00:04:34your most intelligent friend break down a book for you.
00:04:37They don't just give you like a 10 minute AI summary
00:04:39of a book, but they provide proper in-depth guides
00:04:42with chapter by chapter breakdowns and smart analysis.
00:04:44And it connects the stuff in that book
00:04:46to ideas from other authors.
00:04:47And there are even exercises that they include
00:04:49to help you actually apply what you've learned.
00:04:51They cover loads of topics that I'm personally into,
00:04:52including productivity, psychology, business,
00:04:55self-improvement.
00:04:55They even have a study guide on my own book,
00:04:57I Feel Good Productivity, which is interesting.
00:04:58And they are adding new guides every single week.
00:05:00And you can even vote on which books they cover next.
00:05:02I recently went back to that guide on the book,
00:05:04"Waking Up" by Sam Harris.
00:05:05And I genuinely picked up things that I've completely missed
00:05:07when I first read the book.
00:05:08They've also got audio versions of everything.
00:05:10So you can listen on the go
00:05:11and there is even a browser extension
00:05:13that summarizes articles and YouTube videos
00:05:15if you wanna go down that rabbit hole.
00:05:16Now, what I love about ShortForm
00:05:17is that it doesn't actually replace reading.
00:05:19It makes me a better reader.
00:05:20I'll often use it to revisit books that I've read
00:05:22or to explore a new book and I'll read the ShortForm guide.
00:05:25And then that will help me decide
00:05:26if it's actually worth diving deeper into that book.
00:05:28So if you'd like to give it a go,
00:05:29head over to shortform.com/style
00:05:31and that will give you a free trial
00:05:33and $50 off the annual plan as well.
00:05:35So thank you again to ShortForm for sponsoring this video.
00:05:37And now let's get back to it.
00:05:38All right, the next rule really helps
00:05:40if you are anything like me
00:05:41and you sometimes get stuck on a book.
00:05:43I noticed this a few years ago when Sapiens first came out
00:05:46and I was like, okay, well, I should probably read Sapiens
00:05:48'cause everyone is reading Sapiens.
00:05:49And it was kind of boring.
00:05:50And I got stuck on it for like three months
00:05:51because I kept on thinking I had to get through the book,
00:05:54I had to finish the book.
00:05:55But then I got a really good piece of advice
00:05:56from the internet, which was to not be a monogamous reader.
00:05:59Instead of thinking that you have to only read one book
00:06:01at a time, it is actually worth having multiple books
00:06:03that you're reading in parallel
00:06:04because maybe you don't feel like doing the heavy thing
00:06:07like reading Sapiens or whatever.
00:06:08And instead you feel like something light.
00:06:09And so you might wanna read fourth wing
00:06:11or some romantic thing or whatever.
00:06:13So for me these days, I've got two books active on Audible,
00:06:15a fiction and a nonfiction usually.
00:06:17And then also on my Kindle,
00:06:18I usually have some kind of fiction, some kind of nonfiction
00:06:20and also some kind of spiritual literature type thing
00:06:24'cause reading the spirituality books
00:06:25actually really helps me fall asleep.
00:06:26And so if you do something like that,
00:06:27it means you can switch books based on your energy levels
00:06:29and you don't have to be wedded
00:06:31to just focusing on one book at a time.
00:06:32Oh, by the way, if you are interested
00:06:33in some book recommendations,
00:06:35I've actually got a whole list of 100 life-changing books
00:06:37that have been recommended by various guests
00:06:39on the podcast that I used to host called Deep Dive.
00:06:41It's completely free to download.
00:06:42It'll be linked down below if you're interested.
00:06:44This leads us onto the next rule,
00:06:45which is a habit that school has actually ingrained into us
00:06:47that really doesn't help when we are adults
00:06:49and we're trying to read more books.
00:06:50That reading is supposed to be work.
00:06:52You are some kind of a bad person if you don't finish a book.
00:06:55Now that feeling is completely unhelpful
00:06:57if we're actually trying to read more books
00:06:58because the rule here is that you should give yourself
00:07:01permission to abandon a book that you don't like.
00:07:04If a book is not gripping your attention,
00:07:06it's not your fault.
00:07:07It's not even the author's fault.
00:07:08Maybe it's just, it's not the right time
00:07:09for you to read that particular book.
00:07:10And it's totally okay to move on from that book
00:07:13and not feel guilty about abandoning it.
00:07:15Life is generally too short to spend battling through
00:07:18and working through books that you really don't enjoy reading.
00:07:20And so it's really helpful to get out of this
00:07:21like school mindset and to not like pedestalize books
00:07:24that like, oh my God, I'm a terrible person
00:07:26if I didn't finish that book, like maybe I'm an idiot.
00:07:28I was like, no, it's totally okay to read stuff
00:07:29that is actually gripping you.
00:07:31This brings us onto the next rule,
00:07:32which is a tip I got from Naval Ravikant.
00:07:33And the rule here is read what you love
00:07:36until you love to read.
00:07:37This is amazing advice.
00:07:38Like a lot of us really struggle with reading.
00:07:40And a big part of that is because we sort of feel
00:07:42like we have to read the smart books
00:07:44or like the classics or whatever.
00:07:45But the problem with smart books and classics
00:07:47is that they're actually quite hard to read.
00:07:49And there are so many books that are effortless to read.
00:07:51Like the page turners that make you wanna actually
00:07:53find out more, find out what happens next
00:07:55without you having to spend ages trying to get into it
00:07:57and like trying to sort of feel
00:07:58like you're some sort of highbrow person.
00:08:00So Naval's advice, which I completely agree with
00:08:01and which has completely changed my life,
00:08:03is read what you love until you love to read.
00:08:05I've probably read over a thousand books over the years
00:08:07and I still have not really read any
00:08:09of what you would consider the classics.
00:08:10I've never managed to finish a Charles Dickens book.
00:08:13I've tried reading "Wuthering Heights"
00:08:14and it was like boring.
00:08:15And at some point I'm gonna get into these classics
00:08:16and read these like kind of big history books
00:08:18and like these big like literature classics and stuff.
00:08:20But even at this stage of my life
00:08:21where I've read a lot of books,
00:08:22they're still just kind of boring.
00:08:23And so if you're approaching reading
00:08:24thinking that you have to read these classics,
00:08:26that's like, you know, going to the gym for the first time
00:08:28and trying to bench 100 kg on the bench press.
00:08:30Like it's probably not gonna happen.
00:08:31You would probably just injure yourself
00:08:32and then you would be like, oh man, the gym sucks.
00:08:33I don't wanna do this again.
00:08:34But instead, if you were to pick up something trashy,
00:08:36something like trashy holiday fiction,
00:08:38romanticy, murder mysteries, drama, like fiction stuff
00:08:41that is engaging and pulls you through it
00:08:43and you've read enough of those,
00:08:44then you start to develop the skill of reading.
00:08:46You start to be able to train your focus and your attention.
00:08:48You start to love the act of reading itself.
00:08:50And then sure, you can challenge yourself
00:08:51with the fancier more intelligent books
00:08:53further down the line.
00:08:54So give yourself permission to read trashy books.
00:08:56Building the habit of reading even trashy books
00:08:59is gonna improve your life way more
00:09:00than only reading prestige books.
00:09:02The next rule really helps when reading feels like a slog,
00:09:04which is to find some kind of way to gamify the process.
00:09:08I have an account on Goodreads.
00:09:09It synchronizes with my Amazon Kindle account.
00:09:11And so whenever I start reading a book on Kindle,
00:09:13it automatically syncs to my Goodreads account.
00:09:15This means that my Goodreads account
00:09:16is actually a somewhat accurate log
00:09:18of most of the books that I've either started reading
00:09:21or finished reading on my Kindle.
00:09:22And that's kind of cool to see.
00:09:23It's nice to see my reading stats.
00:09:24It's nice to see how many books I've read on Kindle
00:09:26in a given year.
00:09:27It's nice to see my Goodreads ranking where I can be like,
00:09:29oh, I'm like the number seven person in the UK
00:09:31in terms of Goodreads, in terms of like whatever.
00:09:33And then when you get to the end of the book
00:09:35and it asks you to rate the book,
00:09:36it's kind of nice to rate a book,
00:09:37like see how much you enjoyed it
00:09:38and maybe leave a little review about it.
00:09:39There's something about that process
00:09:40about logging the books that you read
00:09:42that starts to feel quite like a gamified.
00:09:44And like, you know,
00:09:45it's not really about the quantity of books you read.
00:09:47It's about like how the books you read change you
00:09:48and entertain you and inspire you and educate you.
00:09:50But it is still kind of nice to have like a little bit
00:09:53of gamification in that process.
00:09:54It's like, you know, when I go for a run,
00:09:55I like to track the runs
00:09:57'cause I like to see the lines going up.
00:09:58When I go to the gym, I track my workouts,
00:09:59even if I'm not doing progressive overload
00:10:01'cause it's just nice to see the number going up.
00:10:03Similarly, when you're reading books
00:10:04and you have a way to see the number going up,
00:10:06it feels like you're sort of playing a game with yourself.
00:10:09All right, the next rule is that when you are reading books
00:10:11or also when you are listening to books,
00:10:13it is actually totally okay to read faster
00:10:15or to listen faster.
00:10:17I realized this when I was listening
00:10:18to the Wheel of Time series on Audible.
00:10:20It's a really long series by Robert Jordan
00:10:22where the final three books are written by Brandon Sanderson.
00:10:24Really long series where in the middle,
00:10:26it got super, super boring.
00:10:27And that was when back in like 2018 or something
00:10:29when I was listening to the series,
00:10:31that was when I discovered that you could actually listen
00:10:33on Audible at 1.5x speed or 2x speed.
00:10:35And that just like changed my life
00:10:36because suddenly when the narrator is speaking
00:10:38at twice the speed,
00:10:39it actually makes the book more enjoyable,
00:10:41especially if it's a bit of a slog to get through.
00:10:43There's like three or four books
00:10:44like in the middle of the series that are a bit slow.
00:10:45I'm so glad that I gave myself permission
00:10:47to listen to those at like double speed
00:10:49because then when I got through the slow bit
00:10:51and then the final like four books were like complete bangers,
00:10:53I switched those to like 1.5x speed
00:10:55'cause at that point I was kind of used
00:10:56to listening to things fast.
00:10:57And over time, you actually do end up training
00:10:59your listening speed
00:11:00to the point that that actually ends up being no difference
00:11:02in your comprehension,
00:11:03listening to a book at one time speed, 1.5x or 2x speed,
00:11:06or even 2.5x.
00:11:07The more you train your listening speed
00:11:08and you genuinely absorb it at like a faster speed level,
00:11:11which means in the same amount of time,
00:11:12you could just listen to more books.
00:11:13Similarly with reading,
00:11:14there is no law that says that you have to read
00:11:17at a particular speed of reading.
00:11:18Some readers like to sub-vocalize
00:11:20where it's sort of like you hear the words in your head
00:11:22as you're reading.
00:11:23That's a fairly slow way of reading.
00:11:24If you want, you can train yourself
00:11:25to eliminate sub-vocalization
00:11:27and then you can read a little bit faster.
00:11:28And if you're able to read fast,
00:11:29it actually helps you get through,
00:11:31especially the more boring bits of books just quicker,
00:11:33which is just a nicer way of reading
00:11:35and a better way of being able to read more books.
00:11:37At this point, some people will be like,
00:11:38"Well, screw you.
00:11:39This is terrible advice.
00:11:40This is toxic productivity.
00:11:41You should enjoy the roses and stuff."
00:11:42To which I would say that it's totally possible
00:11:44to enjoy the roses.
00:11:45And sometimes the roses are even nicer
00:11:47when you're getting through them a little bit faster.
00:11:48There is no additional nobility or prestige
00:11:51in listening or reading a book slowly.
00:11:52Just like there's no additional nobility or prestige
00:11:54in reading it fast.
00:11:55It's just like up to you.
00:11:56Just like all of us walk at different paces
00:11:58and there's nothing like good or bad
00:11:59about walking slow or walking fast.
00:12:01Similarly, all of us read at different paces
00:12:02and you can in fact train yourself to read or listen
00:12:05at higher speeds, which just allows you to read more books.
00:12:08Next up, we have the impulse buy rule.
00:12:10When I first started making money from like my side business
00:12:12when I was in med school, I came across this rule,
00:12:14which is that whenever you see a book recommended,
00:12:17you should just buy the book.
00:12:18You should treat it like an impulse buy.
00:12:19You should not think about it.
00:12:21Obviously, if you have no money,
00:12:22you have to start thinking about it,
00:12:23but I'm sure you have ways of acquiring books,
00:12:25even if you are completely broke,
00:12:26like I was back when I was a teenager.
00:12:27And so for me, if anyone recommends me
00:12:29any kind of book at all,
00:12:30I will immediately open up my phone,
00:12:32go to amazon.co.uk and just buy it on Kindle
00:12:34or download it on Audible using my Audible credits
00:12:36or whatever I feel like doing
00:12:36and I don't think twice about it.
00:12:38And there've been a bunch of books
00:12:39that I've impulse bought over the years
00:12:40where I buy the book and then maybe like two years later,
00:12:43I'll discover it on my Kindle and I'll start reading it
00:12:45and I will get one like life-changing idea from it
00:12:47that changes my life or changes my perspective
00:12:49or changes my experience.
00:12:50And so the return on investment of these is absolutely huge.
00:12:52So the trick here is if you can,
00:12:54don't create friction at the point of acquisition.
00:12:56If someone recommends you a book, just like buy the book
00:12:58and don't think too hard about it
00:13:00and feel free to like reduce your expenses
00:13:01in other like less interesting areas of life,
00:13:03like takeaways or restaurant meals or whatever,
00:13:05if you need to compensate for the fact
00:13:07that you're spending a bit more money on books.
00:13:09The final rule relates to something that James Clear
00:13:11talks about a lot in his book, "Atomic Habits,"
00:13:13which is the identity shift.
00:13:15A lot of us have the identity, like we have told ourselves
00:13:18that I am not a reader or I struggle to read.
00:13:20And these identity statements are very powerful
00:13:23and also very unhelpful
00:13:24if you're actually trying to read more books.
00:13:26And so one level up is, you know,
00:13:27I'm trying to read more books.
00:13:28I'm actively working on it.
00:13:29But even that is sort of implying to yourself
00:13:31that you are not the sort of person who reads stuff.
00:13:33Whereas if you can genuinely sigh up yourself
00:13:35into telling yourself that I am a reader
00:13:37and you, for example, always have a book that you're reading,
00:13:39you then start to think of yourself as a reader.
00:13:41And if you're a reader, then like,
00:13:42what do you do when you've got a moment of spare time?
00:13:44You don't pick up your phone and start scrolling TikTok.
00:13:46You pick up your phone, hit Kindle
00:13:48and start reading on Kindle,
00:13:49or you pick up a physical book and actually start reading it.
00:13:51And so when you have that kind of identity change
00:13:52and when you always have the ability to read
00:13:54in any kind of moment of downtime,
00:13:56that then drastically increases the amount of books
00:13:58that you're able to read.
00:13:59Now this whole video has been about how to read more books,
00:14:01but obviously reading more books isn't really the point.
00:14:03The point is the inspiration, the motivation,
00:14:05the education, the learning,
00:14:06the entertainment that you get from the books that you read.
00:14:08And if you are interested in a method
00:14:10for actually remembering more of the stuff that you read,
00:14:13there's a video over here.
00:14:14It's a couple of years old, but it's still very relevant.
00:14:16This video kind of goes through my own system
00:14:17for how I connect up various different apps together
00:14:19so that I can remember everything that I read.
00:14:21So if you're interested in remembering
00:14:22more of the things you read,
00:14:23you should check out that video over there.
00:14:24Thanks for watching. See you later.