I read 20 books in 6 months — This is why I cut down on reading

In late 2019, I read a book that changed my life. It helped me understand myself in a new way and change my outlook on life. I realized some of my flaws and understood how I could change.

The book was No More Mr Nice Guy by Robert Glover.

After this experience I started reading books on self-development such as:

• Getting Things Done by David Allen
• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• Ego Is The Enemy by Ryan Holiday

With every book I read I felt I learned something new that helped me understand something new about myself and the world around me.

I started the era of remote working with a key focus on learning. I worked my 9–5 job and spent most of my free time reading these books.

But by May 2020, after reading 20 books, I’d had enough.

So what changed?

After reading 20 books on personal development, I realized that each additional book didn’t add much value to my life.

I felt I was transferring an ingrained habit from social media to reading.

I was still focused on consumption.

Books and the Internet are amazing tools full of all the information you need. But until you start putting theory to practice, you’re delaying any opportunities for self-improvement.

Reading a book on programming is not the same as building an app.

There is no end to learning without purpose.

As Murphy’s law states: Work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion.

That’s why if our only life goal is to learn, we’ll never accomplish anything.

My Proposed Solution

Build your life around projects.

Projects are defined as enterprises carefully planned to achieve a particular aim.

The fact that we’re working towards a goal in each project means we need to focus on relevant learnings.

Starting a project is more valuable than reading a book. That’s because you’ll learn whatever you need to when the project requires it.

Otherwise learning becomes a black hole that sucks up all your time.

Of course I don’t mean that learning is bad. But at the end of the day, if you’re not creating something, you’re just consuming.

Learning just to learn is pointless. You might think you’ll know more and be better off. But odds are you’ll forget most of it anyway.

That’s why you should at least take notes for each book. Then you can always refer to the key takeaways from the book later.

These summaries also make great content for blog posts and Twitter threads. They might even inspire a future LinkedIn post.

In the information age, creators hold the upper hand.

And they use projects to share their creativity with the world.