As I travel and speak to audiences around the world I always ask them about their personal development plan and how they are investing in themselves so they will be equipped to invest in others. Most people tell me they know they should be doing that, but they don’t have time. I was guilty of saying the same thing until I became intentional about investing a few minutes EVERY DAY in a reading plan that would help me be better in the areas of my interests. It changed my life!

When someone asks how they can get started reading, here is the plan I suggest:

A Reading Plan that Works

First, decide on the area(s) of your interest and choose a book. (You can also find podcasts, blogs, TED Talks, YouTube, etc. But keeping a book going will never let you down). I chose leadership, sales, coaching, personal development and team building because those are the areas where I speak the most. You can do a search for title on Amazon or ask an expert in your area of interest for a recommendation.

Second, set an Irreducible Minimum (the minimum you will do in a certain area every day that cannot be reduced). For your reading habit I suggest 2-pages a day. How often? EVERY DAY! Does that mean weekends and holidays? Ah yeah! Every day! Warning: Do not set high goals for reading, you will get behind, get frustrated and quit. A small, ridiculously small, goal that can be accomplished EVERY DAY will encourage you to keep going!

Third, decide how you will do your reading and make the necessary arrangements. I use a multifaceted approach:

• Buy a physical book – I love real books and I have an amazing library, however, this is problematic for me because of my travel. Books get heavy and I usually want to have more than one with me. ((I like Amazon.com because my Prime membership gets it to me fast and free, but there are other retailers)

• Buy a Kindle book (or get the Kindle app for your device) – eBooks are the rage. Prices are less than physical books, you can access them immediately, you can read them on a variety of devices, and they are easy to highlight and take notes. (I actually bought a physical Kindle because when I read on my iPad with the Kindle app I was distracted by all the other things my iPad can do, like email and web-surfing. The cool thing is that no matter which device I use, when I pick up the other one I am synced to my furthest read position.)

• Buy an Audio book – I am a BIG fan of this. I consume the majority of my books via audio. This way I can “read” while I drive, fly or walk. I can listen to books while I cut my grass or paint that room my wife would like me to paint. I use Audible.com. You can get a free book at Audible if you want to try it. I buy a subscription that gives me a number of credits to download books to my phone when I am ready for a new one. One credit = one book.)

Fourth, execute! Read your two pages a day, every day. If you only read the two pages, it’s a win, you are done for the day. However, if you read more than two pages then it is bonus reading and it is a bigger win for you. This can be life changing, if you do it.

A Note About eBooks and Audio Books

Kindle and Audible are both owned by Amazon. When you buy the audio version you can also buy the Kindle version and the two will stay synced. Let’s say you listen in the car on the way home from work. Then after dinner you grab your Kindle or Kindle app and open the book, the device will ask you if you want to move forward to where you were listening. Amazon calls this WhisperSync.

Also, about highlighting and note taking; When using the Kindle or Kindle app you can highlight a passage (like with a yellow highlighter) with your finger. You may also type in a note of your own any time you like. When you do this, Amazon captures that highlight or note in the cloud and saves it to your Personal Kindle Highlights Page. Simply go to Amazon.com, click on Account & Lists, then click on Your Content & Devices. Every book you read should have a line item there that contains ALL your highlights and notes. In the past I would yellow highlight in a physical book and then have to go back and capture those highlights if I ever hoped to use them again. Now I underline with my finger, go to Amazon and find my highlights, copy them and paste them into Evernote (the free filing cabinet app) so now they become searchable. I never have an excuse now on not being able to find a note from a book I once read.

I usually start with an audio book. If it is spectacular and I know I need to dig deeper I will order the Kindle version. If after completing the audio and Kindle versions I still want the book for my library I might go on Amazon and by the hard copy. When the Amazon box shows up in the mailbox I can hear my wife asking me, “How many times did you buy that book??” Oops!

What do you do to keep your reading habit alive? (Comment below)

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