A Simple Tip That Will Enable You to 'Read' a Lot More Books We get it: you are a busy entrepreneur and it can be hard to fit that "reading time" in with work, family and dozens of other obligations you need to fit into your day. So do this.
By Brandon Turner Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
We can all agree that reading is important. After all, they say the average CEO reads 60 books a year. I'm not sure that's healthy, as I'd rather read one book and actually implement it than 60 books and only gleen one or two tips. But the point remains: reading is instrumental to success in entrepreneurship.
A good book can penetrate the soul and help you implement massive changes to your future.
But I get it: you are a busy entrepreneur and it can be hard to fit that "reading time" in with work, family and dozens of other obligations you need to fit into your day. So here is my current favorite productivity tip for getting more reading done without taking up any additional time:
Listen to audiobooks.
Related Offer: Get an audiobook free with a 30-day free trial to Audiobooks.com
I hope you didn't click on this post looking for some super little-known tip that is going to blow your mind. For that you should probably read my article from last week, "This Productivity Hack Completely Changed My Life, and It Can Improve Yours." Today, I wanted to go to something a bit more basic but just as life-changing.
How audiobooks can change your life without changing your schedule.
For the longest time I just didn't get audiobooks. Maybe you are in the same boat.
After all, I work from my home office, so my only commute is the 35 steps down the stairs in my socks. I spend much of my day writing articles for BiggerPockets or working on my next real-estate-investing book, so when do I have time to listen to audiobooks? Why not just sit down and read in my free time? After all, I can read much faster than I can listen to a book.
But then I finally got it.
In the past six months I've consumed 18 books, including The One Thing, 80/20 Sales and Marketing, How to Win Friends and Influence People and more. My business has grown exponentially as I've been able to incorporate the lessons into real-life action. I've read books on entrepreneurship and real-estate investing, biographies, fiction, short books, long books, terrible books and completely life-changing novels.
The beauty of this? I did all of it without taking up one extra moment of my day. How? Through multitasking.
The truth about multitasking.
I know, multitasking has been proven to be a terrible idea for most entrepreneurs. However, the one area of life where multitasking actually makes sense is with auditory devices. After all, it's impossible to read two emails at once. It's impossible to watch two YouTube videos at once. But can you listen and drive? Can you listen and make dinner? Can you listen and walk the dog?
The answer is a reassuring yes.
You have to take the garbage out of your house anyway. You have to drive the kids to school. You have to cook your spouse an amazing dinner. Fido needs to go potty. And hopefully you are spending time taking care of your own health and working out three to five times per week (If not, start now.)
These are the times when audiobooks will change your life.
Take a moment right now and look at your day. What tasks could you double up on in order to fit an extra 10, 20 or 30 books into your life this year? Chances are, you have more opportunity to do so than you imagine.
Related Offer: Get an audiobook free with a 30-day free trial to Audiobooks.com
