This Woman Reads One Book Every 6 Hours (and You Can Too!)
For many of us, the thought of spending a day soaking up knowledge from a fascinating book seems like a dreamy escape from the doldrums of work. For professional reader Laura, however, it’s a way of life.
Laura works for the Blinkist app — an amazing tool that transforms nonfiction books into easy reads you can finish in 15 minutes. Blinkist’s office is a playground for people who love to read, and as a member of the Content Team, it’s Laura’s job to devour books, discern their key takeaways, and arrange this information into concise concepts.
The final product is what Blinkist calls a book-in-blinks, a well-organized read that quickly and comprehensively conveys an author’s message. The books-in-blinks are also available in audio so that people can listen and learn on-the-go.
In her own words: Laura on her life as a professional reader
Over the past three years working with the Blinkist app, I must have read over 300 books! It sounds crazy but when I break it down, I figure I read about 1 book every 6 hours.
I’ve always loved reading — when I first started working at Blinkist, it felt like a dream — being able to read books every day at work. In the beginning, it was really challenging as I had to learn how to read quickly and effectively. Luckily, I got some great tips from my colleagues and learned how to keep up in no time.
Reading effectively is really important for our jobs at Blinkist as we need to process a lot of information and find the juiciest, most important nuggets to present in our app.
Here are 3 of the top tips for effective reading I’ve picked up as a professional reader.
1. Be selective and read with a purpose
Before beginning to read anything, you should ask yourself why you’re reading it and what you hope to learn. Recognizing your purpose prior to reading will make both concentration and organization easier. And if there’s no value to be gained from the book, don’t even bother opening it.
2. Make previewing a priority
After selecting what to read, start with the first few paragraphs of the introduction, then flip through the book exclusively focussing on chapter titles, subtitles, and anything in a large or bold font. This will give you a gist for what the book is about and establish a foundation for what you’ll soon learn. I personally find this tip helpful if I’m tackling a really long book — once I understand the overall structure, the book as a whole feels more manageable.
3. Adopt modern methods
For most of us, learning about the mechanics of reading ends in elementary school. I was never taught to improve the skill beyond the basics. But I learned lots of really helpful strategies in 10 Days to Faster Reading by The Princeton Language Institute and Abby Marks. This is my recommended book for people looking to up their reading game (and, don’t forget, you can read the key points of this book on Blinkist!).
Becoming a better reader takes time, but it is a skill that can be developed. And if you’re interested in not only reading faster but also rapidly increasing your knowledge about the world, the Blinkist app makes it easy to do just that.
Check it out now to learn about playing the stock market on your way to work, find your love language while doing laundry, and figure out how to overcome your greatest fears as you get ready for bed.
What will you learn when you download Blinkist today?
Originally published at https://www.blinkist.com.
