๐Ÿ’ฅAtomic Essays

Short-form lightly edited, lightly structured essays, written in 30 minutes.
Published on:
February 11, 2024

๐Ÿ“Š How I Read Over 100 Books In 2021

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It's been a long-time goal to read 100 books - let alone in 1 year. Surely I've read close to 100 books over my lifetime. Although, I didn't track this type of data until approximately eight years ago.

In 2021 my schedule was quite full to the brim! Between working full-time, then transitioning to consulting, running my company Frauvis, working at Diversify Tech, short-term contracts, and CISSP studying - reading 50 books (my original goal) seemed nearly impossible.

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๐Ÿคท๐Ÿพโ€โ™€๏ธHow Did I Do It?

I don't have compulsory responsibilities such as being a parent or caretaker or a college student. I have full control over my schedule except having a "flexible" 9-5. And most of all, I don't watch TV unless it's Real Housewives or The Black List, and I ONLY watch these shows 1 episode at a time during lunch and dinner.

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๐ŸŽง + ๐Ÿ“– Audio and Kindle

As someone who feels particularly embarrassed about Dyslexia but embraces ADHD, I undoubtedly have a tough time physically reading. Reading physical books is tough because I have to use my finger and glasses to follow along word by word. My ADHD brain HATES how long this takes. Therefore, I use audiobooks to listen to Kindle books as a companion and highlight specific text.

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๐Ÿƒ๐Ÿพโ€โ™€๏ธSpeed

I typically listen to audiobooks on Audible and Libby. I've actively worked my way up to listening and comprehending using 2.5-3.5x speed settings. Regarding PDFs and Kindle books, I use the accessibly feature text-to-speech on 2x speed. I've recently jumped back on the Speechify bandwagon, as it provides better features around speed, voice, and highlighting text as it's being read aloud.

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โฐ Time

Choosing a time to listen and stop for note-taking are probably the most important parts of the audiobook experience! Here are the best times to listen to and NOT to listen to audiobooks:

โœ… exercising

โœ… showering & physical maintenance

โœ… cleaning; washing dishes, mopping, etc

โœ… while doing work that doesn't require detail and attention

๐Ÿšซ while doing work tasks that require thinking and attention

๐Ÿšซ when you are supposed to be doing something of high priority (you'll be thinking about your work & not LISTENING)

๐Ÿง  Retention

What was important to me was not how many books I read but the quality of books. This why I frankly started the year with a goal of 50 books. I worked on Retention by taking notes, highlighting, tagging, then revisiting key points using Readwise, Memex, and Shortform.

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