Good habits are the ones that really make the intentions of achieving everything you dreamed of become a reality. Your dreams should not always remain pillow dreams, especially when you have decided to work on your personal growth. In this article, I share with you 5 reading habits that I practice; habits that help improve reading comprehension, in order to materialize ideas, reaching personal success.
Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. James Clear.
Before I get into the topic, I recommend a fantastic book by James Clear that has helped me find and work on effective habits. The book is in English and Spanish, I leave you the link below: Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones || Hábitos Atómicos - Español
Now let's get started...
Very often people find themselves with many purposes for life. Which you do not have the slightest idea of how to carry them out, much less how to start them. Then, you start looking for information, reading, researching and again reading, researching, falling into a dead end circle, without consolidating accurate information to undertake and initiate the ideas.
The critical moment arrives, which is full of anger and despair. At that moment when you fall into despair, you throw everything overboard, returning to your comfort zone. And sometimes there is no other way out, because having nothing consolidated after so many hours of reading and research, it is depressing.
It is there where you abandon your initial ideas, you abandon your dreams. You start to change and look at other projects, which in the midst of impatience are seen with an easier execution; but when you start again and try, you return to the same circle: read, research, read, research without managing to consolidate something of value.
I faithfully believe that these 5 habits will get your ideas and reading started in order. And most importantly, these habits will work for you in any knowledge you wish to learn. The fifth one is undoubtedly the key.
But remember, perseverance and discipline is the secret to any habit and goal. I recommend you a previous post about it, I hope you find it useful: CONSISTENT, THE BEGINNING OF A CONSEQUENCE CALLED YOUR SUCCESS!
1- Read the same book more than once:
In this first habit it is essential that you review the reading more than once. For the reason that the brain relates more easily the information that at first was unnoticed.
Reorganizing doubts that unconsciously remained and did not allow us to have a clear idea, as the text wanted to show us. In addition to this habit, always try to read in places where you can concentrate. Avoid places with too much noise, because if you cannot concentrate no matter how many times you read it, the noise will not help you.
However, if you decide to read in noisy environments and face it with a good attitude, you will take your concentration to a higher level.
2- Underline and make small notes by hand:
Nowadays, it's no secret that technology has affected people's performance, especially when it comes to reading. And although they use the theme of "handwriting to remember" in creating memes referring to older generations and making people feel old, it is 100% functional.
And it is functional for children, youth and adults. For any age.
The brain likes the physical, it likes to be in control of what it is reading and doing; it feels more comfortable with physical sensations, scratching, taking notes, in conclusion it likes to feel.
This habit makes your brain store more information if you take notes by hand, not on digital devices. So, what you should do is: if you are reading a physical or electronic book, underline in some way what is important, take notes in pocket notebooks or wherever is more comfortable for you in order to give way to the next habit.
If you definitely decide to take notes on a device, make them by typing all the words, i.e. do not copy and paste. Avoid taking notes with autocomplete, it will not work, it will not have the same effect as taking notes by hand or typing. This habit will make a big difference.
3- Reread the notes and underlining:
By taking notes or underlining the important parts of the reading, you will be able to review what you have read more easily, since you will read what was most relevant, organizing the ideas in a better way to answer the big question: How to start?
And of course, this third habit goes hand in hand with the first and second habit on this list. Because if you reread the book or the whole text, when you notice that you are close to something that has been previously underlined, you will pay more attention to the text and you will understand the content better.
4- Prioritize the knowledge you wish to acquire:
Very often we are diverted from deepening the knowledge we wish to improve and learn, especially if the information is being acquired from the Internet world.
Prioritize one piece of knowledge at a time, generate a kind of knowledge flow chart each time more knowledge is generated, so that you can detect the main idea.
By taking note of the knowledge you have acquired, it will make it easier for you to focus your reading on the objective you have set. For that reason, you need to define the skill or knowledge with degrees of priority, allowing you to focus more on those things that will lead you to the fulfillment of the goals.
The problem we have now is over-information, there is information saturation. There is so much information that we get lost because we do not know how to consume it, especially if the information is on the Internet.
I share with you my strategy for when I read content on the internet. I make use of two web browser add-ons, I think these add-ons are for any browser that is used today: chrome, mozilla, opera, edge, brave, etc.
- Reader view: It is a plugin that allows you to move a website to a flat page, without distractions, without banners, without advertising: it only shows the content. This helps me to search for the information I want to find, without the website recommending entries of one type or another.
- Ad-Block: Mozilla, Opera and Brave have it by default, so it is no longer necessary to install it in these browsers. But in Chrome and Edge it must be installed. Basically this plugin blocks advertising, obviously removing any distraction to the reader. Some sites do not allow you to be seen if you have this type of add-ons, in that case you make use of the plugin Vista Lector.
I hope you will make use of these two tools, it will help a lot to focus your attention on the desired objective.
5- Take action:
As I told you at the beginning, the fifth is the key. And it's the moment of truth, it's the moment to put ourselves in action mode, in boiling mode.
Start applying what you have learned as soon as possible. But don't apply it in a fleeting moment of motivation and gaps of optimism, start with discipline and perseverance, one step at a time, discipline and perseverance.
Make sure you make a little progress every day, perform a task every day that brings you closer to that dream, complete and face that fear that paralyzes and does not allow you to take action.
This will make you understand and remember what has been done in the previously mentioned habits.
In conclusion and to define the 5 reading habits in one thought, I share with you an old adage that goes as follows: << You forget it, if you hear it. If you see it, you will remember it. But if you do, you will understand it>>.
I hope that the 5 habits of reading have been of help to you for the beginning of a real success, of the fulfillment of your dreams. Clear your mind of all worries, trust in your abilities, acquire knowledge, generate experience and you will get the results you want.
Tell me, what are your success habits and which ones would you add to this list, I look forward to hearing from you.
I invite you to be part of this community. Follow me on the different social networks so you don't miss any content, don't forget to share with your family and friends.
See you next time.
Successes.
I leave you the link of the post in Spanish to my official website.
