How to Read a Self-Help Book

1. Find “original-sounding” terms and rename them to their most basic term. For example, instead of calling visualization by that name, some books will call it by other names, presumably, to appear that they actually came up with something unique. So the next time you read “Mental Movie”, “Theater of the Mind”, “Virtual Reality”, or any similar terms, mentally rename it to visualization to keep your reading simple.

2. Learn to skim. Most self-help authors like to go on over and over about the same idea. Regardless of their reasons for doing so, I’ve found it a huge waste of time to read self-help books word per word. Always look for highlighted terms, numbered and bulleted lists and italicized paragraphs. They’re usually the gist and you can get most of what is being communicated from them.

3. Highlight main points. If the book is good, chances are you will want to go back to refresh on particular items so it helps to have the important sections marked for next time.

4. Quickly skim through the table of contents, the preface and the first three chapters. Many self-help books are regurgitated content. If you find nothing original or useful for you from that first skim, drop it. You don’t need to read that particular book.

5. If the book is good and there are exercises, always do them. They help to absorb the material.

6. If you have been on a self-development path for a long time, understand that most new books you read will probably only have two or three things that you can pick up and be of value to you at this moment. You are, essentially, spending your money and time for those two or three items. I like being grateful for those new things. If you feel it’s not worth the investment for two or three new knowledge, maybe it’s time to start doing something else.

7. Skip the book, buy the audio version and save more time.

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